I shuddered a bit as I read Captain Litchield’s message below. It’s a good thing he was able to keep up his speed and “plow through.” The Little Mud River section of the Waterway is truly out in the middle of nowhere. I don’t even want to think what it would cost to get a tow here.
And, once again, we see that Little Mud River is the #1 problem stretch of the Waterway, for the entire run between Norfolk, VA and Miami, FL. There is no magic bullet here. Time your passage for HIGH water! Good luck!

On 4/23 we arrived at the southern entrance at 2 hours before MLW. Foolishly we decided to attempt a run through. We almost made it all the way to marker 190 when we began hitting soft mud. I revved up the engine to keep our speed from slowing and plowed through. I saw the depth meter reading 3.9′ but my wife says she saw it read 3.1′. Fortunately we had enough speed to `plow’ through. As we popped out of the mud, the depth meter display suddenly jumped to 4.5′, 4.9′ and then slowly climbed to 7′. Whew!! We made it but I won’t do that again. BTW we draw 4.5′.
Dik Litchield

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s “AICW Problem Section” Listing For Little Mud River