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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