Another one: aground at ponce inlet and rescued

[SV Confianza]

Originally Posted by Chotu

how do I go about inlets? Are you kidding? There is no secret to going about an inlet. you look at the chart, you start at the safe water mark if there is one, or you choose a safe water point, and you go in a straight line and/or along the route prescribed by the current waypoints or markers.

you might want to watch out for wind Against The Current sometimes. standing waves can be rough. go slowly if you have to deal with those

none of these boats washing up were trying to go into an inlet. They all messed up navigation and hit the bottom because they cut it too close. Or they had cascading failures from improper boat maintenance. (rig broken, engine broken) A couple smacked right into jetties. Poor navigation. Poor decision making. Poor maintenance. Poor seamanship. Didn’t stay in deep water



Note: if you feel the weather conditions are so different this year, you need to just keep an eye on the weather. And proceed accordingly. You’re going to blame the weather for all of this bad seamanship? People getting “blown off course?”. lolol

Except in this cut (outside the inlet), all of the charts are wrong, as well as the community edits, and active captain.

[Kettlewell]

Except in this cut (outside the inlet), all of the charts are wrong, as well as the community edits, and active captain.

Can't comment on this specific inlet, but I have also received "local knowledge" before that was wrong. The only local knowledge i really trust is my own gained by approaching an inlet like this only in the best conditions, slowly and with an alternate plan if I have to turn around: high sun and not in my eyes, calm weather, slack current, highish or rising tide, bow lookout, as much information as I can get on the current location of any buoys, etc.

[SV Confianza]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Can't comment on this specific inlet, but I have also received "local knowledge" before that was wrong. The only local knowledge i really trust is my own gained by approaching an inlet like this only in the best conditions, slowly and with an alternate plan if I have to turn around: high sun and not in my eyes, calm weather, slack current, highish or rising tide, bow lookout, as much information as I can get on the current location of any buoys, etc.

.

You’re not wrong. The tragedy to me is that, if he was looking for safety, maybe from a long solo travel, that cut looks very safe on the all of the charts, but it isn’t. A sandbar recently took its place.

Hopefully the boat was able to be saved from the bar and the captain is ok!

[SV Confianza]

Looks like they weren’t able to get it off the bar.