Marooned!

I would really like to launch Ms Bettencourt back into the Savannah River for a return to my home dock. I want to give her a thorough cleanup inside, re-stow gear and provisions, bring the bedding back aboard and do about a dozen other things that need to be done before I can go cruising again. There are two main obstacles in the way of this objective: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Augusta, Ga.

Actually, the Army is more at fault. The City just bumbled a design decades ago and probably doesn't even know yet that a chicken has come home to roost.

The Army Engineers get it first. River gauge data for the 13-mile long stretch between the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam upstream past my dock to the rapids at North Augusta shows the Engineers are holding this pool at less than 115 feet above mean sea level. They say it is a foot lower than usual, but I think it is actually much lower.

The water rings on a piling at my dock are what I use for a river gauge, and it doesn't agree with the drop the Engineers claim. I make the high-to-low water level span on my piling to be about two feet, not 12 inches.

I use the brace board attached to the back of the piling as a guide in making my estimate. It is a 3" x 12" timber. The size of this board helps me judge the distance from the present water level to the usual level, the top ring on the piling. I say it's about two feet.












The spokesperson for the Engineers in Savannah says the water level has been lowered to reduce stress on the gates at the 74-year-old New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. Not everyone believes that explanation, but it is possible since the Engineers have done almost no maintenance work on the lock and dam since the 1970s.

Anyway, what the City of Augusta is going to learn soon is that it's main boat ramp on our upper pool part of the river has been rendered useless for all but small boats by a combination of bad design and the Engineers' river depth reduction.

Here's the City's Boathouse Ramp

A quick look suggests an inviting launch point, but a closer inspection reveals a major flaw. This ramp, while it is paved more than 50 feet out into the river, has almost no slope.

At the current river water level, water depth at the ramp is only about waist-deep--all the way to the end.

This "ramp" is more like a shelf. There is not enough water here to float Ms. Bettencourt off her trailer.



Fortunately, there is an alternative. The North Augusta ramp on the South Carolina side of the river is about five miles farther upstream at the end of a circuitous urban neighborhood route. Trailering there will have to be very carefully done, due to foliage hanging over roadways. And once I get there, turning the rig around to launch will not be easy. Here's the North Augusta ramp

I think it can be done, but only early in the morning on a weekday when the ramp parking lot is likely to be empty.










So, that's what I am thinking about doing now. Later this week, Dia and I will be trailering the boat back to the canvas guy in Charleston for some minor adjustments to the new enclosure.

Perhaps it will be possible to launch into the river at North Augusta early next week.