Whether you’re navigating the turquoise waters of Southwest Florida or heading farther afield on a longer trip, it’s important to understand how to navigate inlets. Most of the time, passing through an inlet will be eventless, picturesque and a lovely memory of your boating trip. But if you get caught in bad weather, it’s important to know how to handle it.
What Is an Inlet?
An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh.
Understanding Inlet Features
An inlet’s features help determine whether you can handle it and, if you can, how to do so. For example, a narrower inlet may have faster-moving currents, and some inlets have constantly shifting shoals or submerged rocks that cause strong eddies. Up-to-date local knowledge, as well as a familiarity with the aids to navigation (ATONS) is critical. Often the channel through an inlet twists and turns, and it’s easy to confuse or miss even very conspicuous ATONS that mark shallow water extending into what appears to be the channel.
Other boaters in an inlet are sometimes the inlet’s most threatening hazard, especially if they’re not following proper boating etiquette.
Gauging Inlet Conditions
Inlet conditions can be easy to navigate at one time of day and dangerous at another. Just as you would when navigating other unfamiliar waters, it’s important to closely consult your chart, consult a pilot book and read the “Local Notice to Mariners” before navigating an inlet. Compare the published resource material with what you’re actually seeing and experiencing. An inlet may be benign the majority of the time but turn highly dangerous when there are strong wind-against-tide conditions, for example.
Knowing inlet conditions can also include being aware of what’s going on far away. Waves generated by a storm that’s far offshore may not be present when you leave on a sunny morning, but could reach the shore hours later. When the swell from a storm feels the shallow bottom, it begins to hump. When swell tries to funnel into the inlet, particularly against an outgoing current, it can form dangerous standing waves, which seem to stay in place as the current meets the incoming sea, sometimes tumbling over on themselves and often spanning the channel.
How To Learn an Inlet
After studying charts and other resource material, get the lay of the land from outside the inlet, to the extent that you can, by using a good pair of binoculars. Consult your radar if you have it. See what’s there before you go in so you don’t miss an ATON as you approach, especially if the channel doglegs. Get a feel for what’s actually there from offshore before you commit to going through. Seek local knowledge from credible sources, including local TowBoatUS operators, marinas, commercial fishermen, and other experienced boaters.
Try to learn inlets under good conditions, such as when seas are down, light is good and the tide is with the wind. If you can, think about going out with a respected charter-fishing captain who runs the inlet every day. Learn your boat’s behavioral characteristics in different conditions.
Tips For Rough Inlets
Running inlets involves on-the-spot decisions based on what you see and feel, combined with your boating skills and your knowledge of your boat. Here’s how to stay safe and approach an inlet with as much knowledge as possible.
Get tide-flow schedules for inside the inlet.
A raging inlet may calm a short time later when the tide slackens and starts flooding.
Watch the waves at all times.
Have a helper watching for waves aids your navigation.
If you see a large wave about to break on your stern, consider outrunning it or staying just beyond the break.
You may have more difficulty doing this aboard a boat with a displacement hull than on one with a well-powered planning hull.
If you see a large wave mounting up ahead, don’t run over the top of it; you risk plunging into the trough and burying your bow.
You may decide to run up a little onto its back, but remain behind the crest of the wave until it crumbles ahead of you and you can power through the turbulence.
Source: BoatUS.com