Please join with us in welcoming our latest Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net Sponsors. These quality marine firms are investing in the cruising community by supporting the SSECN. Please patronize them, and ALL our SSECN sponsors whenever possible. Click on any sponsor panel to visit this firm’s web site!
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Yellow Background Articles Below Are Navigation Alert Postings
US 74 Bridge - Click for Chartview
US 74 Bridge has a closed vertical clearance of 20ft and crosses the Waterway in the heart of Wrightsville Beach. Originally scheduled to end May 1, the reduced horizontal clearance of these repairs will not affect most cruisers, but the movements of the barge and crane might.
NC – NEUSE RIVER TO MYRTLE GROVE SOUND – (AICW) – NEW RIVER TO CAPE FEAR RIVER – WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH – BRIDGE REPAIRS
1. Bridge rehabilitation on the US 74/76 Bascule Bridge at mile 283.1 on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina has been extended until March 1, 2014.
2. To facilitate repairs a crane barge will reduce the available horizontal clearance in the navigable channel from 90 feet to 50 feet. A one hour advance notice is required to remove the barge from the channel for vessels requiring greater than 50 feet horizontal clearance to safely navigate through the bridge. The US 74/76 bascule bridge tender can be contacted on VHF-FM channels 13 or 16 to arrange removal of the barge from the channel.
3. Mariners are urged to transit the area with caution at slow no wake speeds.
4. For any comments or questions, contact the Coast Guard Sector North Carolina Waterways Management, (252) 247-4525, or at joseph.m.edge@uscg.mil
Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s North Carolina Bridge Directory Listing For SR 74 Bridge
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of SR 74 Bridge
Long time SSECN contributor Captain Mike Dickens of Paradise Yachts (http://www.paradiseyachtsales.net) has put together the combination still photo/video/text account, linked below, of cruising Flordia’s Okeechobee Waterway, from the western to the eastern coastline of the Sunshine State.
Just one word of caution. This account was put together several years ago, and while still quite useful, depths and conditions may now be very different. Nevertheless, this presentation is definitely worth a look!
If you decide to cross the lake on your way across Florida, I have produced a web page that will give you a feel of what to expect.
http://www.paradiseyachtsales.net/CruisingCenter44.html
Mike and Mary Dickens
Paradise Yachts
Long time SSECN contributor and correspondent, Captain Jane Tigar, has just sent us these two recent photos of the Morehead City Public Docks. This facility is found on the western end of the Morehead City Waterfront channel, west of Captain Bill’s Restaurant.
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of the Morehead City Public Docks
Oriental Harbor - Click for Chartview
Oriental Harbor off the Neuse River has long been a favorite stop-over for Waterway cruisers. The issue of derelict vessels that have plagued Florida for years, spawning the newly implemented mooring fields in major cities, are now impacting NC waters.
Oriental is about to develop a harbor plan on anchoring..Seems there are a few boats in the harbor that are homesteading….one since January 2013….these boats do not go to dock to pump out or buy water. One boat, the red one, has no engine and has been run aground to keep from sinking…we boaters that obey the law will pay the price for these people…. On the red boat 5-6 people live on it…check out the web cam for the anchorage on the town dock net…. The first meeting is the 19th at 5:30 pm…. Will keep you informed..thanks
Richard s/v phyllis
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Oriental Harbor
Click Chartlet Above to Open Chart View Page Centered on AICW/Waccamaw River Marker #36
We have just heard some GOOD news from Captain Dan Virga, onboard his vessel at SALT SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR, Bucksport Marina, Flashing marker #36, whose destruction caused us to issue an urgent SSECN Alert on 6/5/13, HAS NOW BEEN REPLACED by the USCG.
Hooray, all is back to normal on the AICW’s run through beautiful Waccamaw River!
We have cancelled the SSECN Navigation Alert for these waters!
Mr. Young,
Just wanted to post an update regarding the missing marker in Bucksport SC. Marker No. 36 . The Coast Guard has replaced the temporary marker with a permanent marker now.
Sincerely,
Capt. Dan Virga
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To Marker #36 On the AICW/Waccamaw River
The Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net is very proud to announce a really neat and very useful, new feature, which will make it easier than ever to access our interactive “Chart View” pages at just the location you need. Now, by using our new “Statute Mile/Lat-Lon Chart View Search Widget” all you need do is choose a Southeastern USA Waterway, enter a Statute Mile, press one button, and, “presto-chango” an interactive Chart View page will open centered on the specified location. What could be better!
Here’s how it works. Locate the red, vertically stacked menus on the upper, right sidebar of any (except Chart View) SSECN page. Pick the coastline of your choice. For example purposes, let’s choose “Eastern Florida.” Click “Eastern Florida” and a drop down menu will appear. In this drop down list you will see a new menu item entitled, “Stat. Mile/Lat-Lon Chart View Search” indicated by the red, right pointing arrow, in the graphic to the right.
Now, click on “Stat. Mile/Lat-Lon Chart View Search” and a dialog box will appear like the one pictured below:
First, select your Southeastern USA Waterway of interest from the drop down list in the “Select Waterway” field. For this example, let’s select “Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.” Now, notice that UNDER the “Statute Mile” field, the dialog box/widget provides the minimum and maximum Statute Mile values for the particular Waterway you have selected. In the case of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, it runs from Statute Mile 0 (near Norfolk, VA) to Statute Mile 1095 (in Miami, Florida).
Now, let’s say that you wanted to look at the AICW near Statute Mile 878, which happens to be hard by the community of Titusville, Florida. Enter “878″ (without the quote marks) in the “Statute Mile” field. Now, click the TOPMOST “View ChartView At This Location” button.
The first thing the widget will do is round off your requested “Statute Mile” to the nearest five mile position. That’s because NOAA charts display Waterway statute mile markers in five mile increments. In the example we are following here, “Statute Mile 878″ will be rounded to “Statute Mile 880.” If you had requested “Statute Mile 876″ your request would be rounded to “Statute Mile 875.”
Of course, all this “rounding” takes place invisibly, and in the blink of an eye. What you will see, continuing with our example, is a Chart View page that will open to the position of Statute Mile 880. Pretty neat, huh!
Now, please remember, these Chart View pages are NOT STATIC. You can place your pointer anywhere on any Chart View page, hold down the left mouse button, and drag/pan the chart as far to the east, west, north or south as you desire. You can drag all the way north to Maine or south to Key West, Florida.
Another thing you can do is activate the incredibly helpful Chart View ARGUS layer by simply clicking the “Argus(MLLW)” check box, above and to the left of the chart image, as pointed out by the red arrow in the graphic to the right.
Once the ARGUS layer is activated, you can peruse all the voluminous water depth data gathered by the ARGUS project. Talk about an on-the-water ADVANTAGE!!!!
And, of course, all our clickable Marina, Anchorage, Bridge, Info, Navigation Alert and AICW Problem Stretch icons will also be fully visible and functional on the Chart View pages you open using our new locator widget!
Finally, you will notice the bottom section of the dialog box which opens when you invoke our new “Statute Mile/Lat-Lon Chart View Search Widget,” entitled “Search by Latitude/Longitude.” The idea behind this function is to allow you to specify a Latitude and Longitude position, and a Chart View page will open centered on this specified position.
I am not going to spend a lot of time on this second function right now. While this part of the widget is functional, the current version requires that you enter your intended latitude and longitude in degree/decimal degree format. For example, entering a position of 36.32185 and -76.17668333, would open a Chart View page centered on North Carolina’s Lambs Marina. Note the “-” mark in the longitude position, which is absolutely necessary to specify that you are requesting a “west” longitude position.
The problem is that most mariners usually operate with latitude and longitude expressed in degrees/minutes/decimal minutes format, such as 36 19.311 North/076 10.601 West, Very SOON we are going to build automatic conversion from degrees/minutes/decimal minutes format, to degree/decimal degrees format, into our new widget. As soon as this extremely useful function is ready, we will let you know.
In the meantime, though, you can now easily and quickly open Chart View pages to any specified Statute Mile for any official US Army Corps of Engineers maintained Waterway in the Southeastern USA. We are sure you will find this new SSECN capability very useful indeed!
Please give it a try, and let us know what you think! Send all comments to CruisersNet@triad.twcbc.com!
Good luck and good cruising to all!
The Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net Bunch
Mile Marker 0 Marine Supply, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR, moved the beginning of this year. PLEASE drop by and visit these fine people in their new location. And, PLEASE, SUPPORT THEM, as we always ask, whenever possible, that you support all our SSECN sponsors!
We cannot say enough good things about Bob McBride and the excellent customer service he provides to boaters…those in transient, and those about to be transients! If he doesn’t have what you need, he will find it for you, and will bring it to you!
Mike
Click Here To View An Earlier Posting on Mile Marker O’s Recent Relocation
Below is a posting copied from the AGLCA forum about one of the really striking sights to be seen from the AICW/Dismal Swamp Canal Alternate Route’s passage down the Pasquotank River, south of Elizabeth City, NC.
Southeast of marker #5, you will catch sight of a huge rooftop sitting back from the shore; its location is noted on chart 12206. This immense structure was built during World War II for the manufacture of dirigibles. In times past, cruisers could actually catch sight of two mammoth buildings at this location. The larger of the two—one of the biggest wooden structures in the world—burned in spectacular fashion during 1995; at that time, it still served as a blimp factory, while the smaller of the two structures was leased to a furniture company. Now, the blimp plant has been moved to the surviving building, and dirigibles are once again being constructed in Elizabeth City. If you’re lucky, you may spot one of the mammoth balloons being tested as you pass.
Below, we hear from a former employee of the Blimp factory, in a reply to a question which originally appeared on the AGLCA forum.
It is 1 of 8 blimp hangars still remaining in the US. I worked in the hangar in the early 70′s where we built wood kitchen caninets.
Westinghouse owned that hangar and a huge, all wood hangar that housed TCOM who built blimps for overseas telecommunications. The wood hangar burned to the ground in 1995.
John & Cyndi Esch
Now, here are two HOT summer deals for dockage and fuel at SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR, Jekyll Harbor Marina. This fine facility lies along the easterly banks of the AICW’s passage through Jekyll Creek, south of Brunswick, GA and immediately south of the 65-foot fixed bridge.
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, AND EXTENDING UNTIL AUGUST 31, 2013, ANY JEKYLL HARBOR MARINA VISITOR WHO SIMPLY MENTIONS THAT THEY SAW THIS MESSAGE ON THE SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS NET WILL RECEIVE:
$.10 PER GALLON DISCOUNT ON GASOLINE OR DIESEL FUEL PURCHASES
AND/OR
10% OFF THE MARINA’S USUAL TRANSIENT DOCKAGE RATE OF $2.00 PER FOOT, PER NIGHT (Holidays and Weekends Excluded)
Even without mentioning Cruisers’ Net, visiting mariners can also take advantage of Jekyll Harbor’s “stay 2 nights and get the 3′rd free” summer dockage deal.
What’s not to LOVE! Please stop by Jekyll Harbor Marina and spend some time with these good people and their quality facility. And,once again, REMEMBER TO MENTION THAT YOU SAW THIS ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET!
Click Here To View the Georgia Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For Jekyll Harbor Marina
Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Jekyll Harbor Marina
North Lake Worth Anchorage Click for Chartview
Back in 2012 we published two articles about a truly bizarre proposal to partially fill northern Lake Worth (an area also known as, and referred to in the Press Release below as, “Turtle Cove”), supposedly to foster the growth of sea grasses. The real result would have been to render this very popular anchorage unfit for use by cruising size craft. See:
http://cruisersnet.net/?p=83837
and
http://cruisersnet.net/?p=97271
Originally, this proposal came from Palm Beach County, but through some sort of governmental alchemy, it was passed on to the US Army Corps of Engineers this year. As you will see in the highlighted portion of the Press Release below, the USACOE has, thankfully, decided NOT to proceed with this bizarre plan.
Hooray! Let’s hope this idea is dead and buried FOREVER!!!!
Little Lake Worth and Turtle Cove not part of proposed dredging project at Lake Worth Inlet
Posted 5/31/2013
Release no. 13-032
Contact
Amanda Ellison
904-232-1576
Jacksonville, Fla. – The Lake Worth Inlet Feasibility Study proposes to deepen and widen the Federal channel from Lake Worth Inlet to the Port of Palm Beach. Impacts to sea grasses and hardbottom resources are anticipated, therefore mitigation for these impacts are required.
Little Lake Worth and Turtle Cove are two of 10 proposed locations for sea grass and hardbottom mitigation due to impacts of the proposed widening and deepening of the port. Dredging of Turtle Cove is neither part of the proposed project nor part of the mitigation plan. The mitigation plan is discussed in Appendix D of the draft report which is located at:
The Corps is currently coordinating with resource agencies for the mitigation plan. Locations for both sea grass and hardbottom mitigation have not been finalized. Concerns over the use of Little Lake Worth, Turtle Cove, or other proposed locations for mitigation will be considered and shared with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the National Marine Fisheries Service.Public review of the Draft Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement for Lake Worth Inlet/Palm Beach Harbor will conclude on Monday, June 3rd. Upon conclusion of the public comment period, the project team will review all comments received, evaluate the comments, and make changes to the final report as appropriate.
Official comments may be submitted to Ms. Angela Dunn at 904-232-2108 or Angela.E.Dunn@usace.army.mil.
Florida politicians and land developers just keep writing Carl Hiassen’s next book plots for him, don’t they?
Pretty easy to figure out that this is the backup plan for the new Maule Lake Marina owners, after trying to stop anchoring there earlier and failing.
R. Holiman
"Early Morning at Snows Cut Bridge (North Carolina AICW, north of Southport, NC)"
by: Captain Sheila Dixon
