Inlets


	Under Sea Adventurers Dive Club

Running an Inlet in Rough Water

Ray McAllister

It looks like every time there is rough water, some boater tries to go out and gets in trouble! Two very big problems are getting out of the inlet and getting back in! The problem is severe in both cases but much worse on an outgoing tide and very much worse near the spring tide, at full and new moon, every 14 days!

When the tidal prism (the water running in and out during tide cycle) is running out to sea through an inlet, and waves are entering, the waves are shortened and steepened, much as if they were striking bottom on a sloping beach. The wave length gets shorter, the wave height increases, and the net effect is to produce high, steep waves in the throat of the inlet. This effect is often called a tide rip

During periods of high waves, quite possibly navigable in relatively small boats, at sea, the inlets become death traps for a half dozen boaters a year in the inlets of SE Florida. It is, however, possible to enter an inlet under these conditions with only moderate risk. Here are the points to remember.

Boaters, without adequate experience, often try to surf such short steep waves. This is the first and biggest mistake!. As the boat slides rapidly down the face of such a wave, the bow hits the wave in front of it and slows, while the stern, still surfing, slues around, bringing the boat broadside to the steep wave, which then dumps it, or breaks over the side and swamps it. The other big problem is not having enough power to stay ahead of the following wave, or losing power in the inlet, which does the same thing. The following wave breaks over the stern and half fills the boat with water, sometimes drowning the engine and leaving the boat and occupants at the mercy of the tide rip.

Either way it is a catastrophe in a rough, fast flowing, and often dirty, waterway. The swamped boat and occupants are them swept out to sea, sometimes trapped under the boat, or having inhaled water, their bodies sink. In rough, dirty water the victims are often hard to find.

In one case that I witnessed, the salt water drowned the engine, the outgoing tide swept the boat to sea and it came out of the tide rip to the north, where the wind blew it back into the N jetty. The combination of NE wind, outgoing tide and a small notch in the rocks of the jetty, held the boat there while incoming waves beat it to pieces. The occupants managed to scramble out onto the rocks of the jetty but could do nothing to save their vessel. And such is often the fate of the small boater who unwisely takes the risk when the seas are too big for safely running the inlet. This guy was lucky for all hands got out and onto the north jetty at Hillsboro Inlet. Others don't make it!

The key part of this whole thing was that the safest way for a relatively small boat to enter an inlet on a falling tide is as follows. GET ON THE BACK (seaward) FACE OF A WAVE AND STAY THERE! Never try to surf in if waves are more than a couple of feet high!!!

Too far back and you may get pooped. Too far forward and you will surf the face of the wave. Control your throttle to stay precisely on the back face with your bow toward the crest, but not over the crest, and ride the wave into calmer water in the inlet. Before reaching the inlet one should always check the fuel supply. Running out of fuel or having to change tanks in a tide rip is hazardous at best, fatal at worst.

This procedure has served me well a number of times and has permitted me to enter inlets when other boats were headed for Port Everglades, a deeper, wider inlet with less tide rip. I usually require my passengers to wear life jackets at times like this, just in case. It is no shame to wear a personal flotation device (PFD) Just ask the spouse of one of the half dozen persons lost in an inlet in S Florida every year.

Of the inlets in the S Florida area, the safest are the wide, deep inlets like Palm Beach, Port Everglades and Government Cut. Waves peak up when they touch bottom and the peaking gets worse as the depth decreases. These three inlets are in the 35 to 40 foot channel depth and therefore only have a problem with waves so large that only DAMN FOOLS would try to go out in any case. The shallower inlets and inlets with enormous tidal prisms (the amount of water flowing through the inlet on every tidal cycle) have major wave peaking problems and are the least safe for small boats in a high seas condition.

Inlets in the latter class include Boca Raton and my inlet (I am a Hillsboro Inlet Commissioner), and perhaps Bakers Haulover, plus probably Jupiter and St. Lucie Inlets, with which I am less familiar. Boynton Inlet (technically South Lake Worth Inlet) is one of the small, jetty bound inlets through which the water races at very high speed. It is probably the most dangerous local inlet. Worse yet, as one exits the Boynton Inlet the seas are often on the port quarter in winter northeast winds. This complicates the problem.

Remember that it is no disgrace to go to a safer inlet, to stay inside in rough weather, or to ask all hands to wear personal flotation devices if conditions are questionable. Better to be thought chicken by stupid friends than to have to tell a wife or mom and dad that their loved one bought it as you were dumped in one of the inlets. And remember, there are always ambulance chasers who will make your life hell for two or three years if you have an accident. And if it was your fault, perhaps they are right.

Good and SAFE boating!