Haulover Inlet

[HobieMarty]

Is anyone here familiar with this inlet near Miami? I can't believe the boats that some people try to take through there. Crazy!!!

https://youtu.be/OM0KvjyG8zM?si=SlmztgBOvBCI0Rqc

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[gduke2010]

Yes, I lived in Boynton Beach for about 10 years. The Boynton inlet didn’t look much better and I went through it almost every weekend fishing and diving.

[Flat Six]

YT channel Boats vs Haulover is pretty entertaining.

[masraum]

I've seen many videos of the boats going through there with varying levels of success and smoothness.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I really miss the Original Blue Top Legend. I think one of the girls went off to college or something, and the new larger Boston Whaler without the top isn't quite as cool as the original.

...But it's still a cool channel to watch every once and a while!

[LEAKYSEALS951]

This is the boat I speaketh of....

[HobieMarty]

The Midnight Express is perfect for Haulover.

https://youtu.be/tqVP_wfuC_A?si=sP6FogZcH9NJFdl5

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[Tidybuoy]

Just curious, what makes the Haulover Inlet have such extreme waves?

[TimT]

I can't believe the boats that some people try to take through there.

A lot of the boats in the video were not blue water worthy, coupled with Darwins for captains...I wonder if the owner/operators were boat show people..

They go to a boat show and buy a Bayliner or something without ever having been on the water before..

Some of the boats shown had $200K in engines alone hanging off the stern..

The only time I experienced seas like that big with no rhyme or reason, was in Buzzards Bay, RI.. it was so nasty that my father a man who never showed emotion was visibly scared... I remember the anchor being dislodge from the bow and flying in an arc away from the boat..one lost anchor..

what makes the Haulover Inlet have such extreme waves?

Orientation to the prevailing seas, rapid changes in depth, time of the month, wind pushing water up into the shallows.. lots of variables

I saw a bunch of people who had no business operating a boat

[L8Brakr]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

Just curious, what makes the Haulover Inlet have such extreme waves?

From my experience with a mid-size offshore fishing boat

Haulover has a large body of water immediately inside the inlet (North Biscayne Bay), combined with a short, straight cut dumping into the ocean. It's essentially like a velocity stack, in that it accelerates the tidal flow beyond a normal rate. Add the not unusual significant onshore winds and you can get relatively large standing or slow moving waves with steep approaches in a hurry. An ugly situation for inexperienced boaters (or rental boaters..overloaded boats, pontoon boats, bow-riding bay cruisers, etc.) All typical for Haulover. It's also fairly narrow, leaving little room to navigate and often stacked with traffic weekends and holidays.

Most of the south Fla. inlets are straight-cut channels, and suffer any any time the tide and wind decide to come from opposite directions. Lighthouse Point was my home inlet, but the only inlets that never presented any challenges down there (other than getting run over by a cruise ship or freighter) were Lauderdale and Govt. Cut/Miami due to their sizeable width.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

Just curious, what makes the Haulover Inlet have such extreme waves?

It's interesting, the page doesn't really get into too much detail about why, and mostly talking about going from the Atlantic towards the ICW. It looks like the folks in the video were going towards the Atlantic.

https://hauloverinlet.com/navigate-haulover-inlet/

(below is just an excerpt from the link)

Of more than 60 inlets in Florida, Bakers Haulover Inlet is one that requires experienced local knowledge or just avoid it, say captains in the area. The Inlet is man-made and was cut to connect Biscayne Bay with the Atlantic Ocean. Called Haulover, it is located at statute mile 1080 on the 3000 mile Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), and is the only inlet between Miami’s Government Cut and Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale.

The surrounding seas are mostly uneventful, but when you get near the jetties navigators should be aware of strong currents, constant shoaling and no channel that heads directly west to the ICW.

Stay vigilant as you pass through the inlet. When you navigate the Haulover Inlet on an incoming tide you’ll want to steer right as you head for the ICW. Many boats have been forced on to the rocks by their stern being pushed at a fast rate. You need to make sure you have enough power to stay off these dangerous rocks. The tide can suck you in and combined with the current make you confused about your speed. This can cause you to lose control and hit the rocks, run aground, or even sink your vessel!

This guy describes what he thinks is going on. It sounds reasonable to me.

[unclebilly]

So tide going out with slight onshore wind makes the waves stick up?


Nothing new there, just people at the helm that should not be.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

So tide going out with slight onshore wind makes the waves stick up?


Nothing new there, just people at the helm that should not be.

and I think the fact that the depth is pretty shallow which, I think, essentially pushes the waves up.

[berettafan]

The worst in a rough inlet is going through with the current where you have little to no steering control. The only way to steer the boat is to grab a little throttle as needed. Sometimes more throttle than is safe given the waves you’re headed into. if you play that wrong, you can end up with a whole lot of hull not touching the water or scooping in a terrifying amount of green water. so what often happens is you line the boat up best you can and essentially are white water rafting until you get into slower current where you can get steering control back.

Narrow inlets typically have very large standing waves when the current is rushing in or out. if you combine that with the wakes from large sport fish boats coming and going, it gets very dangerous very fast. I remember going through our inlet one January day to chase the rockfish, and I read the wave wrong, next thing I knew I felt like I was pointing straight in the air and had to hold onto the wheel just to stay in the boat. And that brief moment, I was praying the boat didn’t come straight back down stern first and swamp, fortunately it did more of a bellyflop and I got through.

You also will see a fair amount of people that don’t understand the need to trim the motor up and keep the bow high in standing waves. Freshwater boats with down sloping bows have no business being in saltwater for this reason.