Any upper Chesapeake boaters see this article?

Our boating association posted the video with all the debris floating around. Just glad it's not after the opening of the season on March 1st.
 
WOW I did not see that video... OMG my insurance is going up already from Harvey and Irma, now it will go up again!!! I hope they are running a lot of barges up and down the river to chop up the tree trunks before April!!
 
just curious, what will happen with all that stuff?
 
it will end up in the ocean and or sink to the bottom of where ever its at same as all the other debris, from creeks to rivers to oceans.
 
Not good at all......Even if our boat goes in the water, it's not going anywhere if the debris is in our area our the Bush River.
 
Although that's a bit concerning just over a month away from launch into Middle River, we came from the Potomac which looks like that year round - constantly dodging something...and one reason we stay on the bay now.
 
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Although that's a bit concerning just over a month away from launch into Middle River, we came from the Potomac which looks like that year round - constantly dodging something...and one reason we stay on the bay now.
So I have to ask... How did you dodge debris like that without damaging your boat?
 
We were in the Chesapeake a few years ago when there were massive debris fields. I think there had been a tropical storm or a hurricane which caused flooding in the upstream river area.

Mostly in the Kent Narrows down 80 miles or so south.

There were massive debris fields floating. Was not hard to see the debris fields.

Was slow going, not sure we ran on plane very much at all for several days. We saw trees, limbs, pieces of firewood, even a refrigerator.

Never went very fast, always two sets of eyes watching. When we encountered a debris field it was idle speed. Dodging big items. Sometimes it was ease forward a bit, then pull back to neutral. Focused on not going over anything that would cause prop damage.

This was in the middle part of the bay, most of the debris was not in the channel, but off to the sides.

No issues, no problems. Just go very slow, every eye on the boat on watch.

Mark
 
Where I boat in the very upper chesapeake (i leave from turkey point) its not uncommon at all to see massive stumps in the water and trees floating and alot of times you can only see a tiny portion of them. We rarely go out at night its pretty risky. I lost a jetski a few years ago I saw something that looked like a turtle head but it was a massive stump put a hole in the bottom of the ski luckily I didn't get hurt.
 
Upper Chesapeake also. It's not the part of the tree that you can see that's the issue...it's the part you can't see!
 
Unless it’s absolutely necessary to travel while it is heavy, I wouldn’t chance damaging my boat.
 
Why didn't they clean that crap up before they opened the spill gates?

It is a lot easier to get it corralled and removed at that point before sending it downriver to screw everyone else. If a private company was running that dam......the government would have shut them down and sent in the EPA. I guess the Pennsylvania State government (I believe they control that dam).....just could care less.
 
They aren't required to clean it up, have had docks on the monongahela river in Penna. since 1990 and the debris is a fact of life living and boating on a river. It's a shame that people throw all that crap out and it ends up in the river, bays and ocean. High water comes with the heavy rain you don't go out boating till it clears up. The dams open up to let the extra water out, the debris go thru collects on docks A, he pushes it out and it goes down and collects on dock B, they push it out and it collects on mine then I push it out and on and on till it floats up on shore and you get to go boating again without a lot of debris till next heavy rain and high water. The logs, stumps and all the debris will never end just just the way it is.
 
Yeah the debris is just a pain in the .... but the stumps and logs and whatnot are a real safety hazard especially running at night. Alot of them don't move so atleast you know where they are but thats not always the case. Imagine hitting a 4 foot wide stump in a go fast boat.
 
Well accepting incompetence and sending it down the river isn't the answer. On the Potomac, all the DC marinas get hit with river debris. The difference is they are required to clean it up using a number of contractors with barges and the equipment to remove it.
 
Unfortunately "sending it down the river" is how we solve all our problems
 

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