The Mud River & prepare to be boarded

We have for the past several years avoided the Mud River in southern Ga, arguably the worst spot on the ICW. It is not uncommon to hear others say noooo! only on a mid tide or higher. In the past we wrestled with this question and for good or bad have been able to make a longer offshore run either north or south bound, usually an overnighter. Thus missing all of Ga., in fact, we have not been through the Ga. ICW in a very long time.

This is one of those spots where we can never time it well. It seems the tide here always works against us with a low on the Mud River occurring  at a particularly bad time. Yesterday the offshore weather forecast had a "back door" cold front coming through with 25kt winds from the NE and 4-6 ' seas with 6-8sec pd, rather snotty in our view; we have done it but why bounce around if you do not need to. Our experience has been if they call for 4-6' waves count on something worse. Seabright runs like a champ in these waters but riding up and down short tall and steep waves when you do not need to is something else. It is the wave period that is the issue, sometimes you are not out of one before into the next. In deep blue water ocean 6-8' rollers are not uncommon but close in like this is not a fun ride.

We departed Isle of Hope Marina at 6:30am to make the 7am bridge opening at Skidaway Bridge, which has a rush hour opening restriction. We typically snake along the ICW very slowly with our spot light on in the predawn inky darkness. Amazingly as we passed a couple of anchorages most of the boats did not have on anchor lights. One had a solar powered light that you can buy at Walmart for $4, that you can see only when very close. I would have missed it all together if not by a fluke and figured out what it is.  These are unsafe but not uncommon practices.

Concerning navigating the Mud River we look at Active Captain as well as other sites;
https://www.activecaptain.com/X.php

Little Mud River, MM655, the straight section between R192 and G193 has about 8' to 9' MLW on ICW line, except for a slight hump to 6 to 7' off Crooked Creek.  Approaching the bend, southbound, it shoals up a little to around 6' MLW then back to 7' MLW in the bend, slightly on the green side (outside), then 8' off R194 (100' away).On the south end of Little Mud River, aim at a point exactly in the middle between G195 and the range marker.  Then make a sharp turn on the range.  This should give about 7.5 to 8' MLW off G195 then increasing to 12' on the range.  Splitting in the middle of the G and range markers, then getting on the range without cutting or overshooting the corner seems to be the best option.

A recent remark;


Date: 2011-01-24
Captain: Capt Keylime, Oriental, NC (125)

Passed through here mid-January 2011 at low tide.  Good thing we only draw 3 ft on our 36 ft sportfisher because there was only 4 ft beneath our transducer for most of the length of Little Mud River.
To that we added;

We normally go "outside" to avoid this part of the waterway but it was so snotty we opted to travel the ICW. We came through 1.5hrs after a low tide with an incoming current and 20+ kt winds from the NE. We draw 5ft (truthfully more with extra stuff on board) and 65 ft length. Instructions given earlier are generally good especially and the southern end.Would add go slow and do not squat your stern. There are multiple range markers, line up carefully and stay lined up. Stray outside the ranges and your are aground.Tugs drawing 8 ft go through here all the time and in speaking with one he was adamant about the ranges. On the north entry, southbound, generally favors the west side of the channel and the last third on the southern end favors the eastern side of the channel. Check the winds before going,  you can have a situation where a strong wind and outgoing tide can push more water out and giving you less depth than normal, which was the case the day before we went through.

The water was skinny but we did fine. After going through and running in deeper water getting closer to our days' final destination we were hailed by a CG vessel who very politely asked to board for a "courtesy examination". Two CG officers, armed, came aboard while we kept our  headway at 5kts and in about 15 min completed a safety examination which we passed with flying colors.

It was a chilly day but we did see some signs of early spring;

 The first Osprey nest we have seen this season. These guys are getting a chilly jump on things. Happily we also heard the sounds of a lawn mower while sitting at the dock in IOH. Soon very soon the jackets are coming off and the shorts and flip flops on. 

We have not seen many white pelicans yet and this was one of the larger flocks. This is along Mud River, you can see the exposed shore line which is always impressive with a 7' tide.