Piece of cake .... Steer NE from the Red mark, right ;)
Don't do a NW to SE approach, too many shoals.
Meatloaf
Latest on Stump Pass
(44 posts) (18 voices)-
SeaDogRocket
MemberWent through the pass last Sunday night and Monday morning. There is 3 floating marks for the channel. 2 outside marks are red floating marks and not lit. The 3rd marker is green and also not lit. They are postioned as said early from an SW to NE direction. I marked the two red markers at N26 53.232 W82 20.542 and N26 53.513 W82 20.497
SDR
Posted 4 years ago # -
Ridgerunner
MemberThe outside mark is on a post and has no shape (remember that these are county markers, not Coast Guard). The two nearest to the NE on the inside are floating - a nun and a can. There may have been another floating farther to the S, but the route I described is deep enough for any boat that can sail Florida Bay.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Jarhead
MemberThis past Friday just after dawn (brrrr!) I motored in Moon Shadow out Stump Pass to have a look. The wind was offshore (NE) and felt like about 6 mph, but Wunderground says it was 10+ in Naples. The tide was dead low. There were many breakers all over the place coming in from the NW despite relatively light winds at night (not sure from what direction). In my opinion the pass promises to be more hazardous this EC than previous ones. I have been through it four times in ECs and numerous times reconning, though not for a few years. In the 2007 EC we donned brown trousers and went through substantial breakers over the bar, but my luck was good and the waves broke behind and in front of us. The other years my/our entry was bouncy, but nothing to talk about.
Anyway, my plan Fri was to go out the pass and take a half right to retrace the path I usually take over the bar, probing for depth as I have done before. One look and I changed my mind, instead motoring on out the channel to the SW. Just past the first marker my little Honda 2 hp was coming out of the water as I hobby-horsed through the chop coming from my right front, so I turned back. The going was easier coming back in because the waves were hitting the left rear first, which somehow made for easier going. The wind, however, was in my face, and I most definitely would not have enjoyed trying to tack up the channel, or be out there at night under any circumstances. Still, as in 2007, maybe if one had to go through it the ride would be uneventful.
I hope this link works. I am a Neanderthal, and do not know how to get a photo into this forum. By the way, I studied the approach long enough to see that there were temporary gaps in the breakers, but in moments what looked like a good route in became a new birthplace for more whitewater.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Moose
MemberThat still didn't work. Presuming your photo is already hosted on the web somewhere, as it appears to be, here's how to post it here (I think):
Open the photo and identify, and copy, its URL (web address).
Then, open a "post" box like you normally do to add a post on this board. Go up top of it and hit the square "image" button, which is just left of the smiley face. This will open a box that looks like this:
Paste the photo's URL (web address) into this box, below "URL", and hit OK. The photo should then open inside the "post" box. You can now type whatever you want in there, too, as usual. Then hit "Send Post" as usual. (At this point, I'm really hoping I know how to do this.)
Posted 4 years ago # -
Jarhead
MemberI did what you said, Moose, and only this little question mark box dropped in.
That second link I sent is the url for the photo, and it does work for me from my post on the forum.
I must say that the conditions in the photo seemed much more serious in person. It's my experience that photos and videos make seas look benign compared to being there.
PrivateHam, I decided against measuring the depth, not wanting to try motoring into breakers. In past years I have always found about 1.5' to 2' all across the bar at low tide. That's plenty for me, but it might well have shoaled up more, plus big waves can suck up water, with the result that your boat slams the bottom. Obviously you could break something or get rolled by the breaker.
Posted 4 years ago # -
PrivateHam
MemberJarhead,
Do you think the image below more or less matches what you saw? In particular, the South corner appears to have a natural channel between the sandbar and the beach (marked with the red arrow). I can imagine that, from an on-the-water perspective, it all looked like breakers, but did you see anything that might indicate the channel is still there? I know it's a longshot, fallback option but it seems conceivable that one could come ashore South of the pass and then walk/sail/paddle the boat in the relative protection behind the breakers particularly if that sandbar is dry during low.
Posted 4 years ago # -
RunsWithBeer
MemberLast year twobeers and moresailesaid on Frankenscott, came in along the North shore swash channel. However they had been down there on a power boat scouting with in the month. They intersected the beach quite away North of the pass. Luke and I thought they were nuts... but it obviously worked.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Jarhead
MemberPrivateHam, there is plenty of water for our boats in the channel, which is there and marked as others have described. There were no breakers to speak of in the channel (plenty of chop), so no need to work way right for a channel. On the North side there has long been what they call a swash channel along the beach and around the corner, but this year it looked as difficult to reach the north beach as it was the pass itself--that is, I saw no gap in the breakers up the beach.
I don't want to overstate the difficulties. We might just slop and bounce on in like folks did in 2013.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I ran Stump and Gasparilla Passes today in my 17' powerboat. Approaching Stump from the SW I had 10' at the outer Red Nun...it shoaled to 4.5' at the second nun then after the green can it got deeper. It was about half tide (1400 today) and the wind was just building from SE. Both passes had small swells breaking on the bars to the NW of the entrance...approach from the SW and you should be good. In a strong northerliy it would be wise to go in at Venice. Also I should mention that the bouys are small, county maintained units, hard to spot at night. As Ridgerunner mentioned there's more water there than Florida Bay,
If you exit ICW via Gasparilla Pass the channel is pretty true to the chart...you can exit 100' off the beach in 20' water with gradual shoaling as you clear the entrance. Good water to the SW. West and NW very shallow with breaking waves
Sorry we have to miss it this year...we'll be back....safe passage to all.
SambaSailor aka Phil GarlandPosted 4 years ago #
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