4 groundings in 1 day!

M

millsan1

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2007
RO Number
25166
Messages
525
I was out there Monday in my 212 and grounded 4 times trying to get to Barnegat Inlet. I was coming from the north, on the east side of the bay. I ended up in 2 feet of water so many times, I just gave up and went back from whence I came. I was less than 2 miles from the lighthouse, but could not for the life of me find the path.

Should I have been on the west side of the bay, and come in straight at the inlet?

Any suggestions would be appreciated, as I want ot run down there again real soon! (I launch this boat out of Jersey City)
 
You really need to stay in the channels. Do you have charts of the area?

The channels are ROUGHLY on the west side of the bay till you get to "BI" and "QR" will be to the east. That marks the channel towards the inlet. Don't try to cut the corners cause as you found there is no water outside the channels.

So the suggestion would be to grab a chart book before the next trip!
 
millsan1:

The main channel, ICW, is definetly on the West side of the Bay as you approach the Barnegat Inlet from the north. Many smaller boats do run the East side of the Bay through the old Mud channel, but that channel hasn't been marked in years. Keep in mind that lately the water in the Bay has been very low due to consistently strong W and NW winds. In the summer months, you will see many runnabouts headed south on the east side past Tices and into the old Mud Channell....but those folks have local knowledge.

Either way, I DEFINETLY would not run an inboard boat, especially a 391 Meridian, anywhere out othe channels on the Barnegat Bay.

I live in the area, if you want any more local info, just ask.
 
Last time I was in that area a few years ago, coming across the bay from Forked River ( after a witner storage) towards the inlet, I ran aground a couple times. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was having so much trouble staying in the channel, when the fall before, I made it right across, at low tide, without any issues. I called Boat US to try and figure out what my problem was, and the captain told me that they had lost a couple channel markers over the winter, and they probably would not be back until mid May.
 
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