Is the stono inlet safe to navigate at all tides? I’d like to launch at Folly and then take the boat into the stono river. Not going out into the ocean. I have a 18’ bay boat. Used to always stay in the folly, but new boat is more reliable thinking about venturing out more. thanks in advance.
Nothing is marked with buoys. You have to read the water to get out.
There is a white channel on the Navionics map after the last buoy. Staying north of bird key. Is this a frequently used route, does the area silt in or anything?
What Saltfisher said. Everything is constantly moving. You have to read the water.
Karma is 360 degrees
Some got to win, some got to lose…
Follow the markers down Folly River. It has gotten pretty shallow at low tide in area where the markers will take you across the river below Sunset marina. It also gets a little shallow around the last markers at inlet between Bird Key and Kiawah. Favor towards Bird Key and Kiawah sides and you’ll be alright - there is a large shallow flat to your right off the end of Cole and/or Snake Island. It quickly becomes deep channel as you make that turn at last marker towards the Stono and you’re fine from there (what you’ll see on Navionics at that point is a good representation). It does change and move around a lot in that lower end of Folly River and into the inlet by Bird Key so be careful and take it easy through there, particularly at dead low tide. However, if you do go through there at or near low tide, you’ll see what you need to see and will understand it going forward (until it moves around again!) Also recognize that it can get fairly choppy through there when the wind is opposing the tide flow. It can be rough/choppy in that more open area (less wind protection) from the end of Folly Island around to where Stono/Kiwah rives split. You have 3 rivers converging - pushing or pulling a lot of water through the inlet.
thanks for the good info downlow. I think I’ll keep my ass outta that inlet until they dredge the thing (if ever)…
but even the shallow bars are just sand. Go slow, read the water, not a crisis to bump bottom. No rocks, no oyster bars.
oh yeah, keep a track on your GPS so you can follow it back in- particularly if you exited the inlet on a near low to low tide since that’ll be a good track to return on. In the winter, that inlet fogs in some days.
Remember going OUT you see the face of breakers avoid.RETURNING (on their backs) you hear them but don’t see them as well. That was more scary to me when I began to use that inlet 12 years ago.
If I read right, sounds like you just want to get from the Folly river to the stono river, not actually run the inlet to open water. I’m running the white channel on navionics that you mention that cuts north of the last 2 sets of cans. Lowest I saw today was 7’ through there about 2.5 hours before low tide.
It’s not bad and you shouldn’t have issues. Was trying to convey that but also let you know where you can have issues. There are literally only a couple of areas where it gets shallow and as Stickman mentioned, it’s sand. We’re talking about low tide and you can still go through there (between Folly and Stono Rivers), a lot of boats do daily. At mid to high tide there’s little issue, if any.