Any Experience with ICW 'Rockpile' in Pine Island Cut, SC ?

[Hudson Force]

We have made 27 passages along the route from Maine to Florida and we almost always include the majority of the ICW. I always make a securite call at the "Rock Pile"; Elliott Cut (unless it's slack current);Point Pleasant Canal (with a prior conversation with both bridge tenders); Blynman Canal; and the blind corner at the railway bridge on the Annisquam River.

[Sailorman Ed]

On our first trip south on the ICW, I was below with my wife at the helm and I heard this terrible screech and we just nicked the side with one keel on our cat - 3 ft draft. Keep in the center!

[cheoah]

I normally skip these when I can, sailing offshore or doing coastal hops, but I do remember singlehanding through the rockpile once and my handheld VHF would not transmit. I had to run down the companionway to the ships radio to call bridge for opening, then run back to the cockpit. I tripped coming up, did a faceplant in the cockpit, and managed to stay with it and pull back into the center of the channel. I injured my knee, head and face and really struggled to scurry around the decks the rest of that trip.

Last time I went through I was also by myself - cooking hot dogs off the stern and having a beer.. What the hell, Myrtle Beach, dude.

I've sailed out N Edisto to Charleston Harbor to avoid Elliots Cut.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Sailorman Ed

On our first trip south on the ICW, I was below with my wife at the helm and I heard this terrible screech and we just nicked the side with one keel on our cat - 3 ft draft. Keep in the center!

Geez, I read this stuff and I think a tough week offshore to the Bahamas single-handed or a month of motoring thru rocks and rednecks and gators and barges and bridges and ****.

[tamicatana]

things I learned on the ICW: 1. Stay in the middle of the channel. 2. When passing, take your half of the channel from the middle.

[smacksman]

Originally Posted by tamicatana

things I learned on the ICW: 1. Stay in the middle of the channel. 2. When passing, take your half of the channel from the middle.

That works for most of the ICW but in the Rockpile, the 100 feet or so between the red and green channel daymarks does not give you 50 feet of your half to play with as I found out to my cost.
It is more like 15 feet for your half to get your 10 foot beam through at a closing speed of 12 knots plus!

And yes, one could sail down the Atlantic but you don't meet many Americans that way and that is what I wanted to do and I have no regrets - they were wonderful!

[wsmurdoch]

It is not my picture, but this is what it looks like at low tide.



It is from
Adventures of Skinny Dippin': Cruise to Georgetown SC April 2011

[tamicatana]

smacksman,

my beam is 20' and I had no problems.

[smacksman]

tamicatana,

I didn't have a problem till I passed another boat.
I think I was just unlucky passing at a shallow bit.
Fair winds for 2014

[familycruisers]

Second going through at low tide. Obvious where the shelf is.

[Nauticstar]

Originally Posted by sgtPluck

Reading my Dozier's guide has me quite scared about passing through the 'rockpile' in SC tomorrow. Apparently there are rocks 3' below the surface if you stray even a little bit out of the channel.

Does anyone have experience of this spot, and know if it is as scary as it seems?

'Bumping' elsewhere in the ICW is not that much of a concern to me due to the soft mud usually found, but rocks?!!

This is an old post so I have an update for traveling throng the rock pile in SC, As of 1/14/19 and a resident along the rockpile we have seen 30 to 40 run agrounds within the last 4 years. Many with substantial damage and several taking on water and unable to continue. With the past hurricanes the buoys have been lost and reinstalled and unfortunately misplaced and narrowing the channel. Be very care navigating this area at low tide, once out of the channel you only have a few inches. The rock is unforgiving and treacherous. Be careful!