Experienced cruisers, Jim and Peg Healy, continue to generously share their observations and advice as they make their way south for the winter. Thank you Jim and Peg! Regarding Jim’s observations at the New River Inlet/AICW intersection, see LNM: AICW Buoy 70 Off-Station.

Today is Friday, 10/19/2018. Sanctuary and crew traveled from Morehead City to Wrightsville Beach. The section from Morehead City to Swansboro is unremarkable. No significant changes.

I have updated all of my routes to incorporate the data made available from the USACE, so I mean no criticism of anyone. Following are just my observations, as I had a couple of surprises.

At Brown’s Inlet, the USACE routes are the correct shape, but displaced a bit to the north. In other words, heading south, if I had let the autopilot drive the route, I would have overshot the turns. The waypoints did not quite coincide with the markers in the water, and I had to make manual corrections. The good news is, there are floating Red and Green markers at Brown’s Inlet that accurately guide boaters through the area.

I planned perfectly to arrive at the New River Inlet at dead low tide. (Listening for applause…. Hearing none, I continue…) Southbound past Mile Hammock Bay approaching the New River Inlet ICW Crossing, three markers are prominently visible; they are prodigiously confusing. To the visual left, there is I think floating R72A; it is not more than about 30 ft off the shoreline; to it’s visual right, there is a now obsolete Green, and to it’s right, a second probably obsolete Red. So, left to right, red, green, red… What to do, what to do? ALL STOP!

A boat before us had gone between the Green and rightmost Red marker; the original ICW markers… and promptly ran aground. OK, that’s what I had expected from the description of the shoaling in that area, but the leftmost Red floater is so close to the shoreline that one doubts it is correctly positioned. I called the grounded boat, and the captain said he had watched boats honor that leftmost Red successfully. So I proceeded at idle speed (never approach anything faster than you’d want to hit it), but I can tell you, that routeline puts the boat very close to shore; more so than the preplan USACE route. And, water depths are prodigiously shallow; no more than 4.5″ at MLW. The USACE route’s shape is right on, but I again found the actual waypoints did not coincide with the physical placement of markers… the route needed manual intervention. Then as I approached the south end of the Inlet, there is a lone Red marker on a post. The USACE route does not honor that marker; it holds the marker to STBD. I was confused, and decided to honor the marker. My track went well wide of the preplan route, and again, I saw no more than 4.5′ – 5′ of water.

Finally, similar observation about the Mason Inlet Crossing. There are Red and Green floating markers that correctly identify the route through the area, but the route waypoints do not quite coincide with the markers in the water. They are close and the shape is correct, but manual corrections are needed.

So anyway, the route guidance is very good, but does need onsite adjustment. It’s not always possible to time tides, but to the extent one has a choice, low tide is not the best time to transit New River Inlet.

Just my observations…

Jim and Peg Healy
Monk 36 Hull #132
MMSI #367042570
AGLCA #3767
MTOA #3436