Shackleford banks / Sand dollar island, NC area

[suke]

For those that make the lighthouse/shackleford banks trip/sand dollar island which way would you recommend going?

 

[Marvin willis]

Short arrow Other way is too slow. Then for lookout it depends on the wind. I’ve done a lot of skiing sound and ocean side

 

[suke]

Short arrow Other way is too slow. Then for lookout it depends on the wind. I’ve done a lot of skiing sound and ocean side

Are the buoys/channel markers well marked/visible heading across the channel that way? Ever any issues/danger? I grew up in Jacksonville and used to run up and down the ICW, BUT that was 20 years ago at this point.

I figured short arrow, but wasn't sure how passible that section is. Been to fort macon a ton but don't remember looking out into the channel and seeing any massive rollers or anything.

 

[Marvin willis]

Not great but with a jet boat your fine. Outboards run a ground all the time in the middle of the channel. I drive by them pulling a tube

 

[suke]

Not great but with a jet boat your fine. Outboards run a ground all the time in the middle of the channel. I drive by them pulling a tube

Went ahead and paid for the navionics app. Looks like that'll get me "close". How bad is that channel? Large waves at all? For myself I don't right care as I'd be fine, but will have my wife and 4 YO. I remember hanging out at coast guard "point" growing up at EI and watching boats try and make it through that channel and it was pretty gnarly. The day we picked it's supposed to be low tide around lunch time, so I suspect it should be fairly calm.

 

[Marvin willis]

This happened taking your aux route in the middle of the channel

 

[Marvin willis]

On your way to lookout this is the part people have trouble with. Water is beautiful right now.

 

[suke]

This happened taking your aux route in the middle of the channel View attachment 93699

Damn, that sucks! Granted the water looks pretty calm.


This is the route guidance navionics has. I won't be taking the trip that day to the light house. Just doing sand dollar island, and possibly some sandbars near shackleford. We'll see what the tides let us do. Looks like I'll head to the right of that obstruction and head for deeper water slightly to the left of that line.

We'll be heading out Sat June 1st as it looks like low tide will be in the middle of the day and expose most of the sandbar island behind shack.

 

[Marvin willis]

I ran a ground leaving Taylor’s creek. That’s the only time navionics let me down. Slid over 50 ft. Boat handled it like a champ. Ended up grilling on the back of the boat til the tide came in and continued to lookout afterwards. It was still a good day that I’ll always remember. Watch the wind at sand dollar island. I hope you have a good time.

 

[suke]

I ran a ground leaving Taylor’s creek. That’s the only time navionics let me down. Slid over 50 ft. Boat handled it like a champ. Ended up grilling on the back of the boat til the tide came in and continued to lookout afterwards. It was still a good day that I’ll always remember. Watch the wind at sand dollar island. I hope you have a good time.

At least it turned out well. What's the issue with the wind? Just in general whipping through that channel? I plan to move towards the back far side closer to Rachel Carson preserve to avoid both wind/current as much as possible.

 

[Marvin willis]

I’ve never even heard of that preserve and I was born here. Sounds like I need to take advice from you.

 

[suke]

I’ve never even heard of that preserve and I was born here. Sounds like I need to take advice from you.

HAHA I'm sure you've been on/around/near it more times than you've realized. There's all kinds of random places on a map that pop up when you zoom in. I spent most of my summers beached around bear island/hammocks beach/coast guard area/sand bars in those areas. I'm sure there's all kinds of stuff that I missed. Apparently there's a good spot near the mouth of the new river near Topsail I've never heard of or seen.

 

[Marvin willis]

I haven’t been there in years. I use to go out that way once or twice a year. Last year due to the crappy weekend weather we went out maybe 5 times all summer besides our vacation at white lake.

 

[suke]

I haven’t been there in years. I use to go out that way once or twice a year. Last year due to the crappy weekend weather we went out maybe 5 times all summer besides our vacation at white lake.

Yeah last year sucked for me as well. Barely got my ski out about that many times, aside from a weekend or 2 at my buddies place on Gaston.

 

[Shookie]

@suke, when you planning to do this? You available June 28-30? Trying to pan something out there that weekend....

Edit, missed you say June 1

 

[suke]

@suke, when you planning to do this? You available June 28-30? Trying to pan something out there that weekend....

Edit, missed you say June 1

Yeah we planned this trip based on the tides and it being low tide during the day which makes it realistic to take our little boy. Don't think I can make that late June run with this one being so close.

 

[Shookie]

@suke
Hey, how did your trip go? Any advice? Places to avoid? Routes you took to avoid sand?

 

[suke]

@suke
Hey, how did your trip go? Any advice? Places to avoid? Routes you took to avoid sand?

It was awesome! However, I would avoid sand dollar island itself.

When we showed up it looked like this. Yup just one other boat other than us. Whole place to ourselves. I read they did tours, but thought those had fizzled out. Not more than 30 mins of being there a couple of ferry's dropped off about 100 people. It never felt crowded but it went from serene to basically a public beach in under an hour. There's other sand bars really close to this one that I'd go to instead.

This pic here is the back side of sand dollar island. We took that way back and ran into shallow water quite a bit. It kept us out of the main channel for a good ways, BUT it can get tricky without navionics of some nature. I had the app and it worked out great. Still ended up in 2ft of water from time to time.


On the way out I took the Morehead City Channel all the way until close to Shackleford banks. It's pretty obvious there where to start heading left. Even easier as you can follow most boats that way.


More pics. Nice thing about sand dollar island is there's this protected little cove on the backside that's about 3ft or so deep RIGHT up to the edge of the sand bar. Makes it easy for loading/unloading.

 

[suke]

That's sand dollar island where the + is. See that sand bar you can see to the right of it close to horse island? That's just as nice with not as many people.

 

[Shookie]

looks great, thanks for the info. So you recommend Navonics? Guess that's an app for phone???