Del. boaters getting stuck traveling through Baker’s Channel

LONG NECK, Del. – Boaters should be on high alert this summer while traveling through the Delaware Inland bays because there’s one channel that’s causing boats to run aground.

“Until they dredge we will have no channel,” explains Chuck Hazel, a local fisherman.

It’s called Baker’s Channel, a route many boaters have already tried taking this season to get from the Rehoboth Bay to the Indian River Bay, but right now they’re not getting very far.

“It’s real shallow there now so the bigger boats are having problems getting through,” explains Hazel.

Rich King of Del. Surf Fishing adds, “At low tide there’s 18 inches of water maybe on a regular low tide on a blown out low tide there’s barely any water so boats are powering through it and trying to get through there and they can’t.”

And since this channel won’t get any deeper until DNREC dredges the area this year, several people are warning visitors to take caution when driving through this area.

That’s because if they don’t, “A lot of people are going to be stuck on sandbars and tow boaters are going to be pulling a lot of boats off the sandbars.”

So instead Hazel says to, ” Go very slow anywhere in this river it’s all filled in and there are sandbars everywhere. So if you don’t have the local knowledge of it, be careful when you go out especially with your children sitting at the front of the boat because if you hit a sandbar at a high-speed they are all going in the water.”

Now we’re told that there is a way to avoid Baker’s Channel all together by going through Massey’s Ditch instead.

DNREC says the portion of Baker’s Channel where people are getting stuck is scheduled to be dredged later this year as part of the Massey’s Ditch maintenance dredging project.