We know of more than 10 boats in the last week that have run aground in the main channel of the ICW, opposite Baker's Haulover Inlet. (The inlet itself has been catching boats for months too, but this is the marked ICW channel we are talking about)
The sandbank is definitely creeping further west and the green markers have been moved farther west to accommodate this, but the red (western) markers seem to be placed ON the shoal instead of inside of it.
Reports of 5 ft depth at mid to high tide from the middle of the channel to the western / red marker side - and since the channel is very narrow now with that encroaching sandbank.... it's tricky indeed. You can be a good 20ft from the red markers and suddenly have only 5ft under you.
Thank you very much for sharing this information with us. I started a discussion on this before and heard that many people also hit bottom this year after the Miami Boat Show.
We did see your post.... but only after we'd run aground! We were in the Miami boat show this year and heard of a few boats that had hit their props - but everyone said it was in the actual inlet at Baker's Haulover as opposed to in the ICW channel. We figured we'd be safe sticking to the ICW and doing the trip at mid to high tide...... $3500 later and we know that's not the case!
The google pics show that sandbank beautifully, but not that the red markers are actually sitting on top of the shoal - you have to keep well away from them to be safe! Since the green markers are being moved inwards, the natural tendency is to stick to the middle of the new narrower channel - and that's exactly where you can hit!
The super frustrating thing is that we saw a small boat come screaming towards us as we were approaching from the north. We slowed down, thinking it was a police boat but it stopped moving and hovered about 3/4 mile south of us. After we had hit, the boat came closer and we saw it was a tow boat. They said they'd been trying to call us on the radio to warn us, but we were on channel 9 and 16 and never heard a thing..... he was hoping to tow us to safety, but we were able to use the thrusters to get ourselves off the shoal. He did warn us to hug the green after that but we were a bit peeved that he hadn't made a bit more of an attempt to prevent us hitting. And you really need to HUG those greens - we hit a second time with 8ft to the greens on port and over 20ft to the red on stb! Oh well, lesson learned.....but we'd like to pass the warning along!
We were well stuck on this last friday at the top of the tide.( we arrived 1 hour before). we were as close to the stb buoys as I liked to go and still had only reef./rock
(Not Sand or mud).. this was very nearly a major incident and we have yet to see the bottom damage 90 foot steel Motor Yacht. We had to dich all our water ,move fuel and take a tow. with 1400HP 2 x 74hp thrusters and a tow boat we only just made it off..
We had our shipyard call to confirm a 9 foot clearance from Miami to Fort Lauderdale.
Who is responsible for the notices for this area?
TWO Tow boats(" Tow boats US" was one) were sat very close to the spot,,, !! no calls were heard on eithe Ch 9 or 16!
I have been running boats here since the mid 80's and this area always has had the same problem, nothing new. You can't depend on the USCG to give you accurate info anywhere on the ICW, local knowledge is available through marinas and towboat companies. Towboat companies are not in the biz to warn you, but to assist you after the mishap occurs. However if you call them on the phone before transiting a questionable area they have to be honest. Personally I wouldnt take any boat through there regardless of the tide and its draft, period. I would rather get the crap kicked out of me offshore or simply wait until the conditions improve. Hard to convince an owner of that I know, but its the truth.
When there are towboats milling about, its a sure sign there is a problem area nearby. What is a 90 foot steel vessel doing in the ICW anyway?? I imagine we are talking about a draft of at least 7 feet, probably a seaworthy vessel.
When I take boats north, I avoid the ICW as much as possible as they are simply not dredging anymore. Of course there are areas that you almost have to use, but they are regularly transited by tugs and barges, but you still have to be extremely careful. The stretch that you passed last year problem free might be shoaled up now. The burden is on you to check things out before you go there, and inform the owner of the inherent risks. My 2 cents
Any Vessel can hail any one of the Tow Boats in Haulover we will be more then happy to tell you hug the green but the incomming tide is moving fast and will push you to the west . The choke point is between marker 6b (red) and 7c (green) is about 20-25 ' wide last weekend one of the vessels that grounded took the 6b marker in her prop .
The reason we took that short cut was because the (LOCAL)Yard that were doing our refit repair, informed us it was fine to do so, They also called to verify.. My point is we took local knowlage. I',m in my 35th year at this and thats my first real grounding.. Having sailed all the oceans and most countries I have yet to see tow boats lying in wait at a spot that has no warning on the chart or elswhere.
The advice was that we had 9 feet all the way but to take Haulover at 1 hour before high.. which is what we did, I would guess 7 feet at most at haulover. Rock/reef does not normally shift..?
As to calling tow boats,, not being from the US I did not know they were tow boats until they came over with their demands! They were positioned AFTER the hazzard.. not before..
The tow boat operator said you have to ALMOST TOUCH the green bouys for the deep water!!
As the original poster stated.. more than10 boats hit in a week! I'm sure most were US and / or, local..