[btrayfors]

What? S/V Morning Dew all over again?

Yep. Seems like lotsa folks try to drive their sailboats right through the Charleston jetty, like the infamous Morning Dew.

This one was a 63' Cheoy Lee sailboat. Luckily, no one was injured.

> Local News: Sailboat sinks after crashing into jetty - Charleston.net
>
> Sailboat Ryota Hits Charleston Jetties and Sinks | beaufortgazette.com

Bill

 

[sailaway21]

My reaction can probably be anticipated well enough for me to remain silent. Otherwise, a very expensive mistake.

 

[xort]

I don't know what the charlseton jetty looks like. Is it submerged, awash?
since thas has happened a few times perhaps it is time for some additional markers regardless of fault

 

[davidpm]

Chart 11518

Chart says it is partially submerged at mean high water

 

[Rockter]

Is this it?....

YouTube - Charleston Jetties and Morris Island

 

[JohnRPollard]

I don't know what the charlseton jetty looks like. Is it submerged, awash?
since thas has happened a few times perhaps it is time for some additional markers regardless of fault

Chart 11518

Chart says it is partially submerged at mean high water

XORT,

I haven't seen it in person, but davidpm's note confirms that it's not much different from many other similar jetties, in that it is submerged or at best awash at high tide. Most such jetties have markers at their seaward end, but not along the length of the jetty between shore and the seaward end.

For those relatively new to sailing who might be unfamiliar with the tragic Morning Dew incident, here's a link:

BoatUS.com - Seaworthy Magazine

 

[davidpm]

Also goggle earth shows just a faint line. Around hear in LI'S this is very very common.

 

[TSOJOURNER]

At high tide and low light it is very hard to see those jetties. Can be one of the more frightening harbor entrances, especially when a good tide is running. Visibility isn't the only challenge. Rumor was part of the reason the sub base was removed from Chas was that surfaced submarines could find themselves in a real predicament in that channel should anything unexpected happen. I think they were built back in the 1800's sometime...

Pop Quiz,
Find the jetty in this picture:

Find ALL of it. This picture was taken mid channel.

If that was too easy for you find it in this picture:

 

[CalebD]

Thanks for finding the chart (#11518) David. I had a good look at those breakwaters in both the video and on the chart. There is another channel that enters the breakwaters on the south side much closer to shore near a 'submerged jetty' that they might have been trying to find but it is obviously too early to even speculate (per Swat) how these folks ruined a boat roughly valued at $600K because they had no $40 paper charts of the area and were using either a chart plotter or intuition instead. Most likely they would have been heading south but we will have to wait for more of the sordid details.
Another free resource these folks could have used is the Coastal Pilot downloads that give the mariner a detailed description of each inlet.
It sounds like they put a pretty sizable hole in the boat and gave up the idea of trying to fother it (v. t. 1. To stop (a leak in a ship at sea) by drawing under its bottom a thrummed sail, so that the pressure of the water may force it into the crack.)
Quite sad for the owners but good business for the salvors.

 

[Valiente]

Yes, that tactic is expressed in one of my favourite nautical terms: "to fother a sail".

Rotten luck or bad seamanship or both, but pardon me if I smell a smoking chartplotter somewhere in this mix.

 

[Rockter]

Would it be a lot of work to put a wee line of buoys, lobster-pot style, along the length of that reef?

It looks a terrible hazard. At night, you simply won't see it.

 

[PBzeer]

If they were coming up from the south, they may have tried to take the cut in the jetty. Everything in the area though is well marked, and I had no problems going in or out of there.

 

[sailingdog]

Has a boat ever won a round with a jetty??? didn't think so.

Unfortunately, if you're not paying attention to the charts, bad things happen. Yes, most jetties are awash at high tide, but even if you didn't pay attention to the chart, the Mark I eyeball will usually detect them if you're paying attention.

There's a breakwater outside of Rockport Harbor, up on Cape Ann, Massachusetts that has gutted its fair share of boats.

 

[camaraderie]

Here's a segment of the chart. The actual entrance channel fairway extends a considerable distance at sea but this is just the jetty area. Pretty tough to ignore!

 

[sailaway21]

Rotten luck or bad seamanship or both, but pardon me if I smell a smoking chartplotter somewhere in this mix.

I was doing all I could to not express the same thought!

 

[Vasco]

Charleston is not much different from other harbours on the east coast that have jetties. Difficult to see how one can go wrong but obviously some do.

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Here's a segment of the chart. The actual entrance channel fairway extends a considerable distance at sea but this is just the jetty area. Pretty tough to ignore!

Don't take it out of context here. I am not making excuses for poor seamanship, but if caught off guard or unprepared bad things can happen there.
Look at the two pictures I posted. I am heading outbound with markers 19 and 17 to my lee. There is a full and complete, partially submerged, jetty in the entire frame of view for each of those pictures just over 100 yards away. Visually there is nothing to indicate the presence of a jetty. Since the seas were running straight in the waves weren't even breaking over it. Now, the distance between markers also needs to be considered. It is 1 nautical mile. Many times the next set of channel markers are not visible from the cockpit of a smaller boat, or even a larger boat in haze or fog. Radar is useless there since all sorts of small boats fish alongside the jetty and would make it difficult to impossible to pick out the channel marker on a radar screen. If you judged the tides wrong you could be experiencing +/- 3 knots which could add to the confusion. There can also be a cross current to contend with. One mile is a long ways to stay on a rhumb line with a 50 yard margin of error. With all the reliable, neat (and cheap) electronic gizmo's and plotters there really isn't much excuse anymore. I was doing it with a hand bearing compass, binoculars, and a paper chart. Judged boat speed by the bow wave, got current from the tables etc.

 

[TxLnghrn]

I was doing all I could to not express the same thought!

My day job is emergency medicine. Last month I had a patient brought to me that ran his sportfisher into the Galveston North Jetty at 40 knts. Daylight, Sunny, Sober His answer when I asked him how it happened?
"My autopilot messed up." I'm only thankful no other boats where between him and the jetty (which sits about 4 -6 feet out of the water).

Michael

 

[retclt]

My day job is emergency medicine. Last month I had a patient brought to me that ran his sportfisher into the Galveston North Jetty at 40 knts. Daylight, Sunny, Sober His answer when I asked him how it happened?
"My autopilot messed up." I'm only thankful no other boats where between him and the jetty (which sits about 4 -6 feet out of the water).

Michael

I know that Galveston jetty. It it goes out two miles! I'm surprised more folks haven't hit it at night. I didn't know that Charleston Jetty. Yikes! Under water? I could see me doing something like that . . . but not now. I know the short cuts around here.

 

[btrayfors]

One of the most important navigational aids when entering Charleston is your FATHOMETER. You know, the thingy which tells you how deep the water is.

The project depth of the 2 mile long portion of the Fort Sumpter Range inside the jetties is 42 feet at MLLW. The Mount Pleasant Range portion project depth is 40 feet MLLW.

If you're seeing much less than this, you're OUT OF THE CHANNEL. Even so, in most places (aside from the southern entrance through the jetties), you've got a long ways to go before you hit the jetty.

That's from the INSIDE.

From the OUTSIDE there's simply no excuse, as the water depths are quite shallow for a long, long ways before you'd be able to hit the jetty (again, excepting the southern entrance).

Basic navigational skills should do it even in nasty weather.

I think the Emergency Room comment cited above gives us a clue as to why so many run into this and other obstacles which are clearly charted, whether or not they are visible, partly submerged, or fully submerged.

Bill