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Crossing the Swan Point Bar from the North at Rock Hall

4K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  Gladrags1 
#1 ·
When heading south on the bay and approaching Rock Hall/Swan Creek the moment to turn to port usually is fraught with checking the chart, the chart plotter, then the chart again.
30 years ago I was told to cross the bar by lining up the light tower with the range light ashore, go slow and head on in. Despite many crossings I'm still suspicious of the original (30 year old) advice.

For those unfamiliar there is a 56 foot lighted tower off Rock Hall that is the "Swan Point North Range Rear Light" ( white, visible when heading north) and the "Brewerton Channel Eastern Range Extension Front Light" (red, visible when heading a bit south of east). Same light, two jobs.
On shore at the treeline and in line with the Brewerton Channel is a daylight visible white light (109-111 degrees). Its a narrow beam, if you are not lined up with the channel you will not see it.

From the end of the Brewerton Channel (inside buoy 2BE) lining up the 56 foot tower with the range light on shore takes one over the bar but looking at some shallow depths. On the chart there are really shallow depths very close by.

Last week while taking time to examine the chart it looked like the 56 foot light tower and the range light on shore a bit south of Rock Hall are navigation for the Brewerton Channel and have nothing to do with crossing Swan Point Bar. On the other hand the 56 foot tower is called the ""Brewerton Channel Eastern Range Extension Front Light".

Have I been lucky for all these years? Should I really be going far enough south to pick up the Swan Point North Range?
 
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#3 · (Edited)
We cross the Bar all the time. We draw 5' and have done so at all tides. We come in to it a little south of that range line for Brewerton Ext Channel and then head to the front range, passing just to the north of the tower. We won't do this during those blow out tides, however. I have plotted this route on my chart plotter and put a waypoint at the western edge of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#5 ·
The chart plotter electronic charts don't show the path across the Swan Point Bar as a "navigational path" ( the pink lines).
Thats why I started wondering if the range light were intended to get one into Rock Hall, or just there for navigating Brewerton Channel.

Good idea to mark the path as waypoints. I usually follow the breadcrumbs from an earlier trip unless I've deleted all the tracks.
 
#6 · (Edited)
The chart plotter electronic charts don't show the path across the Swan Point Bar as a "navigational path" ( the pink lines).
Thats why I started wondering if the range light were intended to get one into Rock Hall, or just there for navigating Brewerton Channel in order to miss the Six and Nine Foot Knolls..

Good idea to mark the path as waypoints. I usually follow the breadcrumbs from an earlier trip unless I've deleted all the tracks.
Cutting across Swan Point Bar is considered 'Local Knowledge' ..the Brewerton Range lights is just that a range generally used for large commercial shipping navigating the Brewreton channel portion of the Patapsco river...
 
#9 ·
Remember those marked depths on your chart are MLLW. That means most of the time it will be around 6 ft or greater depending on tides. When I crossed it I followed someone with similar draft as mine (5ft)and we crossed just north of the inner range marker..chart depths where 4 ft but depth meter indicated 6 ft
 
#10 · (Edited)
Here is a screenshot of the route I always take. I too draw 5' and I have never bumped, even at low tide. Granted, the depth sounder gets in the mid 5' range towards the light but there is still some added depth due to the placement of the sender on my boat. Note that I am not guaranteeing it will work for you but it does for me and I am a full keel, heavy displacement boat (my lawyer made me add this [grin]).
 

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