Shoaling - Click for Chartview

We already have a Navigation Alert for the Sawpit Creek section of the AICW (south of Fernandina Beach, FL) – see /?p=114935 – but wanted to post this excellent information separately, hoping more cruisers will be able to take advantage of the data below.

I sailed past marker 45 northbound on May 20 at mid/ rising tide and noticed no shoaling. But on the return on May 25 at a rising mid tide I encountered a section 200 yrds south of marker 45 with depths of 5 feet. This reading caused me to immediately go to dead slow so as to evaluate my course. It appeared that I was in the middle of the channel, but as I navigate by paper chart and eyeball, I can’t prove it.
Perhaps `Sandy’ moved in some additional sand last year after the dredge did it’s work?
During the above mentioned trip we were surprised by the odd placement of Can #45 in Sawpit Creek. But as it sits in a natural right hand turn in the creek, I assumed it meant shoaling to be found on the inner part of the arc.
Standard operation calls for favoring the outside of the turn in most cases, so we had no problem, just a bit more turn to the left going northbound.
G. Grizzard

We came through here at high tide on May 26th. We draw 5.5 ft. We ignored the charts and plotter, and backed up by aerial photographs, we imagined the east half of the channel as solid land. This suggested long gliding turn about 100-150 feet off the western bank from R50 to R48. [By hugging here, a quick swing east gives deeper water, but don’t swing much.] In the vicinity of the surfaced ramp, we tucked in even more tightly to the west. Our lowest DS reading was 7.5 feet at high tide (range 5.4 at that time). Because of the wicked side-set and swirling, we only go through here 2-1 hours before high tide. It’s not surprising dredging isn’t all that effective here. Sand bars from Nassau Sound are being eaten away and deposited here via the old natural swash channel to the east. The towboat captain we talked to said most of his tows were people who had been side set into shallows before they realized what was happening.
Chris and Janet

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To A “Navigation Alert” Position at Sawpit Creek