I will be heading to Beaufort, SC with the family next week. We will be taking our Kid's 19' bow rider down with us since the house we are renting has it's own dock on a river. The trip is not mostly about boating, but we hope to do a fair amount.
My experience with boating is limited to inland lakes and the Ohio River. This will be my first experience with anything like "Big Water". Although we will be staying away from the open ocean I am not sure what to expect. What special things should I be prepared for? Do I need charts? Any additional equipment? Are the channels hard to follow? Grounding is one of my bigger concerns. The lake I am used to is so deep you can often be in 30' deep water and only 10' from land, grounding your boat almost requires a chart to find a spot shallow enough.
My experience with boating is limited to inland lakes and the Ohio River. This will be my first experience with anything like "Big Water". Although we will be staying away from the open ocean I am not sure what to expect. What special things should I be prepared for? Do I need charts? Any additional equipment? Are the channels hard to follow? Grounding is one of my bigger concerns. The lake I am used to is so deep you can often be in 30' deep water and only 10' from land, grounding your boat almost requires a chart to find a spot shallow enough.