Appalachicola to Clearwater thru Govt (Sikes ) Cut at St George Island

[J Clark H356]

Anyone been through Govt Cut at St George island lately? I have 5 foot draft and will be going through At -.84 feet at low tide if passable. Please advise on current condition.

Thanks

[Bestathook]

I can tell you that there are sand bars on both sides of the North end of Bob Sikes cut that extend well into the bay. They are longer than shown on the charts, and move around a fair bit. Large shrimp boats come and go, as do power yachts in the 40' + lengths.

My boat's draft is only 3 feet, so I am not sure about a deeper vessel. Scipio Creek Marina in Apalachicola should have current information.

If you are in Apalach, or will be, send me a personal message. I am usually there.

[cheoah]

Sorry, nothing to add about the cut. A friend of mine just sailed outside from appalachacola to Clearwater on Saturday night. He had a nice easy overnight sail

[Custom30]

After weather like that predicted this week, the location of the bars at Government Cut are likely to shift. Local knowledge in the Cut means you talked to someone who went through yesterday or today, otherwise it is unreliable.

Both the SeaTow and the BoatUS guys will advise you that it is "closed", especially if you have their towing insurance.

East Pass is the way to go, there is a nice anchorage behind Dog Island, minutes from open water.


'

[Pmary]

Agree with all above. Government Cut is certainly doable in good light conditions with local knowledge but after dark it's a bitch!..........I have the scars (mental)to prove this.

[AnchorageGuy]

The swells will bounce you off the bottom in Government Cut and/or you will find yourself hard aground and in need of a tow. So why do that to your boat and yourself. Go out East Pass and if you want to leave after dark, go outside and come back in during daylight hours and leave breadcrumbs on your chartplotter to follow later. Chuck

[RTB]

I second East Pass. Anchor off Dog Island and leave from there, or hang out in Carrabelle til you get your window. C-Quarters is a very friendly (and inexpensive) marina. Capn Kim and her husband are very knowledgeable, and helpful (if you need a second opinion on the weather).

Enjoy your passage. It can be very nice....or very ugly!

Ralph
Water, water, and more water! | sailing away with R & B

[Bestathook]

A lot of water runs in and out of Bob Sikes cut.

When the current runs against a strong wind, the standing waves are treacherous, and an outright danger to smaller boats who bury their bows in a standing wave and swamp, boats 16 feet and under.

[J Clark H356]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm flying back to Panama City this afternoon and will leave there tomorrow and go direct to Clearwater. The weather window looks good and I'll skip Port St Joe and Apalachicola this time. Information gotten off this forum has been great and many thanks to all of you. Had I decided to go through Apalachicola, I'd have skipped Govt Cut and taken East Pass.

[Group9]

I ran aground there, just north of the cut, in the middle of the channel, with a five foot draft, three years ago. It was low tide when I did it and I floated off as the tide came in.

[BoatandBeach]

Updating this, I realize it's an ancient thread. But it's still a top search result for "Apalachicola Government Cut" and I could find almost no current info before we passed through..

We came through, leaving Apalachicola heading to Clearwater, Jan 28th 2019. All info below is in reference to that track, outbound through the cut. .

The buoys are in correct location physically, don't believe your chart, we went through 3 hours after low tide and never saw less than 7ft of water inside the markers.

Stay towards green on the first set, but do not go outside of green - extreme shoaling outside the green marker, drops to 3ft within 10ft of the marker. We found out the hard way- chart didn't match current buoy location. Off by 100ft or so. We backed out, ignored the chart, and went through the first buoys with no further problems. For the second set of buoys, favor the middle toward red to find the deeper water.

Once past the second set of buoys, line up centered between the jetties, 12' plus through the cut. Just outside the cut, before the outbound buoys, there is another shoal, but we didn't see less than 9' crossing it. By the time you're even with the last buoys you're in 20ft of water.

We averaged 8.3kts in 1ft swells and dropped anchor in Clearwater Harbor 19hrs after leaving Scipio Creek. Course 150 magnetic is wide open except for the 2 AIr Force Ranging towers you skirt along the way. No crab pots, no other boats, just open water and lots of dolphins.