The Top Five Things You Need to Know about Water Sports near boat Navigation Channels. Here are some important boat navigation tips to keep everyone safe.
Key Points:
- Keeping Everyone Safe Keeps the Fun Going
- Knowledge and the Rules are Everyone’s Responsibility
- Stay Out of the Way of Big Boats
- If in Doubt Hire a Professional
First, A Story
My Mate was at the helm in the pilothouse on the third deck of the paddleboat on which we serve. It was a beautiful, calm, windless and sunny Saturday afternoon. Both stern wheels slapped and churned up the black water. Down below, more than one hundred passengers enjoyed their desserts and live music in the air-conditioning.
Our ninety-eight gross tons of steel and glass and diesel engines rolled up the cypress and Spanish moss lined river like Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi toward a railroad drawbridge with a narrow passage. As we neared the bridge, a fishing boat, using only his slow churning electric trolling motor, crossed our starboard bow and stopped mid-channel. The Mate blew our big, loud air horn five short times. The fishermen continued to fish as if they could not see the building sized boat bearing down upon them.
The Mate brought our vessel to a near stop as we drifted toward the bridge pilings which meant we also had no steering. Vessels using rudders rely on the flow of water past the rudders to steer the boat. The Mate is a good helmsman and used the propulsion created by the paddlewheels to keep our vessel from crushing the tiny fishing boat and in the channel and us out of the mud while the fishing boat eventually crept to the other side of the channel to continue his uninterrupted fishing. We powered up and continued our journey.
That was just a frustration, an annoyance.
The Next Day
The following day, three kayakers decided to come through another bridge passage at the same exact time we did. Again, horns, slapping paddlewheels in reverse, and, like Mark Twain, new creative words and phrases whispered under the breath. Another annoyance.
If the wind was up from a storm blowing in it could have been deadly. Our passengers would hardly even feel the bump of a kayak passing beneath our keel, but it would be a bad day for the kayaker and a bad day with many bad days to follow for me.
Having Fun on the Water
There is almost nothing as pleasurable as a sunny day on the water. Whether you are pulling the grandkids on a tube behind the boat, paddleboarding with friends, fishing for redfish near the bridge fenders, or sailing along on a broad reach listening to old Jimmy Buffet songs, water sports are simply wonderful. They can also turn dangerous and even deadly if we misunderstand our responsibilities on navigable waters.
It is the duty of every single person operating a craft of any size, even dinghies, on navigable waters to be able to identify the navigation channel, understand the horn signals emanating from other vessels, and to know enough of the Rules of the Road to keep everyone safe.
We all need to know some basic but important things about water sport activities on navigable waterways. Here are the top five things you need to know about water sports near navigation channels:
Top 5 Boat Navigation Tips
1. Do Not Block the Navigation Channel
Simply put this boat navigation tip is you must give way, yield, to vessels who are restricted to the navigation channel because of their larger size, draft or operating requirements. No matter what Joe Billy told you at the bait shop, fishing, even commercial fishing, and/or operating under sail does not give you right-of-way in a narrow channel. Even if you do not see a large vessel coming at the time, treat the navigation channel the same always.
Do not linger in it. Cross it at right angles with all possible safe speed. Do not anchor in it. When traveling in the channel and meeting another vessel head-on stay to the far right of the channel unless other passing options have been established and confirmed by horn signals or radio contact.
There are hundreds of thousands of square miles of water to play on. Do not play in the navigation channel. The best way to treat the navigation channel is like we were taught as children to stay off the railroad tracks. There may be no train now, but when you get your foot stuck between the ties that is when the train comes.
We never know when we will break down or lose the wind, so do not chance it. Stay out of the channel.
2. Know the Location of Navigation Channels
Navigation channels are the deeper water routes, either natural or dredged and cut by humans, and marked by buoys, daymarks and/or lights and they are indicated on NOAA paper navigation charts and electronic charts, for the passage of larger and deeper draft vessels. Basically, any time you see a red triangle or a green square mounted on a pole in the water that is a channel marker. If you see a green or red floating buoy, they too indicate navigation channels. Before you play on unknown waters pull up NOAA’s Chart Locator – https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/enconline/enconline.html – to find all the charted features of the waterway, especially the navigation channel and avoid it if you can.
Red Number 38 on the ICW with Osprey
3. Understand Some Basic Horn Signals
Learn them all if you can, but learn at least three of them to make your day on the water safer and more enjoyable:
5 Short Blasts – This is the Danger Signal and the signal that indicates I do not understand your intentions and your intentions may lead to a dangerous situation. Whenever you hear the 5 Short Blasts signal pay attention. You might be in the path of a freighter and need to get out of the way with all possible dispatch. You may also be near a vessel that just lost a crew member overboard. Always assume 5 Short Blasts are for your information.
1 Short Blast – This is the signal that says, “Let’s meet port-to-port,” when approaching each other head on. If you are overtaking another boat and the captain blows 1 short blast she is asking you to pass on her starboard side. You should return 1 short blast to acknowledge or 5 short blasts to indicate this would be dangerous and communicate other options.
2 Short Blasts – This signal communicates the desire of the oncoming vessel giving it that they would like to meet you starboard side to starboard side, or if they are being overtaken by you they would like to be overtaken on their port side. Like above, communicate agreement with 2 short blasts or disagreement with 5.
4. Do not EVER, in any Waterway Navigational Channel, Cross Another Vessel’s Bow
Too many times I have seen the kids fly off the inner tube just in front of my vessel. Why? We have a whole lagoon, lake, or river, why would you ever put someone, especially a child, in danger by risking their falling off in front of another vessel of any size? Do not do it. Do not cross in front of another vessel. You are out for a good time. Do not chance it. Pass behind them.
Pass behind me, please. I cannot run over you if I am moving away from you.
You do not have a right-of-way if you are on the starboard tack or any other such nonsense over a vessel in a navigation channel. The vessel in the channel has the right-of-way. Just like the car driving down the state highway has the right-of-way over side-road cross traffic. The vessel restricted to the channel must stay there and you should wait to pass astern.
5. If in Doubt, Charter a Boat with a Professional Captain, or Hire a Captain for your Boat
“Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” – Wind in the Willows.
I love being on the water. If you have read this far, I assume you love it too or you would like to. The best way to continue our fun is to keep it safe so we can come back next weekend and do it all over again.
When you are in doubt
If you are in doubt about the waters in the area you plan to navigate, hire a pro. Take a charter and ask lots of questions, like, “Where is the channel? Is there any commercial traffic here? What local knowledge do I need to know?” Or even hire a licensed professional Master Captain with current credentials to show you about on your boat.
Cruise Cocoa has a pool of just such folks to help you anywhere in the world. Any where you should like to travel and play. Whether it’s a day trip for pleasure, or to show you the ropes on your boat, or to teach you in one of our many curriculum courses, or a training program designed specific to your needs, Cruise Cocoa can help.
No matter what you choose, choose to be safe. Any of us lucky enough to be on the water should treat it with the respect it, and all the boaters and mariners on it, deserves.
Cruise Cocoa is here to help you with all of it.
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