Heads Up: Shoaling on NC Inlets

[Captain Smollett]

Shoaling of NC inlets has been a problem lately.  I know some of these inlets are not in the radar for most sailors, but thought I'd post this most recent advisory just in case...don't want anyone caught by surprise.

USCG Station NC is temporarily discontinuing ATN on Hatteras Inlet.  More details:

http://fryingpantower.com/article4493.html

More likely of interest here is the recent problems on Oregon Inlet.  While I personally would not use that inlet in normal course of MY sailing, I do know of some sailors that do use it.  OI has been a mess lately, and they did some emergency dredging a week or two ago.  I have not heard how Ana affected it.

The local fishing fleets that uses OI routinely have had a lot of problems.  The CG closed the inlet for about a week last month (if memory serves).

New River Inlet has received some attention by the fishing boats as well.  Some have had problems navigating that inlet, even with COE survey data less than a month old.  If they are having trouble...we likely would as well.  Some run it okay, but others have problems.

As far as I'm concerned, NC has two fully reliable sailboat inlets: Cape Fear and Beaufort.  Masonboro is generally okay as well. 

As I said above, some sailors do occasionally run OI and it's not unheard of on New River, too, but 'margin of safety' is quite a bit slimmer at those two.

There's also Little River Inlet on the NC/SC border that is generally reliable as well.

[Frank]

Good to see ya back John   :-)

[Jim_ME]

Was just thinking the same thing...

Welcome back, John. Grog to ya.  :)

[Captain Smollett]

Thanks guys.

I've just been waiting until I had something useful to say.  I know that's out of character, but ...     ;)

[Tim]

Lol, I wasn't going to say anything to jinx it. I mean it WAS last  August since we heard from you. Hope all is well.

[Jim_ME]

I've just been waiting until I had something useful to say. I know that's out of character, but ...     ;)

I have found your posts to be consistently useful, John--as I'm sure many others have, as well.

I'd like to share with other SailFarers that last summer I picked up a boat to try it out as an experiment and so had much uncertainty during the process. John's willingness to be a sounding board and counsel was very helpful.

It was something of a long shot and so I was reluctant to post about it in the usual way in real time here with all the transparency that means. I thought that might write a thread after it became clear that it either worked out, or if it didn't (as was the case), maybe a postmortem of sorts . I have not taken the time to do it.  Am not sure that it would be helpful enough to the forum to be worth the effort...

Anyway, I would encourage any others that may find themselves in a similar situation, to feel free to correspond with others here by PMs and/or email. I hope that you will find as much help as I did.

John, Let me thank you again, here,
...and offer another grog. :)

[Edit: Since posting this, I have come to think that this (this kind of support) is important enough to have its own thread...so have started one and reposted it in the Members Only Section. Will also leave it here for now since it is in part a response to previous posts here...]

[s/v Faith]

John, your posts are spot on.  I won't ever forget your assistance w weather guessing on my last minute decision heading to the Carib....  Not to mention your amazing help last year with Hurricane preps on ET...

That said, just a data point to add (you already know this).  New River inlet is a challenging inlet even immediately after it is dredged....   When I hauled Faith at Swan Point Marina and boatyard there were 11 sailboats on the hard with damage associated with New River inlet (some were long time occupants)...   

I have sailed through it 6 or 7 times, and people who sailed in the area longer then I thought it was nuts....

My friends Dave and Annita did it in their Morgan classic 41...,  but they are better Sailors then I am.

[Siskiwit]

Long term issue - here's a post I made which remains helpful

http://siskiwit.com/blog/2013/06/skinny-water/#sthash.Ol5LlRDB.dpbs