~ Captain Paul's response to: ~ K_Robichaux

Although there were many Nazi submarines reported to be operating in the Gulf of Mexico, there is only one that was reported lost to enemy action.

That submarine, the U-166, was attacked in July 1942 by a U.S. Navy Patrol boat 566 and reported to have been sunk.

The reported site of where U-166 lies, at 28°37'N ~ 90°45'W ~ 28.617°N 90.75°W. This position is reported to be in about 5000 feet of water. The positions of 28°37'N - 90°45'W (28.617°N ~ 90.75°W) has now been designated a war grave due to its crew of 52 being entombed there, and is protected under federal law.

You should note that these positions are expressed only as degrees and minutes, meaning that the position could be within a full nautical square mile.

The position is roughly between Ship Shoal Leased block 187 and South Timbalier block 141. It is about 35 miles at a bearing of 197° from the Houma Navigation canal by Wine Island Pass.

The U-166 was identified and discovered by D. Warren and Rob Church of C&C Technologies while doing research for a pipeline in 2001.

You may want to visit some of the following web sites to get more info on the U-166:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-166_(1941)

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03u166/welcome.html

http://www.pastfoundation.org/U166/

I personally would not fish the area, as there are many other reef sites that offer decent fishing in the area.

These artificial reefs can be found on the Louisiana Department of Wild Life and Fisheries site at

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/fishing/artificial-reef-program

Check the OFFSHORE REEFS in the Vermillion, Eugene Island, Ship Shoal, South Timbalier, and Grand Isle Leased Block areas. These sites alone offer over one hundred reef locations.

Unless otherwise specified, all positions are stated as Degrees, minutes and thousandths of minutes (DDD,MM.mmm) and were determined using WGS 84 Datum. All bearings and courses are stated in Magnetic degrees.

~ Captain Paul ~

~ Captain Paul's response to: ~ K. Robichaux ~

To cover the areas you mentioned, you should look into getting two Official NOAA Marine Charts.

Chart # 1116 covers the LEASED BLOCKS from the Mississippi River to Galveston, Tx. It is in a scale of 1:458,596 and indicates the positions of the offshore (Federal) Leased Areas and their respective Leased Blocks. This chart shows platform and underwater pipeline locations as well as the water depth in FATHOMS. One fathom equals six feet, so fifty feet of water is about 8.33 fathoms and seventy-five feet depth is 12.5 fathoms.

As stated the scale ratio is quite large which is needed to cover that large of an area on one chart, so remember that when setting your courses and plotting platform positions that they will not be as accurate as those plotted on a larger scale (smaller ratio) chart.

To supplement this chart you should also obtain NOAA Chart 11356, Isles Dernieres to Point Au Fer. This chart is in a scale of 1:80,000 which is the standard for normal coastal charts. It indicates the water depths in feet.

The reason for the two charts is that chart 11356 only covers a distance of about 33 miles south of Racoon Point, which is not yet in the 75 foot depth you asked to cover. No, I did not mis-spell Racoon Point, that is how all of the official charts and maps indicate its name.

Chart 1116, Leased Blocks. . . covers from the shoreline out to about the Walker Ridge area in 1000 fathoms, which is about 160 miles from the shoreline.

Both charts are configured using WGS 84 Datum, so do your plotting using that value.

These NOAA charts can usually be purchased at any marine supply company or at an authorized NOAA Chart dealer. The NOAA web site lists their contractors for selling such charts in your area.

For the distance part of your question, from Racoon Point the 50 foot depths are shown on the charts to be about 28° 39.918’ N. Latitude ~ 90° 58.250’~ W. Longitude and the 75 foot depth are found about 7.8 miles farther south at or 27.5 miles due south of Racoon Point at or about 28° 33.254’ N. Latitude ~ 90° 58.250’ W. Longitude for a total of about 35.3 miles.

The charts indicate that after a vessel would pass over the underwater ridge named SHIP SHOAL, the bottom begins a gradual deepening out to 2000+ fathoms.

The charts also indicate that there are some but not many platforms between the 50 foot and the 75 foot depths in the area south of Ship Shoal, but not nearly as many as there are around the +75 foot depths. This area, just a 3 to 4 miles farther south at or about 28° 29.942’ N. Latitude ~ 90° 58.250’ W. Longitude, contains an almost uncountable amount of platforms. This area in the SHIP SHOAL AREA, blocks 219 to 235 alone contain over 30 platforms. These platforms are in about 100 feet of water.

A round trip from Racoon Point would be roughly about 80 miles. That is without bouncing from platform to platform trying to find the fish. Remember that is from Racoon Point, not the launch area.

Unless otherwise specified, all positions are stated as Degrees, minutes and thousandths of minutes (DDD,MM.mmm) and were determined using WGS 84 Datum. All bearings and courses are stated in Magnetic degrees.

~ Captain Paul ~