Blog
Seamanship
Navigation Waste is Hazardous Waste
Entering a marked channel between a Safe Water Mark (SWM) and shore is kind of like crossing a railroad track when the flashers are flashing; in some cases it may be safe to proceed, but you had better be sure about the details.
The entrance into the Port of Miami has a safe water mark. It is common for small shallow-draft boats to enter the channel inside the safe water mark, which can be safe to do if the boat operator is paying attention to the details.
The Coast Guard uses “Quick Flashing” (flashing at the rate of one flash per second) lights on some of their aid’s to navigation (ATON) at night as a way of saying “pay close attention here.” Such is the case with the channel entering the Port of Miami. The reason is that the inlet is protected by two jetties, one of which can be almost completely submerged at high tide. Channel buoy’s #11 and #12 both have Quick Flashing lights, visible 360º in clear weather, to mark the clearance of the seaward end of those jetties. In order to safely enter the channel, a boat must be East (seaward) of buoy’s #11 and #12 when they enter; like it or not, that is the rule that we live by. To violate that rule can be deadly, as the following cases illustrate:
On September 25, 2016, José Fernández, Emilio Jesus Macias, and Eduardo Rivero, were killed when their boat hit the North jetty. On April 20, 2019, three more people died when their boat hit the same jetty at nearly the same spot.
“Something’s gotta be done about that jetty,” Ralph Fernandez, the attorney for the ballplayer’s estate, said Monday.” […] The U.S. Coast Guard said after the Fernandez crash that the navigational aids at the inlet were sufficient.
The “ navigational aids” were indeed sufficient—for those who are prudent, unimpaired, and practicing good seamanship. I’m sure that there have been thousands of boat operator's that have safely shortcut this SWM when approaching from the north.There was no indication given that the aid's to navigation were ‘insufficient' at the time of the latest crash either.
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Public Safety
A Deadly Failure to Communicate?
This is not the first time that something like this has happened. In their excitement to hastily RSP (render safe procedure) the situation, the officer(s) issuing the command to “Put the gun on the ground” evidently overlooked the fact that the suspect needed to grip the gun in order to comply with their command.
Franklin looks up, a confused expression on his face. “You told me to …,” he says, in what may have been his last words. (He died a short time later.)
Excited cops can be a deadly threat to even the lawfully armed citizen. Never, ever, have a gun in your hand when a cop approaches. If a cop ever orders you to put your gun on the ground, slowly raise your open hands and respectfully decline to touch the gun.
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Marine Safety
Once again, another case of Boats, Booze, and Corruption
The 19-year-old South Carolina woman died after a boat she was a passenger in crashed into a bridge piling on a Beaufort County waterway in the early hours of February 24…..five other surviving passengers were described by local law enforcement as being “grossly intoxicated” and all were under age at the time of the incident. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources took over command of the investigation because it was a waterborne incident. But responding offices [sic] failed to the test the sobriety of the two people believed to be driving the boat when it crashed… TheState.com reports that the sobriety tests never happened because the grandfather and father of one suspect showed up, telling officers they were lawyers and stopped all interviews and sobriety tests.
Back on May 2, 2006, on Clearlake in Lake County California, Lynn J. Thornton died in a boating collision that had a similar post-incident dynamic. The Thornton case involved some obvious mendacity, indeed travesty, involving officials in the local Sheriff’s Department and Prosecutor’s office.
There is no way to sweep messes like these under the rug. Everyone who tries to “engineer the facts” winds up looking like the fool's that they are.
Rule 6 aside, booze and boat’s don’t mix very well—especially at night!
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Marine Safety
Senator renews push to make duck boats safer
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is renewing efforts to make duck boats safer in the wake of the deadly tragedy on Table Rock Lake last summer….. concerns were raised that safety recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board after a 1999 incident in Arkansas were never turned into law.
When sensible recommendations are ignored, and people die, we usually wind up with at least one more new “law" on the books. And, the manner in which the new law is crafted and applied (enforced) determines how burdensome it will be to those who are wise enough to not need legislation.
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