The Waterway crosses Nassau Sound at the intersection of Amelia and Nassau Rivers, some 13 miles south of Fernandina. This has always been a tricky section of the AICW, because of the perennial shoaling at flashing marker #46. Some charts do not even show a magenta line at this marker. The excerpt below from Captain Ted’s log does not identify the problem marker, but does reinforce our advice to keep a sharp eye on the markers and not rely too closely on your chartplotter.
We found the water shallow and the channel tricky. Coming back onto the ICW from Nassau Sound, our GPS indicated that we should pass on the wrong side of the next red marker, so I hugged that side of the channel. A 40 foot auxiliary had not, and was aground. We talked on the VHF and I told him the readings we were getting on the depth sounder. He was almost in deep water, and the tide was rising, so he declined our offer of assistance, but we did call off the soundings as we went. Shortly thereafter, we saw that he had gotten off, but we were not through with the shallow water. Looking back, it appeared that he had gone aground again. His draft was a foot or more greater than O.G’s, which explains why we got away with it and he didn’t.
Captain Ted Jones (former publisher of the late, great “Coastal Cruising” magazine)

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