I've been up/down most of the
ICW now 3 times and currently in
Jacksonville FL after having come down and am amazed at the number of boats
posting groundings. My
boat drafts 6'4" and I didn't come close this year to hitting the bottom. In the past I've hit bottom 3 times and all three were my fault for not paying attention and/or getting confused and getting out of the channel.
I now start each leg by reviewing the Active
Captain info for it and noting it on my flip
charts. But over half the "shoal" hazard markers in AC are really "stay in the channel, follow the buoys, don't cut the corner" when you get right down to it and really waste my time in reviewing that. Yet I read posts from boats reporting shoal hazards out of the channel or info that definitely indicating they weren't in the channel. Two weeks ago a
boat posted on Bob423 Facebook page a warning about a spot that said "we were in the channel and it quickly went from 6' to 1.5'", this boat was right behind me at the
fuel dock just prior to the spot so went through it within 10 minutes of me. Yet I never saw less than 10' and when I posted "well if you saw 6' you weren't in the channel" they went are crazy defending themselves.
The past couple weeks I've seen numerous posts about the southbound entrance to the Alligator River. Now that spot has a pretty sharp curve and if you were start looking too far ahead you could cut across and go aground. But if you just pay attention and follow the buoys there's no problem at all. So when I read a "problem" post I know the boater didn't follow the buoys and/or cut the corner.
I guess I just have a hard time with so many not being smart enough to follow the buoys to stay in the channel, not cutting the corner because the turns aren't in a straight line, not understanding that if a creek etc is feeding into the channel that you need to move to the other side of the channel, understanding that you need to stay to the outside edge of a curve.
I'm no super helmsman, but I get tired of boater in 4'
draft boats going aground so much and blaming the
ICW conditions for it when I went through with over a 6'
draft and rarely saw less than 8' anywhere (when I seen 8' that doesn't involve a creek etc.
washing into that section I know I'm OUT of the channel".