Sal Ambrosino
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9/20/2017 11:04 AM
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This just came from Active Captain this morning and i thought it would be helpful to those who head to Annapolis but may not be aware:
Obstruction The remains of the old "2E" channel marker, a steel post, is submerged appox. three feet under water to the north of the new "2E" nun marker. This hazard had been marked by the Coast Guard, but the hazard mark has since disappeared. Boaters should give this mark a wide berth when passing in navigable waters on the north side.
And then noted with alarm the comments:
Stay South of "2E"! Date: 2017-08-24
Almost certain that the remains of the old steel beacon "2E" is the submerged obstruction. Stay south of nun "2E"! Red, right, return.
Back Creek Old channel marker "2E" Date: 2017-08-21
On 8/19/17 at 4pm while motoring NW at 5 kts, in 8' of navigable waters to the north of the Back Creek "2E" red nun, we struck a submerged obstacle that bought my 37' Beneteau (4'8" draft) to a complete stop. Damage to boat has not yet been surveyed, but several crew members were hurt by the impact. This old marker seems to be common knowledge to some of the locals, but I have not seen any reports as a hazard on any maps.
Note the dates. The incident occurred only four days prior to me seeing this. This was quite a learning point for my client who I introduced to ActiveCaptain back when we first started looking at boats. Later in the day while the boat was in the slings during haul out, we discovered our sea trial Captain knew all about it, and in fact had pictures on his phone of the damage to this boat. The damage was severe and will be very costly to address. Very unfortunate, indeed.
I think the key take-aways are
* There is good water in the vicinity of that ATON. It is understandable given the charted depths how someone might be lulled into complacency, but... 'red right returning'.
* Encouragingly, the mishap Captain did the right thing and posted the issue to ActiveCaptain, showing the true worth of the crowd sourced approach to providing information, good or bad.
And here is the real point.
* How is anyone not familiar with 'local common knowledge' going to know about the hazard without ActiveCaptain?
What about NOTAMS you say? Well, the issue is noted, somewhat cryptically, in the USCG District 5 local notice to mariners, on page 6 of 36, with the following verbiage:
19885 Eastport Harbor Entrance Light 2E STRUCT DEST/HAZ NAV/TRLB 12283 145MD 19/17
STRUCT DEST/HAZ NAV/TRLB translates as "structure destroyed / hazard to navigation / temporarily replaced by lighted buoy". Let's be honest, how many recreational boaters take the time to complete a local NOTAM review, at best a burdensome task? Even if this Captain had reviewed all pertinent local NOTAMS how would he have known the specific location and nature of this hazard without referring to ActiveCaptain?
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