Boaters get stuck on inlet sandbars
After complaints, crews work to reduce sand buildup in Boca
More often these days, Capt. Chandler Beck is swooping in with Apache, his 30-foot rigid inflatable boat, to help boaters in distress at the Boca Inlet.
Among the more significant accidents to draw him there in recent months: A man in his 70s ran his boat aground on a sandbar, leaving him bloodied and bruised fromthe impact.
“I’ve seen boats hit it quite fast,” said Beck, a captain with Sea Tow U.S. whose job it is to retrieve vessels. “They can go from several knots to zero in a matter of 10 feet.”
The past few months have seen a rise in sandbar-related accidents near the inlet, say boaters, towing companies and city officials. The uptick of problems has led the Coast Guard and local captains to warn boaters: Use extra caution or avoid the inlet completely.
City-contracted crews began work Wednesday on scooping away the major sandbar just outside the inlet’s entrance in response to complaints from boaters and other residents. Work is expected to take nearly a week without weather delays.
“It’s definitely snagged more people than what we’re used to,” Tow Boat U.S. supervisor George Bassett III said. “I do know that this is a lot worse than what it has been.”
Building up
There are various reasons for the sand buildup, officials say. HurricaneMatthew spared South Florida in October but contributed to erosion along the coast. The Boca Inlet likely trapped some of the sand, the city says.
Theebb shoal, or the area at the mouthof the inlet that collects the sand, gets excavatedwhenit is too full and risks navigation hazards.
“This year the city did see an increase in sand in the ebb shoal, which some of this increase can be attributable to the passing of Hurricane Matthew,” Boca’s coastal program manager, Jennifer Bistyga, said in a statement.
Boca’s city municipal services, which takes care of maintenance projects, clears the inside of the inlet everyfewyears unless severe weather calls for an impromptu dredging. When sand is removed from the inlet, it’s used to refill eroded parts of Boca Raton’s beaches.
Boca Raton recently added on a deal with Weeks Marine Inc. to undertake the sandbar dredging. The company is also refilling part of the central beach as part of ongoing sand-renourishment efforts. The project was delayed in March 2016 because of sea turtle season.
BecauseWeeksMarine was already scheduled to return to Boca this year, city officials planned to have thecompany clear themouth of the inlet. It would have cost millions of dollars to get a company to come sooner, city spokeswoman Chrissy Gibson said.
Stuck on the sand
Mario Stagliano, the U.S. Coast Guard’s local auxiliary flotilla commander, said he hasn’t heard reports of boaters sustaining any serious injuries in recent months, and no agencies currently keep statistics on the number of vessels that get stuck on the sand.
But Bassett said recent weekends, which should be typically more quiet, have been filled with runs out to the inlet to haul boats stuck on sandbars. Most of them are larger boats that sit more than a few feet in thewater.
“It’s a big problem,” said Capt. Tony Coulter, who runs the diving charter Diversity and recently damaged his 30-foot boat on the sandbar. “People who don’t know about it, they end up with a lot of damage.”
A weekend trip out to the Boca Inlet ended up costing Coulter two days to fix his boat’s rudder, but he said he has seen sandbar collisions cost as much as $70,000 in repairs during his 30 years in business.
Some days, he can step off his boat 100 feet from shore with water up to only his ankles, he said.
With all of the moving sand lately and efforts to clear out the sand accumulation, Stagliano said boaters need to be extra cautious around the inlet.
“The best thing people can do is slowdown and take a good look at thewater and keep an eye on their depth,” he said.
Still, many local boaters and charter companies have tried to save themselves the worry. Instead of the Boca Inlet, some head about 5 miles south to the Hillsboro Inlet in Pompano Beach.
Snowbirds and other part-time visitors to the area who aren’t well-versed on local water hazards face the greatest risk, Bassett said.
Both Bassett and Beck said they usually just tell boaters to use the Hillsboro Inletwhenthey get calls for advice on what to do.
“It’s scary and people can get hurt,” Beck said. “It’s better to play it safe.”
A nod to history?
Therecent maritime troubles at the Boca Inlet may give a nod to the origin of the city’s name. It’s Spanish for “rat’s mouth.”
Some scholars say it’s a loose nautical Spanish translation of “inlet of hidden rocks” penned by conquistadors. “Raton” is thought to be an old-time navigator’s way of designating jagged underwater rocks that pose the same threat to ships as rodents’ chewing away at a hullwould.
These days, the inlet is mostly tamed, partly a travel route and partly a funnel for drifting sand to be used to refill the city’s prized beaches hit with erosion.