“As soon as the SEA MIST was clear of the bar, the operator of the TWO GEORGE‘S placed the engines at about 2/3 speed ahead and started in. The operator of the TWO GEORGE’S was apparently unaware of the dangerous situation developing until the engines began to labor, and upon looking astern, he saw a large wave estimated to have been 15 to 18 feet in height, about 25 feet astern. As the wave overtook the vessel, the stern was raised until the propellers and rudder were out of the water. With the vessel out of control, the bow veered to starboard and the boat broached on the face of the wave and capsized.”
The U.S. Coast Guard report of the sinking of the Two George’s drift fishing vessel while entering the Boynton Inlet on March 25, 1964, at about 11:30 in the morning, with loss of five lives and serious injury to another passenger, sentineled the danger inherent in crossing the bar and making passage to and from the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) via the narrow and treacherous cut officially known as South Lake Worth Inlet.
The cut is known generically as the Boynton Inlet. The City of Boynton Beach, Florida is located to the south. An 11.4 acre county park and 600 foot oceanfront lifeguarded beach is maintained at the Inlet with 216 free parking spaces and facilities. At the time of the sinking of the Two George’s fishing boat, a fishing fleet was berthed at piers on the Intracoastal Waterway just south of and adjacent to the Inlet. It was an active fishing port. I recall as a little boy often going out on the Two Geroge’s. The fare was $7 plus $1 more to rent a pole. Great fun for a kid and a treat my uncle reserved for special days when we went fishing together.
The capsizing of the Two George’s remains vivid in my memory. The tragic loss of life stirred debate about the safety of the Inlet for navigation. It is not an ‘Inlet’ at all. The cut through to the Atlantic from the Intracoastal was made in 1927 as a drainage ditch. The purpose was not to permit navigable boat access to the ocean, rather to provide a sortie for sewage and canal water. This effluent is pumped into the Intracoastal from the massive C 15 canal. The canal water, released by gates into the ICW, comes from Lake Okeechobee and vast agricultural areas in the western part of Palm Beach County. There are also storm drain outfalls that release everything washed off the land and streets, including animal waste, without any form of treatment. The canal and water discharge from Lake O is controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District.
In plain language, officials wanted a way for their waste water, high in noxious chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, nitrogen and phosphorus as well as sewage and the drainage from roadways that flow into storm sewers then directly into the Intracoastal, to get out.
At tide change the South Lake Worth Inlet certainly performs that function. Then as now tides through the narrow channel, girded by steel beams and concrete, course through at upwards of 10.2 feet per second. It is like a funnel with the power of 2.8 to 4.4 foot tide changes most times of the year. Tide varies when moon and sun positions create celestial changes with the Earth. Wind speeds can also ravage the area. One study reported 15 knot per hour winds predominantly from the east 83% of the time. Winds vary with the season.
The substances that flow into the Atlantic Ocean are just as noxious today as when the Two George’s sank. Public opinion caused laws to be passed that demanded removal of certain pesticides from general use. These laws have tempered agriculture’s demand to rid its cane fields, vegetable patches and groves of insects and diseases. The now banned deadly DDT and Malathion were sprayed on crops. Still in use are chemical fertilizers high in nitrogen and phosphorus. Harmful chemicals also run off roadways into storm sewers. The careless, wanton disregard greedy speculators and developers have had for the fragile environment of the Everglades and its tributaries, swamps and ponds, continues to create waste water that is noxious.
“Some people eat ‘em. I won’t,” Captain Butch Moser said. He just returned from a bass fishing charter on Lake Ida in Delray Beach . “I’m going to take some fish to the biologists. Too many have sores on them. I take a vet fishing. They’ve been spraying for weed control. They say not to draw lake water for a day. People have their sprinklers on automatic. It pulls the water out, vaporizes those chemicals. Dogs lay in the grass. I told the vet. He said no wonder pets he treated had burns on their skin and were sick,” Captain Moser added. “All the stuff flows into the lake when it rains,” he said, dismayed.
This is but one example of lake and canal problems typical of Florida’s water resource peril that directly affects human and animal health. Signs on lawns everywhere proclaim danger after pesticide and insecticide spraying and warn people and their animals off the grass. If the chemicals are dangerous to that extent then the same chemicals are dangerous when they wash off lawns into storm drains and flow directly into lakes, the ICW thence into the ocean.
Even if there were not direct conduits to the ocean from inland bodies of water, evaporation is returned to earth and rain carries with it noxious elements. Rain falls on the land and in the ocean. Landfall water is flushed into the ICW then through the Boynton Inlet to the ocean. With massive population increases in South Florida, these problems will get worse, not better.
The same system that was in place in 1964, when the Two George’s sank, is in place now. The Boynton Inlet performs the same function. It is essentially a sewer conduit from ‘Lake Worth Lagoon,’ (local parlance for the Intracoastal), to the Ocean. With the effluent go boats. Vessels must be able to clear the Inlet’s 18 foot vertical fixed bridge height and navigate between the 132 foot horizontal clearance. This originally specified clearance is misleading. The Inlet is 110 feet wide at the bridge and only 100 feet wide at the eastern mouth leading to the ocean. The channel bends at the mouth at a 35 degree angle and there are sand bars and ridges vessels must avoid.
Vessel height is critical and tide height can be an important factor. There is a fixed bridge over Highway A1A, from the Town of Ocean Ridge on the south to the Town of Manalapan, north, which limits vessel traffic.
The Boynton Inlet is a handy boat passage. Twelve miles south there is a cut at Boca Raton, equally precarious and only suitable for small boats piloted by captains with local knowledge. The Boca Inlet is treacherous when the ocean is rough. Fourteen miles north of the South Lake Worth (Boynton) Inlet, the Lake Worth Inlet at Palm Beach is wide enough and deep enough to accommodate large ocean going vessels and sailboats. There are no bridges across it. It is located where Palm Beach ends on the south side and Singer Island begins on the north side. The inlet (officially called the Lake Worth Inlet) is a long run, especially at today’s fuel prices. Fishing boats, pleasure boats and small craft conveniently use the Boynton Inlet.
Fuel prices now play a significant role in pleasure boat operation. The fuel dock at the Boynton Harbor Marina charges $4.99 per gallon for diesel and $4.59 for gasoline. I’ve had to revise up those figures four times now while editing this article. Fuel prices are bound to go higher. What is important to recognize is that marina fuel prices already reflect a $0.43 reduction since federal road taxes are removed. Many operators are buying fuel elsewhere at land based stations then apply for refunds of the road tax at the end of the year. However fuel is bought, the prices mean less boat operation.
The Boat Owners Association of the U.S., which provides its members towing services through TowBoatU.S. and Vessel Assist, reported towing requests down 1.5% over last year. The figure is one indicator of less boat use and a factor to consider. The plain fact is recreational boating is optional. “A lot of people are selling their boats. I paid $4.35 for diesel the other day. It’s a rip off. When gasoline was 37 cents a gallon diesel was 2 cents,” Captain Moser said. The good old days, never to return.
Direct fuel costs are felt in very sector of the economy. Royal Caribbean Cruises raised its fuel surcharge from $5 per passenger per day to $8, with a $112 cap per cruise effective May 1, 2008. The more fuel costs the less participation in recreational boating and travel in any of its forms.
High fuel cost is one factor but competition for limited boat slips is another. Dry storage for a small boat (under 26 feet) in Boynton Beach costs $85 per month.
The City of Boynton Beach is redeveloping itself. The city had an aging downtown area and privately owned decrepit marina facility. Boynton Beach enjoyed a bad reputation for high crime, drug user violence and slum areas with economic problems. It is a reputation residents deplored. City officials are intent on correcting this image and have taken giant strides to make improvements downtown. The City’s magnificent municipal public beach is a great draw and the aura of the old fishing port is one planners want to maintain. Plans are underway to develop the marina area just north of the Ocean Avenue drawbridge. To make it a viable fishing port and a place where pleasure boats can access the ocean there must be a cut with access to the Atlantic.
What planners cannot surmount is the plain fact that even though the City has bought what was known as the Sea Mist Marina or Two George’s Marina for $4.8 million and renamed it Boynton Harbor Marina, there are just not enough boat slips to make it viable. The previous marina owner, who owns the Two George’s Restaurant, maintained boat slips for many years. Some modernization occurred but the dilemma is that to create slips that are better than some dangerous drops that exist now at low tide which make loading and unloading dive and fishing boats precarious, slips will be lost.
If fingers are built as planned, the fingers themselves will claim the space of at least two or more boat slips. Count the boats. There are only about 30 that can be accommodated now. Planners count 24 slips but the count depends on how they are counted. All must admit that there are very few public slips. Marina Towers, the adjoining high rise condos, own the next channel-side over which in the past accommodated additional vessels. Now these slips are privatized.
When the City of Boynton Beach purchased land from Peter Gandolfo to create Inlet Park, the Park’s ICW area, already had access for piers to be built. This held the potential to dock about 200 boats. The City chose to spend $4.8 million and redevelop the Boynton Harbor Marina.
Boynton Beach permitted high rise towers for condominiums and stores in the marina area. There is more rampant construction north of the two existing condo towers, despite a soft market. With the influx of living space there is just no place for more marinas and no place for additional boat slips.
While some would love to bulldoze the mangroves on the Intracoastal, a place where the City of Boynton Beach created a park to enjoy wildlife, they will not be allowed to do it under Federal law and obviously not because of public outcry that would result.
There are 2,197 vessels registered in the Boynton Beach area according to 2006 Florida Department of Transportation figures. The DOT registers 28,892 class 1-5 vessels in Palm Beach County. Of these, 21,674 boats are in Class 1, those 16 to 26 feet long. Public slips in the Boynton Beach area are severely limited.
Boat slip counts were made for a ‘South Lake Worth (Boynton) Inlet Feasibility Report.’ The study cost taxpayers $160,000. It relied on information already in the public record and counted boat slips over a very wide area. The study logged marina slips between Linton Boulevard on the south and Southern Boulevard on the north. This is an enormously large area and it is doubtful that users of slips at or even near the extremes would use the Boynton Inlet. The study for this area reported there are 320 wet slips and 475 dry racks on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Private yacht clubs account for 175 wet slips and 270 dry racks. Total private slips at single family homes were counted at 2,475. There were also 40 empty lots with slips.
The report stated that there are 2,794 boat slips in the entire Palm Beach County. The report, using DOT data, indicates that there are potentially 12,000 registered boats that could use the Boynton Inlet. Potential use and actual use are not the same. The postulate of what is potential is akin to the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Association’s (CRA) trolley program.
While there are ‘potentially’ 67,000 people living in Boynton Beach that could use the trolley, nobody does or very few do. The polluting old coaches that stop across the street form my house are always empty. Two people constitutes a good load. I witnessed one of the old coaches leaking large amounts of fuel. Fire Rescue had to respond. The old coaches drop oil spots and emit noxious fumes. Trolley engines continue to grind out pollution, burn fuel and taxpayer money without passengers albeit a free service.
To squander public money, to establish expensive government or quasi-government bureaucracy with high salaries, offices and titles, studies can be used to prove anything.
Many boat users have fresh water boats and enjoy Lake Osborne and Lake Ida, local canals and magnificent Loxahatchee Wildlife Reserve where public access boat launching is available. The CRA commissioned report admits that they made no study of boat traffic figures but stated they guess, “500 to 1500 vessels” use the Boynton Inlet for egress and ingress per day.” The report relates that boat traffic peaks at 5 to 10 boats through the Inlet per minute assuming busy holiday week-ends.
I know from actual experience that these estimates are exaggerated. They were made without study and are made to promote ‘improvement.’ All governments want to spend money. It seems the purpose of human society is to create overlords that tax citizens once they obtain power.
It will cost a lot of money to improve the Boynton Inlet. The prelude is analogous to the building of another fire station. The editor of the Boynton Times, A Forum-Tribune newspaper, did an investigative study that reported only about $150,000 loss by fire damage in the whole preceding year for the entire city. The editor’s thoughtful and well-studied article described other aspects of under-use of resources that would have made the new station unnecessary. Whatever the situation one thing is certain: the new fire station created a heavy direct tax burden upon Boynton Beach homeowners.
The universal adage is that if there is money to spend or if there can be money spent, government will attempt to justify its expenditure. Government bureaucracy feeds upon itself most often without mercy to taxpayers. Homeowners are squeezed to the limit today with direct and indirect taxes, inflation and a soft economy that is in recession heading to depression.
Remember the citrus canker program? Almost a billion dollars of taxpayer money was spent to eradicate citrus canker. Home owners had their beloved orange and grapefruit trees cut down. Those that refused the program were served process and the trees cut down anyway. The program did nothing to prevent the spread of citrus canker. It was a total failure. Florida government admitted the program’s failure but only after the near-billion in tax money was spent and the ill-conceived program curtailed. Typical government. Somebody made money on the program, not the taxpayers.
The minimum, the CRA commissioned report lists to spend on the Inlet, is for dredging to depths of from 10 to 20 feet (from its current approximate 7 feet, expanded by periodic dredging). Dredging costs reportedly run from $2.18 to $3.10 million. A figure of $21.8 million was listed to widen the inlet to 200 feet. That project would last an estimated 20 months and would interfere with, if not close, the inlet. In current harsh economic times any interference would devastate the few existing already hard hit dive and sport fishing operators. Some would go out of business and never recover. The Boynton Inlet should be left open in its present condition for responsible and knowledgeable captains and experienced boat operators to use.
“We’re like the hotel business. If you lose a day you never make that up. There are only a certain number of days we can operate,” one dive operator said.
There are only two drift fishing vessels that regularly use the Inlet. They measure 22 feet wide beams, according to the CRA report. The widest boats to use the Boynton Inlet are The Lady K and Sea Mist III. Sharing the Inlet when two boats pass is required. Larger vessels wait their turn in the Intracoastal or ocean. In most cases drift boats keep schedules that see them leaving and coming back around the same time so the two large drift fishing boats rarely cross in the Inlet.
In the days of my youth drift fishing boats had sirens mounted on them and could use them to make passage through the Inlet and ward off oncoming boat traffic. The rest of the Inlet’s use is primarily sport fishermen and small pleasure craft. About 7 commercial dive boats use the Inlet. The majority of traffic is in good weather and on week-ends. Palm Beach Ocean Rescue logged 23 boat rescues from November 2004 to July 2007.
Not long ago, coming back through the Boynton Inlet after diving, a twin engine powerboat was being towed upside down through the Inlet. The boat had seven passengers aboard when it flipped over at the mouth of the Inlet. There were no injuries, everyone survived and the vessel was towed upside down to the Boynton Marina and removed by the owner for salvage. Ocean swells were rated by forecast at 2-4 feet, they were actually 4- 5 feet and wind was mild from the east. It was not particularly rough that Sunday afternoon when the boat flipped over around 11 AM. Another example of owner operator disaster even on a mild day.
I called the Palm Beach County office that owns the marina facility located on the eastern side of the spit of land just south of the Inlet cut, the site of the former fishing fleet’s moorage. The waiting period for any of the slips there is in the neighborhood of 3-4 years. “When they get a slip they keep it,” the manager said. The CRA report says there are only 24 slips at the county marina including 3 used by the Sheriff’s Department.
Space is the issue. Boynton Beach created a boat launching facility directly opposite the Inlet. It is a great opportunity for small boat owners to launch their vessels. The distance to the ocean is just a run across the Intracoastal. The facility, wisely and thanks to good common sense by city officials, is free on week days and by fee on week-ends. A yearly pass is available for $50. This great city planning feat makes the ocean accessible to boaters, small boaters. Small boaters must know their limitations and have sound local knowledge of the Inlet before attempting to ‘cross the bar.’ Once again the potential danger of the Boynton Inlet is a critical issue. A large number pleasure boaters that use the launching ramp stay in the Intracoastal Waterway and do not cross through the Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean.
Is the Boynton Inlet potentially dangerous? Have there been tragedies? Have the accidents been attributable to human error or inherently dangerous conditions or both? Will any of the costly proposed improvements change any of this? These are important questions. What can be done about it? That is another question.
Even the $160,000 CRA report defines the status quo. I suggest status quo for now is probably the best alternative in today’s economic times. If local city government will keep out of the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard and County authorities that regulate and maintain the inlet, then the Inlet can be governed within the necessary framework of safety and actual usage. It would be foolish to establish a draw bridge over Highway A1A, but of course the City’s CRA study described it. The study was made despite the lack of City jurisdiction over the Inlet or the surrounding property, public and private.
There were 21 persons aboard the Two George’s when it was struck by a wave over the stern, broached and sank. Winds that morning were from the south to eastsouth-east at about 12 to 14 mph and by the time the vessel was heading into the Inlet from the ocean it was low tide. The Marine Board of Investigation that was convened to investigate the accident took official notice of the Hydraulic Model Study of the Inlet dated April 1, 1964, made by the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. The study described the Inlet as follows:
“South Lake Worth Inlet is a dredged cut through the outside beach between South Lake Worth and the ocean. The cut was originally made as an outlet for drainage purposes to alleviate the stagnant condition of the water in the lake. The cut is approximately 200 feet wide and narrows to a width of 100 feet when it is crossed by an automobile and foot bridge for Highway A1A. Depth of water in the cut is approximately 5-6 feet. On the ocean side from the bridge outward the cut is bounded by two concrete jetties which extend approximately 300 feet from the bridge. The jetties extend approximately 40 feet out from the beach. On the lake side the cut is bounded by two steel and concrete sea walls. The southern wall extending 350 feet west of the bridge then south to a marina. The northern wall extends approximately 800 feet west almost to the Intracoastal Waterway”
Modifications have occurred on the lake (ICW) side to form a nature preserve island and bird sanctuary but the essential character of the Inlet remains the same.
There is a sand pumping station located on the outside northern jetty wall that is used to pump sand from the mouth of the inlet. Sand builds up and would create a bar that would close it to navigation and render the drainage impossible if not pumped regularly. The investigative report continued:
“Approximately 800 feet offshore from the jetties is a bar which extends in a general south-southeast – north-northwest direction directly off the Inlet and which curves around running almost perpendicular to the beach just north of the north jetty. Depth over the bar is approximately 7 feet, however, the bar is constantly shifting and depth varies somewhat.”
Navigators are warned in The U.S. Coast Pilot, “Only small boats with local knowledge use this cut (South Lake Worth Inlet) and then only at slack water. Currents through it have great velocity, and with easterly wind, it is impossible on account of breakers at the entrance.”
An ocean operator must slow at the approach to the bar area and line the vessel up with the bar in the best water. The bar is always shifting and often we have struck sand. The keel of one dive charter vessel draws 5.5 feet. The keel has scraped sand where wind, storm and waves caused the bar to shift or sand to build up at the Inlet’s mouth.
Swells and the interval of swells must be counted and judged by the pilot making over the bar to get through the Inlet. Judging the interval and group of swells is important. Captains try to ‘come in on a slick.’ The slick is the interval between the groups of large swells. Inlet conditions can change during the time a vessel has left the Intracoastal and later, after several hours or a day on the ocean, makes back through the cut. Winds change, tides change and conditions occur that make what was easy out a difficult in.
The destiny of the Two George’s fishing boat was sealed when its captain committed the ship to the cut. A passenger witnessed a 60 foot wave astern that the vessel’s Captain James Stevens did not see. The investigation revealed, “…that he was unaware of the oncoming wave until he noticed the vessel’s engines were becoming loaded down and were losing revolutions. On looking astern, Captain Stevens saw a large wave about 25 feet astern of the vessel which he estimated to be about 15 to 18 feet in height. The engines which had been running at about 2/3 throttle were speeded up to full throttle in an attempt to out-run the wave. However, this was not possible. When the wave caught the TWO GEORGE'S which was headed approximately due west, the stern was raised considerably nearly pitch-poling the vessel at which time she began to broach setting the bow towards the north. The vessel continued to swing towards the north as it was broached on the face of the wave and when nearly broadside to the wave, the vessel capsized.”
“The TWO GEORGE”S after capsizing was lying bottom up and parallel to the shore and swell with the bow to the north.” Four victims were dead, one lost and missing, presumed dead, one seriously injured. The rest of the passengers, captain and crew were rescued by other fishing boats and made it to shore. The Marine Investigation Board charged Captain Stevens with ‘Inattention to duty.’
In addition to determining the captain of the Two George’s was inattentive to duty, the Marine Investigation Board also concluded that: “The operation of party and charter boats in the South Lake Worth Inlet without regard to the stage of tide and accompanying current, but rather on a schedule or on charterers demands undoubtedly subjects passengers to unnecessary hazards.”
The Two George’s was a U.S. Coast Guard Inspected single deck 60-foot long, 16.5-foot wide, 2.4 feet in depth vessel of 11 gross tons. It had twin engines and was certified to carry 49 passengers “…in a sound, stable, seaworthy condition.” The 1964 tragedy was prelude to subsequent sinkings and capsizings in the Inlet, one replicating the tragedy, but without loss of life occurred on November 3, 2007.
The Loggerhead, a 31 foot long, 11.5 foot wide, 3.5 foot draft dive boat carrying 4 passengers was captained by Jim Hill. The boat left the Boynton Harbor Marina at about 9 AM on November 3, 2007. While the day was clear and visibility good, water conditions were rough with seas running greater than six feet and strong winds of 15-25 mph. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Marine Unit that responded to the incident reported:
“On 11-03-07 at about 09:20 hrs the Loggerhead dive boat piloted by Captain James Hill (also part owner) was returning to Boynton Inlet after an aborted dive due to extreme weather. On board were four passengers…As they were approaching the Inlet from the south 100 yards south of the north jetty, a wave struck the vessel from the right rear forcing the vessel sideways. Another wave hit the vessel on the starboard side causing it to capsize. All aboard went under with the vessel. Another wave struck the vessel clearing it from the occupants. All occupants were either rescued or swam to shore within 20 min. Rescue operation started with the life guards at the Boynton Inlet Life Guard stand and PBSO Marinu unit personnel. All persons aboard were transported to Bethesda Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and lacerations, some requiring stitches and released. All were part of a dive charter and certified divers. All were wearing wet suits which assisted them with flotation.”
Loggerhead was a total loss. I photographed Captains John Allen and Jim Hill holding the name board they recovered from the wreck. Passengers were injured. One female diver required almost 200 stitches on her ear. The captains did not want to comment about the accident.
On that particular day Captain Leo Sand, owner of another dive vessel berthed at the same marina as Loggerhead went to the Inlet that morning. Sand studied ocean conditions from the highway bridge. Captain Sand cancelled his morning dive as a result, judging it too rough and unsafe to navigate through the inlet, despite the fact that Sand’s vessel has twin engines and much more power than Loggerhead. Sand was critical of the operation of Loggerhead.
Captain Lynn Simmons, owner of Splashdown Diver, berthed at the same marina, likewise cancelled her dive trip. Starfish Enterprise, captained by Craig Smart, operating a dive boat out of Lantana went through the Inlet that morning and returned safely. Captain Smart used his experience to time the ocean conditions correctly.
The Sheriff’s Marine Unit has been called upon to respond to many incidents of boat capsizings in the Boynton Inlet. On May 9, 2007, at 11:07 AM a 20 foot open fisherman heading out the Inlet turned south in rough seas with 10 to 12 foot waves. The waves came from the east and “…hit the vessel on the port side causing the vessel to capsize and the occupants to be ejected into the water,” according to the Sheriff’s report. Luckily the occupants had only minor injuries as a result of the accident.
Another accident occurred in the Inlet on December 22, 2007, in rough seas with moderate winds a 24 foot Aquasport open fisherman (V 1): “Was heading offshore from Boynton Inlet. There was a strong outgoing tide and large breaking swells offshore. As V 1 was heading east bound offshore he hit and went over some large breaking waves. V 1 hit one of the large breaking swells sending his vessel vertical. V 1 passenger stated he lost his grip on the vessel and was ejected up over the starboard stern section of the vessel into the water.” The passenger was able to swim to shore and refused medical attention.
The very next day at about 5:15 PM another incident occurred with a 15 foot outboard when the vessel with three persons on board were “…entering Boynton Inlet on an incoming tide from the south east,” the Sheriff’s Marine Unit reported. When “His engine started to slow down to an idle by losing power to steer and navigate the tidal current. The vessel was caught on port side by the current and capsized. All 3 persons were ejected into the water and made it to the north jetty safely. The vessel drifted into and alongside the north jetty where it was secured to be recovered…No injuries sustained by the occupants vessel was a total loss.”
One more accident example gives additional insight into potential perils of the Boynton Inlet. This incident occurred on April 27, 2008 at about 11:20 AM. The ocean was very rough and strong winds prevailed when a 25 foot Mako center console with three persons on board “…was north bound approaching Boynton Inlet just east of the swim area when a wave hit them from the starboard side causing the vessel to flip over to port ejecting all occupants. No one was injured and the occupants were taken out of the water by Boynton Beach lifeguard rescue boat.” This according to the Sheriff’s report.
Yellow signs proclaim dangers of the Boynton Inlet. The signs insist that the drainage ditch is not intended for navigation and local knowledge is required to navigate it. These warnings are often disregarded. Professional licensed captain or amateur week-end pleasure craft operator alike have fallen victim to the vagaries of weather, waves, swells and wind. Many of the incidents reported should not have happened. Most were the result of operator inattention or failure to heed conditions for safe passage. One example cited described a vessel that lost power in the inlet and was capsized by the strong current.
I navigated the Boynton Inlet in a small boat last weekend. A powerful motor boat with triple 275 horsepower engines disregarded safety in navigation and passed me close on my starboard side at a high rate of speed. The wake caused my boat to take water. Harmless enough but the point is that many operators are on the ocean and in the ICW who should not be operating boats. Many choose to navigate the Boynton Inlet at times when prudence, weather and ocean conditions dictate it is not safe. Many use vessels in the inlet that are not properly equipped to make the passage.
Will spending millions in tax dollars solve the issues raised by boat operator inattention, misconduct or unsafe operation? The answer is no. Can the expenditure of millions or billions change the Atlantic Ocean? Obviously not. Will there be more use of the Boynton Inlet as a result of construction thus more economic gain for Boynton Beach as the CRA hopes? The answer there is also highly unlikely.
Will this article forestall government expenditure of Federal grant money and taxpayer dollars on schemes to expand, dredge, draw bridge and otherwise ‘improve’ the drainage ditch to the ocean? Never.
Once government bureaucrats get their hands on money they spend it. The only thing the citrus canker program eradicated with almost a billion dollars of wasted tax money was to cut down home owner orange and grapefruit trees depriving Floridians of their own garden fruit. Checked the price of grapefruit in the market lately? Maybe the price of fuel will do what taxpayers have not yet enabled government officials to do, save us money in the long run.
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