I then saw the pipes were on that side reaching out thousands of feet. Full about and came around leaving the whole mess to starboard. Five seconds was the difference. All this at 2:00am no moon light!
Congratulations on missing those pipes! Contact not good!
I'm completely ignorant how they work - guessing now - the pump boat runs the pump and they just keep repositioning the pipes? We have the dredge Brunswick working here in the upper Cape Fear River and I have been watching with much interest. Do you know if with suction they have to maintain a certain soil/water mix?
I see the pipes going out hundreds of feet here, not thousands, but is interesting to watch. Curious how they manage the drop of the spoil (I keep looking for it), but I suppose with the pipes run it to a safe location.
I really suppose the captain wouldn't want some curious geek-engineering-type to quiz him over the VHF. Better Google this one.
Ok, so answering my own question here... Video linked animation is pretty explanatory.
As you go up and down the Cape Fear, most if not all the little islands you pass were created by dredge spoil. They used to maintain the Cape Fear channel at 38' deep, may be deeper now.
Only a couple hundred feet of visibility down here at Cape May...good thing you got past when you did.
We came across the Pamlico Tuesday and the Albemarle Wednesday. Tuesday was rain and fog with less 100 yards vis. Wednesday a fog bank rolled across the Albemarle and I couldn’t see 100 feet. It was my first experience with low visibility and radar. Thank god for radar, with all the sailboat heading south and me heading north. It’s a little spooky knowing that another boat is about 100 yards away and I can’t see them.
Hanging out in Norfolk today for weather. Will probably run to Deltaville Sat or Sun, then on to Solomons. Sure is getting cold here.
Thanks for the heads up. I wish I had read that earlier. My son had the helm (not paying attention) and I had just come up from my rest and I look up and a hundred feet in front of us is the dredge and three tugs!!! I grabbed the wheel and went hard to starboard. I then saw the pipes were on that side reaching out thousands of feet. Full about and came around leaving the whole mess to starboard. Five seconds was the difference. All this at 2:00am no moon light!