On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 17:08:07 -0400,
wrote:

On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 13:35:41 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:56:05 -0400,
wrote:

On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:44:13 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 10/18/2019 11:22 AM, wrote:
On Fri, 18 Oct 2019 05:19:11 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNCFjZthD9g

At about 12:00 a 30 something power boat gets broached out of the
channel, almost hits the breakwater, and ends up aground in the surf.

There are several other close calls.

Are people using poor judgement, or I’d this normal everyday life for
them?

===

Maybe a little of each. It's clearly an inlet that is capable of
being very dangerous in some conditions, and there seems to be a lot
of commercial fishing activity. The boat that got broached out of the
channel appeared to be recreational however. It's not a place where
I'd choose to enter if there was any other alternative. The
commercial guys are trying to make a living and probably go out in
conditions that are marginal, and sometimes conditions deteriorate
while they are out there and needing to get back.

As you can see from the videos, the biggest risk is coming back in and
having a big wave pick up your stern, throwing you into a classic
broach as the bow digs in and the stern gets spun around. The boat is
out of control at that point and you just have to hold on and hope for
the best. The recreational boat was lucky to have been washed up on
the beach insteat of being thrown into the rock jetty or rolled over
in the surf.

The only defense against a large overtaking wave is to try and stay
ahead of it, but not so fast that you plunge over the top of the wave
ahead, or bury the bow in the trough. It's easy to misjudge if the
waves start to stack up in an irregular pattern.

Here's a rather chilling sequence of pictures taken off the Florida
coast a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Psa49dMJdU

This sportfish was going a bit too fast and plunges over the top of
one wave and buries the bow in the wave ahead. As the boat violently
rolls, the captain is thrown overboard and drowns.


All too familiar with that inlet. That happened in Jupiter inlet
where I used to go through with the Navigator to get to the ICW and
then to the marina where I kept the boat.


It's heavily used however is not considered "navigational" by the USCG.
Boaters are advised to get current "local knowledge" before
attempting to enter from the ocean due to shifting sand bars
and shallow water approaches, causing large following seas.

I remember watching the depth gauge as I approached the inlet
the first time through. For about 2 miles out I was in about
5 feet of water.

Here's another mishap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irnrqGip2bo

===

That's a classic broach and capsize. He was lucky not to get tossed
into the rocks, and also lucky to have the kid with the surfboard
right there.

Big Carlos can get exciting enough for me when the wind and tide is
going the wrong way but I don't have a 45' sport fish.
Maybe my worst 20 minutes was running from the Sanibel fishing pier
into Matanzas pass with about 20-25 coming out of the east and sea fog
right down on the deck with about 75-100' of visibility. That was the
day I was bring my "new to me" pontoon home. I had 6" of water inside
the fence.

===

Thick fog can be really challenging. We've had radar on our last two
boats and that makes it easier but still not exactly a walk in the
park.

We've encountered two dangerous inlets with the Grand Banks,
fortunately on days a lot calmer than in that YouTube video. One of
them is Barnegat inlet on the New Jersey coast. It has a well
deserved fearsome reputation but most days is not a problem if you
know how to deal with it. Another is Jones Beach inlet on the south
side of Long Island. It can have 8 to 10 foot waves even on a
relatively calm day otherwise. They really get your attention and my
wife is still talking about it 9 years later. Actually there's a
third one which I forgot about: Ocean City, Maryland on the outside
of the Delmarva P. It was OK when we were there but the channel takes
a nasty S-turn between the breakwaters and the current runs strong.

All I had was a chart and a cheap compass that I was not sure I could
trust. I ended up dead reckoning a series of tacks across that stretch
so I wasn't taking the sea head on and I was a real happy guy when I
saw Bowditch point emerge from the fog. Once I got inside things
calmed down a bit and I could pick my way along the shoreline until I
got to Coon Key and by then the fog had thinned out enough that I
could figure out where I was but I was still running right into it
again when I turned East. That big hard top was the first thing to go
on that boat and it immediately started handling better in the wind.