Author Sherer responds to a reader who feels that printed descriptions of shoaling areas have little value, see Comments at /?p=150181. SSECN strongly believes in a combination of printed descriptions, paper charts and electronic charts. Even in ever changing shoaled areas, printed descriptions serve to forewarn the savy skipper.

North Carolina takes care of their part of the ICW with frequent dredging. Florida does the same but only for the ICW south of St Augustine, everywhere else the ICW is seldom dredged. Georgia and South Carolina haven’t dredged in years showing shameful stewardship of the ICW passing through their states.

Even so there are some areas where there is a deep water passage at low tide if you know the path. One example is Fields Cut in South Carolina just before Savannah River where there is 8.4 ft MLW all the way but if you split the buoys you would have run aground until 2 years ago when the Coast Guard finally provided a new red buoy way over on the green side at the northern entrance. Those that knew used to hug the green side, far outside the channel for 10 ft MLW, now it’s marked by a red buoy which appears off station since it’s so far to the green side but you must honor it or run aground. Strangely, the Coast Guard did not put a green buoy at the southern exit where you must hug the red side for deep water, maybe next year. The deep water route through here has not changed in five years.

Likewise at the shallows just south of Fernandina, there is a 8 ft MLW path but you would never know it looking at the chart or following the buoys. The 8 ft MLW route has been constant for the last five years but never marked by the Coast Guard. `Helpfully’, on the most recent charts the entire area of the shallows was marked as `Shoaling to 3 ft’. It would have been more helpful to add buoys to direct boaters along the 8 ft MLW path which is still there.

There are many more examples of deep water paths that have not changed in the last five years where if you follow the buoys, you will run into trouble. It’s also true that some shallows have been dredged and are no longer a problem, mostly in North Carolina. As of a few weeks ago, South Carolina committed to dredging the Isle of Palms shallows just north of the Ben Sawyer Bridge starting in October, a first for SC!! Way to go! Unfortunately, all the other famous shallows will go untouched (Hell Gate, Mud River, Ashepoo, McClellanville, Dawho River, etc.) Even through these tight spots, there are ways to find the best path although it may only be 4.5 to 5.5 ft MLW but much shallower outside that narrow route. In fact, of all the shallows on the ICW, the only one being addressed (so far) for the fall migration is the Isle of Palms dredging. The vast majority of issues are not addressed with either buoy repositioning or dredging.

By all means, do not rely on just a printed copy of what worked in the spring of 2015, double check other sources but it’s helpful to have a chart of the problem areas in front of you arranged in a north to south sequence so you don’t miss any. In the vast majority of cases (but not all!), the safe routes remain the same from year to year as in the two examples at the top. As we all know, you can never just rely on one source for navigation, use all inputs and decide on the best route for your boat and crew.