Cabbage tree creek sand bar?

[mitchdemeanor]

When I went out early good friday for a fish at mud island I left from my usual boat ramp on cabbage tree creek.

Now I have been in and out of here low tide, high tide and no problems.

Friday morning at low tide I set out going between the lateral marks as always and ran around on what seemed to be a sand bar :o and a lot of swearing insued at that point.

Just wondering to all the other ausfishers on here who use cabbage tree creek boat ramp if this has happened to them, and how is it possible to run aground in a marked channel? Should it not be dredged sufficiently?

[TheRealAndy]

When I went out early good friday for a fish at mud island I left from my usual boat ramp on cabbage tree creek.

Now I have been in and out of here low tide, high tide and no problems.

Friday morning at low tide I set out going between the lateral marks as always and ran around on what seemed to be a sand bar :o and a lot of swearing insued at that point.

Just wondering to all the other ausfishers on here who use cabbage tree creek boat ramp if this has happened to them, and how is it possible to run aground in a marked channel? Should it not be dredged sufficiently?

Where exactly did you hit bottom?

The channel has moved to the north, but they dredged the big humps out for BNE to Gladstone race recently. The port lateral marks around baxters jetty are the worst spots, but there is / was a hump halfway beteen the inner and outer port lateral leads, and there is another couple of humps out the front of the VMR pontoon.

Us rag boat sailers get to know all the high spots. I hit bottom a few times recently inside the lateral marks with keel down, but I draw something like 1.6m keel down. IT should not be a problem for the average trailerable power boat user.

[mitchdemeanor]

It was roughly inbetween the second to last and last set of lateral marks on the way out, I ended up turning starboard out of the channel to get into deeper water. Really caught me by surprise, funny thing was the next boat was powering through the same spot I went and didnt seem as though they had a problem :-?

[Dantren]

Thanks for the post Mitch.
So I am assuming you were powering up outside the 6 knot zone?
What depth do you thnik you were drawing?

[mitchdemeanor]

I didnt power up maybe that was the problem, or maybe if I did might have caused damage :-? hard to say. I'm a little weary of the depth around there so I only power up outside the lateral marks, like I said I have never had a problem but the sounder just went nuts at me and I watched the depth go from 0.9 all the way down to zero and a grind to a halt straight after.

Not the sort of good omen I was looking for at the start of a days fishing :(

P.S probably drawing about 0.7 in my boat

[TheRealAndy]

The areas beyond the inner leads are now fine. Its not hard to stray outside of the channel there though, maybe you just came a little to close to the edge. The red side (southern side) is by far the worst bank, and the channel comes up very quickly. I always take a look back at the line of leads beacons to check my course, if you dont its tough to keep in the channel.