Hello everyone,
I'm a newbie here; anybody familiar with the area of the Delaware River going south from say Philly, and just past the
Delaware Memorial Bridge, there's a place called Salem Cove?

We were in the shipping lane heading towards the D&C Canal; in about 40 ft. of water, veered off towards the
left after we went under the bridge, towards a shoreline; we proceeded at about 10 mph; depth dropped to about 25 ft., and out of nowhere, BANG!!!! we hit something that was so hard it ripped off all 3 blades of our prop!!! OMG we're thinking "what the heck was hiding in 25 ft. of water???!"

(We have a 22 ft. bayliner Capri, 1990, open bow with a mercruiser inboard/outboard/stern drive, 4.3 cubic liter, 6 cyl.) I was just wondering if anyone knows anything about that area or had a similar bad experience there. Luckily we followed my brother's advice "never go boating without a spare prop on board and know how to put one on in the water"..... Some guy from the CG told us that area has several wrecks underwater, and it shoals sharply, and also has many hidden obstructions. We did see a tall red buoy near there but it didn't warn us of any dangers; then I read on some site that if you see a diamond shape on the buoy it means danger. Don't recall it, but it could've been there and didn't know what it meant anyhow at that time.

Good thing we weren't hauling a$$, we probably would've ripped the hull right through and sank fast!!! Neither one of us was wearing lifejackets either. I had a few nightmares that night too, wheeeeeeeeeeweeeeeeee!!!!!

Comments please!


Michelle & Mark

Glad no one was hurt. And watch for the bouy's (booshies as my kids call them) with the caution triangle on them. Yes they mean shallow water. I came inside one of those on a service call once in a work boat at the marina and didn't notice the which one it was, needless to say my boat just stopped. I was hung up on land and had to power myself off it.

I wouldn't call that a *boating accident*....

probably a navigational error, resulting in damage though... were you on the correct side of the red marker?

If it was an all red bouy, its a channel marker. I'm guessing you were on the wrong side of it.

Were you going up river or down?????? Down, you need to stay to the right of red bouys and left of green bouys.

We have a saying out here on the water to help you remember....Red, Right, Return. Meaning if you are heading into port or up river keep the Red channel markers to your right (starboard) side.

If you you on the left of the red marker heading south down the Delaware River, out of the shipping channel, and near the mouth of the Salem River you very well could have been in much less than 10 ft of water. There are deep spots, but when you are directly across from the the C&D canal on on the Jersey side of the river there are rocks at low tide. You would have to have been way out of the channel.

You indicate 25 ft. of water, not sure what you ran over, or if that is an accurate depth. Been boating there off an on for 35+ years. Sta in the markers, and look around at dead low tide and see where the obstacles are now above water, and look where the waves are breaking. For you to hit a bottom, you were not even close to the channel.