This morning leaving the marina. He looked like he was going to pass behind but then turned to cross in front. Up close and personal. with another bug in tow, he s one of the many illegal jet ski rental operator.
Read the mostly non eventful adventure of a couple that traveled down the ditch from the NE to Miami on their sailboat. While passing through a Miami bridge that had opened for them another vessel stormed through about the same time; their wake so rocking the sail boat the top of the mast was damaged from hitting the bridge. Not that it's anything to brag about up here in Broward but certainly don't miss living down there.
Things have become crazy here since charters have boomed during the red flu in 2020. The Miami river which used to be a fun cruise is now downright dangerous with frequent collisions and lines of 20 boats waiting for bridges. There are also a couple of nice anchorages like Marine Stadium where we can’t go anymore because of the risks
Took this picture a short while ago. Authorities handling a collision between two vessels (both about 45’ by the narrow cut thru the featherbank just south of miami. Two persons pulled out of the water taken to nearby Boca Chita by fire boat to be medevac’d Broad daylight, clear weather. Welcome to miami
Like this… Poor picture as it was getting dark but when I started looking at this boat trying to figure out what was going all I could see was a red light…. Turned out it was not a running light but an underwater light at the bow and it was so bright the actual green running light was not visible till he got close. Very confusing.
Aye, the old Fetherbed channel.. Gone through it 100 times or more and been expecting a bad accident sooner or later, folks usually keep going on plane and @ high speed. Not unreasonable of you are the only boat in the vicinity, but a crazy game of playing chicken if meeting opposite traffic then and there. I tried honking the horn and yelling on the VHF to slow down, waste of time.. Just North of Elliot Key and an hour South of Miami. (For the non-local folks)
I worked for SeaTow KB 22-24 years ago. Fools were clobbering each other there, then. My fun and Da Money, was pulling them off the grass beds at night. Sometimes the carnage of the grass was terrific as the operator would try to power them selves off of the grass-bar. Double got ya, Tow to BlackPoint (parks office then) or north. All billable, near salvage. Also; We had to mark the location and report it to the parks service the next morning. When the boat owner thought he had already been bent over getting bagged and lifted out of the grass beds, the park service would contact them with a fine and bill for damages, a few days later. I do wonder; Does the park service still protect the grass beds and enforce when abused?
Yes they still charge grounders for sea grass damage… very few details about the collision this morning except that it happened between the dark hulled boat seen in the picture background and a 20’ or so Key West CC. The Sundancer in the foreground was just a Good Samaritan who stopped to assist the 2 persons in the water.
Both men have died. Looks like the Mutt hit the port side of the KW … https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local...boat-crash-near-boca-chita-key/3291235/?amp=1
Sad to hear about deaths and injuries to say the least. The frustrating thing about all this bad seamanship is we all pay for it. This is a factor in why it is so expensive and difficult to get insurance for all of us. I’ve been boating my whole life. Only insurance claim was 30 years ago when someone rear ended my trailered boat. But I pay through the nose for insurance and I can really only find one company that will even provide it in my area. I suspect this will only continue to get worse.
Somebody has to go to jail,, Ben.. Thru the many years, I keep typing this, yet nobody is locked up.. Homicide by any other means ,, people would would be arrested,, why not from a boat wreck ??
Also I see someone got the maker ,well before or just before the contact. Nice white swipe on the leaning piling.
All the time I worked in B Bay, day markers, miles apart from each other, on the sides of wide (3/4m wide +) channels, were always clobbered by something. This damage may not of happened at this event, just F Amazing it happens every day and not reported. Long asp line of day markers into Black Point. All slow and no wake. The next day another day marker knocked over. The north line of this channel, my partner pulled a boat off the rocks, 15 feet over the water one day,, 1/4 mile from the FMP/Park office. A kid on the rocks was dusted off in bad condition. This was over 22 years ago. WTF is happening now? Attitudes sux, I fear more corpses in the water (as proven here again).. Re-Read post #14.
