I can't swim in the Bay any more.

[mixman]

I posted these in the Bahamas forum. I've got a ton more. This is our 3rd trip to the Abacos, Bahamas. It seems to get better every time. The fact that you learn rather quickly how to read what's UNDER that water is something we never do in the Bay. Here's an afternoon of snorkeling:

 

[PascalG]

Lol. When i got back from 6 weeks in the exumas I said the same thing about biscayne bay! Which is much clearer than the Cheasie!

 

[Chesagansett]

mixman -

We don't swim in the brown water of the Chesapeake, either. You're lucky when the visibility is a couple feet.

 

[jmeirhofer]

Kurt - What camera are you using for the underwater shots?

 

[mixman]

This is a duplicate of my post in the Bahamas forum:

http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=138460

But I want my Chesapeake friends to see this water. Remember, a lot of this is visual navigation through depths. As the saying goes:

"Water that's blue is deep and true;
As it shades to green, the water gets lean;
White or yellow will ground a fellow;
If the water is brown, you'll run hard aground;
If the water is black, you better tack."

This is a shallow passage we've taken a number of times. It's much better than going out to the ocean side in swells, but can only be done with a shallow draft boat (unless it's flat calm, like last year when I led a Monk trawler through safely).

The water got VERY skinny at times between the rollers. The depth sounder couldn't even get a reading, but I could sure see the sand below. And then came the breakers.

See how close that sand bottom was? Yikes! It's a good thing we've got a shallow-draft boat.

And here's a movie of it:



(Click image above for movie)