It might help to understand the posting below, if you were first to take a look at the portion of chart which depicts the northern entrance to the excellent Walburg Creek anchorage, from St. Catherine Sound. As you will see, there is a long shoal charted as “Middle Ground” which thrusts into the western flank of the creek’s entrance.
The classic way to avoid these shallows has been to continue cruising east, as if you were going to follow the St. Catherine Sound Inlet to the open sea, and then curl back around to the south and west from a position east of marker #7.
What Captain Long is attempting to do, as described below, is find a way to short-cut the long cruise east to get past #7. Looks like he may have found a way for the moment, BUT, as he notes, depths in this region are subject to rapid and uncharted changes. Cutting the corner may be a risky proposition, and the responsibility to take such a chance rests entirely with each individual captain!

When coming across Saint Catherines Sound in a stiff breeze as I did yesterday, it’s tempting to cut across the long shoal that forms an extension of the north bank of Walberg Creek if you plan to seek shelter there. It’s also tempting at the end of a long run to this beautiful spot.
BobT’s friends in Second Wind ran the magenta line which goes far out into the entrance of the sound to the ocean. This left them with a hard slog under power back up to the creek. It also could have left them in a dicey situation if their engine hadn’t started, being carried out to sea by two knots of current. It would have been tough in those conditions to set sail and beat to windward in the nasty chop.
There have been a lot of changes in this area and the chart is pretty much fictional now. Since it was calm this morning and I planned a very short day, I decided to do a quick survey. My soundings are in red, corrected to MLW with the tide data in my Garmin chartplotter.
The highlighted track shows my attempt to feel my way along the 8 foot sounding line. There are some 10 foot spots along that track but I was shy about pushing right in with a lot of current behind me. When I found the 5 foot spot earlier on, the depth change was quite fast.
Roger Long

And, here is some additional info from Captain Long:

You should probably mention that I took the shortcut over the 9 foot, now 32 foot soundings and went very near the 5 foot sounding early this year and didn’t notice the depths being significantly different than the chart. I may not have been paying as much attention but this appears to be an area subject to fast changes.
Roger

Click Here To View the Georgia Anchorage Cruisers’ Net Anchorage Directory Listing For the Walburg Creek Anchorage

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of the Walburg Creek Anchorage

Just this past week, I was reminded of one reason why, several years ago, I made the transition from authoring paper cruising guides, to publishing all the data I gather on the world wide web. This tale begins when I received a very polite e-mail from the owner of Hidden Harbor Marina, a very nice facility on the shores of Troup Creek, just off the AICW, a short hop north of Brunswick, Georgia.
A visiting cruiser had informed the owner that in my “Cruising Guide to Coastal South Carolina and Georgia,” I had less than nice things to say about visiting this body of water. Turns out the CGSC-GA edition in question was at least six years old, and, at that time, there was a seriously scuzzy, combination bar and marina perched on the shores of Troup Creek. Hence my less than glowing recommendation.
Happily, those days are LONG GONE, and there is every good reason for cruisers to visit the facility which now occupies these shores, Hidden Harbor Marina. And, to bring this discussion full circle, that is one of the real problems with paper cruising guide. They often hang around far past their “sell-by” date.
So, if you have old editions of my cruising guides or anyone elses, use them for a bon fire, and get the latest edition of all your guide books, or better yet, get your data on marina, anchorages and bridges right here, on the Salty Southeast Cruisers’ Net!

Click Here To View the Georgia Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For Hidden Harbor Marina

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Hidden Harbor Marina