By Bob Currie, Recreational Boating Safety Specialist
U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Station Galveston Flotilla
Obi-Wan: “I felt a great disturbance in the Force…as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”
Hurricane Beryl Effects
Well, Hurricane Beryl wasn’t a planet-ending disturbance, but we sure felt a great force from this Category 1 hurricane. We had winds reaching almost 100 mph in my area. We had 4-6 foot storm surge that wiped out protective sand dunes, allowing the strong water forces to cause great damage to beachfront homes. Naturally, we lost power for several days. We had steady 60-mph winds with gusts to 97 mph reported. In the scheme of things, Beryl was barely a hurricane much of the time. However, we had house and building damage, loss of power for almost two million people for an extended period in 100-degree heat, and extended interruption of businesses, including shipping, in the busiest shipping channel in the world. Let’s look at some of the more important effects, especially those that affect recreational boating.

Loss of Electricity
In our area, thousand of boat owners leave their boat in the water in a wet slip. Electricity is very important to these boat owners as thy depend on their automatic electric bilge pumps to clear out rainwater and water that enters their boats due to storm surge. I hope that all boat owners who kept their boats in the water have had the opportunity to check their boats and take any remedial actions to get the water out. Be careful when the power does come back on. Check for electric lines that have broken loose but are suddenly become live when the power is restored.

Damages to Your Boat’s Superstructure
Hopefully everyone cleared their decks and tied everything down before the storm hit. Still, there is not much you can do to secure a mast except to remove any sails. Direct wind pressure on your boat can cause damage to cabins, center consoles, and other things like engine hatches can be torn away. Damage also comes from things flying around from other boats that were not properly secured and from objects originating far from your location that were carried by the winds. An empty garbage can that is moving 75 mph can do more damage than you can imagine. Flying debris can be deadly, which is why going out in the storm is not a good idea.

Getting Out on the Water Again
Everyone wants to get out on the water again. However, it is far from safe out there due to all of the debris still in the water and the relocation of shoals due to strong tidal action. We have had more reports of grounding recently than we have had in years. Water in which it used to be safe to run wide open may be only inches deep due to storm surge creating new shallow areas and caving in dredged areas. You can’t begin to imagine the amount of floating debris just below the water line in all areas. Remember: your boat does not have brakes. You may be running along and spot some debris, but in many cases you won’t be able to stop or change course to avoid it if you are running as fast as you normally do. At 30 mph you are moving 44 feet per second. The average reaction time to a visual stimulus such as seeing a log in the water is a fourth of a second. You would move 11 feet during your reaction time. It will take your boat one to two seconds to respond to a throttle change or a helm change. Can you avoid something you spot in the water while moving 30 mph? Not very likely. A lot of floating docks became free floating docks when the storm hit. They can be miles from their original locations.

Where the Buoys Are
There is a movie from 1960, “Where the Boys Are,” with the title song sung by Connie Francis. I often sing a few bars of that song, substituting ‘buoys” for “boys,” when I am on Aids to Navigation (ATON) verification missions. The answer to that is, in many cases, “We don’t know where they are.” Almost all of, if not all of, the buoys in our navigation channels are off station. Some are off station for miles. The point here is that you cannot depend on any buoy being in its proper GPS position and you cannot depend on it having a working light. I received a report this morning of a yellow buoy (special marker buoy) floating in the surf just off the beach where I live. I haven’t positively identified it, but I believe it to be one of our anchorage area markers. Although the chains for these buoys are heavy, they can be snapped in two by high winds. You do not want to get close to a free moving buoy. They are quite heavy and a wave could easily send one into the side of your boat, breaking it clean in two.

Buoys that are still anchored to the seabed may be so anchored close to but not in their proper GPS position. For that reason, the Captain of the Port issued a warning to mariners to not fully depend on the location of any buoy and to only trust fixed markers (markers fixed to the seabed by pilings). Although we have done some preliminary verification of Aids to Navigation (ATONs) on our major federal channels, there are many private channels out there that have not been surveyed.

Stir It Up
Although this is a popular song by Bob Marley and the Wailers, it is also a good description of what happens to floating debris when a large vessel navigates through the ship channel. For this reason, you should not follow in the wake of another vessel, especially the large ships and towboats.

Summary
Although Hurricane Beryl is just a memory, the effects of the storm will be felt for a long time, particularly when it comes to floating debris and off station navigation buoys. Structures that are still in place, such as floating docks, may be so weakened that they will fail at some later time. If you have such a dock, please be sure to inspect it carefully.

[BC: Jul-23-2024]