My decade of annual ICW snowbird migrations has given me the impression that increasing numbers of boaters are running down the wrong side of the channel.  These encounters seem to be increasing  more each season and even my crew, who normally pays little attention to navigation, asked me, “Why is everyone on the wrong side of the channel this year?”   Failure to follow the navigational rule that vessels in narrow channels remain as far to starboard as safe and practical is especially aggravating on blind bends.  Suddenly there is a boat ahead and they will often be so close that there is not sufficient water to starboard for a proper port to port meeting.  I have moved over for boats and then had them follow me, pushing me into water so shallow that I have had to stop and wait for them to pass while several boat lengths of deep water lie on their other side.  Crossing another vessel’s bow in these situations is risky because, if they suddenly think they should do a proper meeting, there could easily be a collision.

 

The concept of navigating by following a track downloaded from the Internet is becoming increasingly popular.  Bob Scherer, who provides tracks of the deepest water along the ICW, has recently written an excellent article for the new edition of the Waterway Guide on the need to depart from tracks to comply with the navigation rules and common sense safety.  I am not a user of Navionics auto routing and he pointed out something to me that may explain the failure of many boaters to respond appropriately when meeting other vessels.

 

Navionics draws its routes around the inside of every bend at the safe depth the user has set for their boat.  This means that, if the channel curves to port and the person at the helm believes that they must follow the track closely, they will be rounding the bend on the wrong side of the channel for courteous and safe navigation.  Since the draft of most vessels on the ICW falls within a fairly narrow range, there will also be many circumstances where there is not enough depth between the offending vessel and the shore for a proper port to port meeting.

 

There have always been and always will be idiots on the water.  However, having a popular navigation program prompting users to violate safe practice is certainly contributing to the problem.  Garmin clearly has the resources to program auto routing to distinguish between left hand and right hand bends.  We in the ICW community should be encouraging and pressuring them to do so.

 

Roger Long

M/V Gypsy Star