Local Knowledge is important. You can not trust your GPS chartplotter all the time. Trust your eyes. And don't try new places in the dark if they are dangerous.
Here is an example for the MOMAW area: (click for larger images)
First, here is my actual logged GPS track when motoring out of Carolina Beach Inlet recently. It is superimposed on the current Coast Guard nav chart. You can see that if you were in the dark and trusted your chartplotter to guide you out of the inlet you would hit the sand for sure.
Second, here is the same GPS actual logged track superimposed on Google Earth. Same thing....... so you can not trust Google Earth either.
Finally, you may be thinking that my Garmn GPS must be inaccurate? Well, look at this shot (A) of where I went straight in and docked right at the gas pump cabana at the Joyner Marina gas dock to fill up my tanks before I went out the inlet. When I left the gas dock I backed up into the current for a ways before going south to Snow's Cut and then returned to exit the inlet. As you can see, it is very accurate as to the Garmin and Google Earth lining up correctly.
Moral of the story? In sandy inlets without jettys, storms can shift the inlets. The nav charts and Google Earth are not updated all that often. Be careful not to trust your charts more than you own eyes. (Or follow a big fishing boat out and in....... that may be the best way of all.....)
i hear closer to the mouth can get rough though due to depth.
Rough sea there sometimes.Not to mention its near the graveyard 