This forum is for comments and the exchange of information relating to Trojan Boats and boating. Please do not post used parts or boats For Sale in this area. For general, non-boating topics please use our "General Discussions" section.
Note: Negative or inflammatory postings will not be tolerated.
Much to my amazement, the river that leads from our marina to Lake Michigan has some really shallow spots this year. Water depth at my dock is usually around 13 feet and the river depth is usually around 10-14 feet from the marina entrance out and gets deeper to about 20 feet at the break wall.
Last year I went over a spot that set off my low water alarm which is set at 5 feet. The depth was about 4'-6" and that area sees a lot of of wave action and moving of sand on the bottom with large waves. This spring it has filled in leaving a depth of about 2'-6" at the worst condition. A large dredge was brought in last weekend and they began their work during the week. They worked through the entire weekend while I was aboard and I am sure their goal is to be done before the Memorial Day holiday weekend since we have a large volume of boat traffic plus the Coast Guard station depends on it for access.
Here are some photos of the dredge. I have seen several dredging operations on the Great Lakes in my 15 years of boating on them, but this is the largest one I have seen. When he arrived last weekend, the tug was trailing six 14" diameter hose sections that they are pumping the silt through and each section was about 600 feet long. I am guessing at that based on how far down the river the tug was when the back end of the hose finally passed the entrance to the marina.
Just thought you might be interested, and a reminder to make sure you check water depths. Around the Great Lakes this winter, we had very little snow fall which has provided very little run-off and lake levels are down. My normal 13 feet at the dock is now 11 feet. A friend who has a tri-cabin and docks further down the river and had 5-6 feet of water at his slip last year, put his 24 foot SeaRay in the slip until the tri-cabin is ready and had to raise the out drive since he was hitting bottom.
Luxury of having the coast guard in your harbor. Our inlet in lake Erie was dredged last spring, and we have a spot like you describe that is 2-'3' beyond my running gear and the shallowest. Same thing right where the waves crash into the harbor.
Well if water levels go down I will not be going lake side. 2-3' beyond the gear is cutting it close already.
