Our thanks to Great Loopers, Jan and David Irons, for sharing their very attractive blog with our readers. The Waterway photography is exceptional! See The Rock Pile for Claiborne Young’s take on this unusual stretch south of Myrtle Beach.

The “Rock Pile” is a man-made canal-like section of the AICW, officially known as the Pine Island Cut, running between Little River and Waccamaw River. The canal is narrow and lined with submerged rocks and a rock shelf, just a foot or two below the water’s surface.

When the USACOE was building this portion of the AICW in the 1930’s they encountered a sold shelf of granite. The Corps simply blasted through this obstruction, but, over the years, the soft silt above and below these rocky outcropping has washed away, making the canal now appear wider than it really is. Also, over the years, many portions of the rock shelf have broken off, and left all sort of underwater rocks waiting to trap keels and underwater hardware.
Cruisers are urged to hold as close to the mid-width of the Pine Island Cut as possible, and announce their presence on VHF in case large commercial traffic is approaching, which could force you out of the channel’s mid-line and onto the “rocks,” especially at high tide when the rocks are fully submerged. Our suggestion is to keep a sharp lookout for rocks and IDIOTS!

Commuter Cruiser
Scary Stuff! Rock Pile, Lockwood Folly & More: Cruising the Carolinas

Posted: 29 Apr 2018 11:48 AM PDT

Cruising the Carolinas, Great Loopers encounter long stretches of ICW lined with cypress swamps & a few scary spots with names like Lockwood Folly & The Rock Pile waiting to snare unexpecting Loopers. Don’t miss Bald Head Island to climb Old Baldy or the Mile Hammock Anchorage where, if you’re lucky, you might see Marines training to protect our freedom.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To Chart Note Southern End of the Rock Pile