It’s not getting any easier to cruise down the Intracoastal Waterway this winter. Indeed, the Coast Guard is reporting four more spots with dangerous shoaling conditions from mile marker 237 to mile marker 321 along the Waterway in North Carolina.
The new shoals are at:
Mile marker 237, Browns Inlet intersection near Bogue Sound, where a 200- yard shoal extends into the channel with depths from less than one foot to five feet at mean low water.
Mile marker 271, Howards Creek Intersection near the New River-Cape Fear River buoy 99A, where a 350-yard shoal extends into the channel with depths from less than two feet to five feet at mean low water.
Mile marker 280, Masons Inlet intersection near the New River-Cape Fear River buoy 121, where a 250-yard shoal extends into the channel with depths from less than one foot to four feet at mean low water.
Mile marker 321, Lockwoods Folly Inlet intersection near the Cape Fear River-Little River buoy 47, where a 250-yard shoal extends into the channel with depths from less than one foot to five feet at mean low water.
The Coast Guard says there have been many groundings in these areas, and urges mariners to proceed at their boats’ slowest possible speeds there. Mariners should cruise in these areas only at high tide, in daylight, and should not attempt to overtake or meet other vessels where shoaling exists, the Coast Guard says. In addition, the Coast Guard says cruising in these areas is particularly difficult because the shoals shift often.
For more information, contact LCDR Derek J. Burrill, North Carolina sector chief of the Waterways Management Division. Phone: (910) 772-2230.
– paj
