The mouth of the Great Salt Lake marina is now shallow again with humps, rocks and other debris in several areas. This year did not produce the moisture we were all so desperately hoping for. In fact it brought just the opposite. Great Salt Lake seems to be in its own drought with only 60% of its normal moisture since January 1st. DEVASTATING is the proper word here.

If we had not dredged this year, 40% of the boats in the marina would not have had a sailing season at all. But we did dredge taking over two feet of rock and hard clay out of a very shallow mouth. Mother nature did not cooperate though and now we are restling with a mouth that again is shallow. And we are now bumping again. Bringing the Lucin down from Promontory marina helped but probably only bought us a few weeks to a month for the deeper draft boats. And August is being very cruel to us with evaporation.

And so here is the problem and the warning; When we took out the two feet of mud and clay from the bottom of the mouth we also took out the "known". What we are left with is the "Unknown". Those trusty tricks and paths that we knew so well are no longer there. Everything has changed and we just don't know what the new contour is. I can tell you that there are still rocks down there in the mouth. Some of the boats have hit these in the last few days. Trust me, these are not the same old trusty rocks from last year; the rocks that you knew where they were. These are rocks that are two feet below those old pesky "bottom paint blue and red" rocks.

And lets not forget all those hundreds of beer and pop cans (more on that later). When the Lucin came through here early this week it literally kicked up hundreds of these cans from he bottom of the marina.

We cannot simply put the small orange buoys out this summer and guide you through the obstacles because we do not know where they are yet. The water is too murky and is not likely to clear up in the very near future. When it does I will dive in the mouth. I will find and learn everything I can about the mouth. And then I will pass it on. Until then, please use extreme caution. Don't rely on the old tricks. Consider leaning your boat over as you go through the mouth. And know that, if you hit a rock or other debris, it may damage your boat. Know when it is time to call it quits for the year for your own boat.

The sailing season is almost over for a large part of us; The deep draft boats, of which I am one of. But this does not mean marina life or Great Salt Lake life is over. There are may alternatives for those that have a passion for sailing or the Great Salt Lake. First of all there are all our friends with shallow draft boats. There are always dingies and kayaks. We could make great friends with the Hawaiian Canoe Club and the Great Salt Lake Row club (won't they be thrilled). There are always socials and dock parties that can be planned. Fall is a great time for road trips to those far and exotic places around the lake.

About those beer and pop cans. The vintage of some of those cans went back nearly 40 years. There is a serious lack of oxygen inside the marina. The sulfur mud at the bottom of the lake must be shutting out oxygen. Thus, the cans, that would normally disolve in high concentrations of salt water are not disolving at all. I can attest to this from all the diving I have done in this marina. The bottom is littered with well preserved cans, sharp knives, silverware, grills, umbrella's, bottles (they never disolve), radio's, cell phones, watches, wedding rings, shoes, sunglasses, outboard motors, winch handles, winch parts, winches, rope, sails (yes, sails), game boys, canopies, scotch bottles, trash bags, five-gallon-buckets, towels, cups, etc. etc. etc. Regardless of what most Utahn's think, Great Salt Lake was not meant to be the trash repository of the Wasatch Front. Please don't throw the beer or pop cans in the lake anymore.