Jose Fernandez, RIP

[HenryC]

No doubt you folks have been following the tragic story of the death of Jose Fernandez and two companions in a boating accident several days ago. Fernandez was a talented young pitcher for the Miami Marlins, very well loved by his teammates and Marlins fans for his positive and humble attitude and charitable activities. He was a balsero who had escaped Communist Cuba on a raft, and had rescued his mother from drowning when she fell overboard during the crossing of the Florida Straits.

Fernandez and his companions were returning from a fishing trip early in the morning, and ran into a stone jetty alongside Government Cut channel in the dark. These jetties run parallel to the channel, to help keep down wave action in the fairway, and prevent spoil dredged from the channel from sliding back into it. It appears all three were killed instantly, the boat slammed into the rip-rap at full speed.

The link below will lead you to the NOAA harbor chart of the scene (Government Cut is along the top edge of the chart, right about in the middle). Just zoom in for a closer look. The jetties alongside the channel are marked, along with the aids to navigation in the area. For scale, Government Cut is 500' in width. The two buoys marked R "14", Fl Red 2.5s (at the South end of Miami Beach) and G "7" QG, are exactly 1 nautical mile (2000 yards) apart. G "7" is at the bend of the channel to the East. The letter codes refer to "Flashing Red 2.5 seconds" and "Quick (flashing) Green". Every aid to navigation has its own unique characteristics charted so it can be unambiguously identified in the dark.

Press reporting of these incidents is usually pretty inaccurate, but I have gone to the trouble of looking into it to try and reconstruct the nature of the accident, which is quite common in this area. Although the channel is clearly marked and easy to navigate, and conditions were perfect, it is easy to get confused with the aids to navigation back-lit by the lights of the city. Approaching from the offshore fishing grounds, tired from a long day in the sun and in a hurry to get home, it is easy for even the most experienced skipper to try a shortcut, get disoriented and turned around and slam into an obstruction at top speed. Given the high speeds of modern sport fishing boats, tragedies like this are not uncommon. I wouldn't be surprised if over-reliance on marine electronics didn't contribute to this tragedy. GPS will tell you where you are, but not which way you have to go.
At 40 miles an hour, a situation like this can develop very quickly, and get away from you before you know it. Add bad weather and poor visibility and its a wonder the casualty rate isn't much higher.

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/11465.shtml

[rbh1515]

Tragic.
I read they were going full speed when they hit....not a good idea when you are approaching a harbor.   You would think that GPS and low speed would be key.
Rob

[HenryC]

  You would think that GPS and low speed would be key.

Fast fishing boats are designed to get you out to the fishing grounds in a hurry, then bring you back as quickly as possible when you're finished.  This is a difficult mind-set for sailors to understand, for them; the voyage, not the destination, is the reason for their being there in the first place.  Sailboats can run aground too, but their skippers have more time to study the chart and the surroundings, and if they do hit something, are usually travelling much slower.

GPS could certainly have avoided this tragedy, but in a lurching platform in the dark, and with the crew already "knowing" where they were, there was no sense of urgency to pay close attention and navigate precisely.  Even if a chart was displayed on the GPS screen, a look at the chart will show how cluttered it is, how difficult to read, and how staring at a screen can affect night vision.  Knowing exactly where you are is not the same as knowing where you should be heading.  Just as in driving a car, situational awareness is everything, and speed kills.

GPS is a wonderful thing, to not use it would be irresponsible and poor seamanship; but as I so often try to point out on this forum, it is no substitute for careful piloting.  Indeed, the false sense of security it provides may even have contributed to this accident.  Sailors love to fiddle with charts and bearings and plots, its part of the reason we enjoy being on the water.  But if the boat is merely a means of transportation for you, just a vehicle to convey you to and from your recreation area; then navigation becomes a chore that can easily be neglected in a moment of overconfidence or fatigue.

I don't know exactly how this accident developed.  I wasn't there.  And I certainly can't claim I haven't made any mistakes myself!  But we really need to be careful out there.  Even under clear skies, in ideal weather conditions and sea state, things can go south in a hurry.  Right now, the local news media is making a big deal out of the fact that none of the victims was wearing a flotation device.

Life jackets would not have made any difference.