GSL Slip Renters.

As you all know, this was not a good water year.  In fact, it was just short of a repeat of last year’s disaster.  After coming up a record 5 feet two years ago, we will lose nearly all the gains from that year.  This will create problems at the mouth of the marina.  The mouth tends to build up a hump of silt during the winter months storms.  This is the case now.  The hump is not as big as it was three year ago.  But it is there.

An extensive dredging at the mouth and in the marina is just out of the question with this year’s budget.  The money just isn’t there.  This does not mean that State Parks does not care about the problem.  They truly do.  But to dredge the whole marina and a path out through the reef would consume the whole budget that State Parks gets from the general fund to run all of their parks.

But we have been working hard to address the mouth of the marina over the last two months.  What I believed was going to be a very long shot plan of finding money is now just a signature away from happening.  Three years ago we brought down one of the big tugs from Promontory and literally blew the mouth out with its large prop.  This worked very well and bought us some extra months of sailing.  It looks like this will likely happen again.  In order to do this we will need to close the mouth (close access to the lake from the marina) on short notice.  The target time for this to happen is in about two weeks.  This time frame could be pushed back though.  If successful this will deepen the mouth some and buy us a few months.

But we must also be realistic here.  First, there is no guarantee this will work.  It did last time.  But we will not know if we have success for about three or four days afterwards.  The silt tends to stay suspended making our depth sounders useless for a few days.  Second, this is only a band-aid to buy a few months of sailing.  Any boat with over a 5 foot draft will likely be stuck in the marina by late fall.  The only thing that can save us is a cool, wet summer and an early winter.

I will keep you posted as we get closer to bringing the tug down.

Thank you

Dave Shearer

Harbor Master

Great Salt Lake State Marina

Antelope Island State Marina

801-209-9142