'Lo All, >And, you get an unfettered view of dredges, barges, and cranes on the water >in front of your house. {;*)) Don't knock seeing dredges, barges and cranes out on the water.... Pitts Bayou (where we live) is about 11' deep all the way to the head of the bayou. I always love to see our local marine construction company - Harders - bring their huge barges up to the head of Pitts Bayou. Their offices and construction yard are there, but most of their barges are kept at their dock on Watson Bayou. Almost every other bayou around here has shoaled in as a result of the loss of most of the local shrimping industry. Those big, deep and slow moving props keep the muck stirred up and it is then carried out of the channel. Watson Bayou used to have a WWII submarine pen at the head of it. Now, it is about 2' deep or less where the subs were docked. Parker Bayou used to have a fleet of Gulf shrimpers, but most have been gone for a few years. The lone Gulf shrimper's captain said that he has problems now. The bayou has a bar across it, so many folks can only come and go at high tide. Cook Bayou used to have deep-draft Gulf shrimpers at the head of it at Star Avenue, it is now about 6 inches deep there. The problem is all the debris carried by the runoff from all the little streams or blown directly into the water. A good portion of that is man-made. Undeveloped bayous remain unchanged, such as Pearl Bayou which is surrounded by Tyndall AFB. Fannin Bayou, where Rich Gano lives, has a large-boat marine repair facility, shrimp boats - and others, so that it is kept blown out, too. The first time I took the Celestial to the repair yard on Fannin Bayou, the depth sounder indicated 0', as the boat was moving through "thick" water - leaves & other muck that had been stirred up, so it was not compacted. I stopped in mid-channel and used a long boat hook to make sure I was not going to go aground. I kept an eye on the engine temperatures, but they never rose. "Use it or loose it" applies to bayous, too. Never underestimate the value of the big, slow turning props on work boats. Ya, I know - beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and I think deep channels are beautiful, as well as those vessels that keep them that way! YMMV Take care and be safe. Wayne Celestial Albin 43 Sundeck Near Panama City, FL