Shoaling in the Miller's Island cut.

[skibum]

Heads up if you plan on traversing the cut. I went through there last night heading north and my depth gauge was showing less than 4' of water about 10-15' to the right of the green "3" marker. Last year, the shoaling was about half of that.

Be careful going through! I'm pretty sure that I was chopping mud with my props.

 

[scooper321]

Heads up if you plan on traversing the cut. I went through there last night heading north and my depth gauge was showing less than 4' of water about 10-15' to the right of the green "3" marker. Last year, the shoaling was about half of that.

Be careful going through! I'm pretty sure that I was chopping mud with my props.

That's disturbing! What was the tide level?

 

[skibum]

It was dark when I was going through, so I'd guess around 8:30-9:30PMish. According to the tide tables, low tide was 10:07PM so it was pretty close to low tide. I've been going in and out from the Back River side all season and this was my 1st time through the southern end so I'm going to get out there again this week and try to figure out the extent of the shoal.

 

[scooper321]

It was dark when I was going through, so I'd guess around 8:30-9:30PMish. According to the tide tables, low tide was 10:07PM so it was pretty close to low tide. I've been going in and out from the Back River side all season and this was my 1st time through the southern end so I'm going to get out there again this week and try to figure out the extent of the shoal.

Please do report back. I come out of the Inner Harbor so that channel is my normal passage into Middle River. If it's shoaling to 5 feet, I may have to consider taking the long way around HM Island!

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[skibum]

You're welcome. I'll be sure to post an update. I just checked out the Navionics Chartviewer and the profile of shoaling I experienced seems in line with what it is showing.

I'm not sure if this link will pull it up for you with the same area in view as it did for me, but take a look near green "3". https://webapp.navionics.com/#boating@15&key=aulnFbchqM
It shows 4-5', but I have no idea what the tide was when those readings were taken. You might need to click the circle in the lower right side and select "Sonarchart" to see the contours.

 

[scooper321]

You're welcome. I'll be sure to post an update. I just checked out the Navionics Chartviewer and the profile of shoaling I experienced seems in line with what it is showing.

I'm not sure if this link will pull it up for you with the same area in view as it did for me, but take a look near green "3". https://webapp.navionics.com/#boating@15&key=aulnFbchqM
It shows 4-5', but I have no idea what the tide was when those readings were taken. You might need to click the circle in the lower right side and select "Sonarchart" to see the contours.

Well THAT'S pretty interesting. You're right. 4' near that marker. And I assume those numbers are MLW (Mean Low Water). So to be conservative, I'd use that as the low tide level (even though it's likely higher than that).

 

[skibum]

Seems about right. I do not use an offset on my depth gauge. It was windy and I was looking out, but I could have sworn I saw 2' on it once or twice. Add another 2' or so for draft and that's 4'. I have a few friends with very small fishing boats, so I might try to get one of them to go out there with me this weekend to get some better readings. I'll report back.

 

[skibum]

I was out there this morning. There was no traffic, so I was able to linger by green 3 for a bit. It was 7AM and low tide was 6:18AM so 42 minutes after low tide. Within 6-10' from the marker, I was seeing 2.6' (from bottom of my hull). 10-20' from the marker, 3.5', and beyond 20' I was seeing 4.2' to 4.6'. I think I went a couple of feet outside of the channel on the red side and saw more than 4.5' as well, but I'm hesitant to advise anyone to go out of the marked channel.

Conclusion. If you need more than 4' of water heading north, keep green 3 at least 20-25' off your port side if it's reasonably close to low tide.

 

[scooper321]

I was out there this morning. There was no traffic, so I was able to linger by green 3 for a bit. It was 7AM and low tide was 6:18AM so 42 minutes after low tide. Within 6-10' from the marker, I was seeing 2.6' (from bottom of my hull). 10-20' from the marker, 3.5', and beyond 20' I was seeing 4.2' to 4.6'. I think I went a couple of feet outside of the channel on the red side and saw more than 4.5' as well, but I'm hesitant to advise anyone to go out of the marked channel.

Conclusion. If you need more than 4' of water heading north, keep green 3 at least 20-25' off your port side if it's reasonably close to low tide.

That's a little disturbing. I don't need more than 4' of draft. But if there's anything lying on the bottom (a wreck, a log, a tree, old bridge timbers?) that doesn't give any room for error!

 

[skibum]

Just spoke with a 340 owner at my marina. He said he recently went through when the water was a little rough, and he saw 3 6" on his sounder a couple of times near the marker.

My boat is back on land. I'm going to take a measurement from the water line to my sounder this week to add some more clarity to those readings.

 

[skibum]

Yesterday morning, I saw the Park Police crew getting on to their boat which they keep at our marina. I asked them if they knew about the shoaling by green 3. Their answer was, "Oh yeah. We know". I asked if there were plans to address it, but they said that is up to the US Army Corp of Engineers.