Blackfin tuna respond to chumlines in March. Local angler Mark Viau hooked this one in 62 fee.

The issue came to a head in May of 2004 when angry boaters packed a city council meeting to demand the inlet be cleared. They told personal horror stories about using the waterway.

Many boat owners, especially those with larger vessels, say they now must head south to Hillsboro Inlet or north to Lake Worth to reach the ocean. The closest inlet north in Boynton Beach can also be dangerous and it has a fixed bridge that makes it impassable for tall boats.

As this issue of FS was going to press, a major dredging was scheduled for the mouth of Boca Inlet in mid-February, weather permitting. If all goes well, it should take about a week. Until dredging is complete, the inlet is considered “local knowledge only,” according to Folden.

“Bigger boats are using Hillsboro Inlet instead,” he says. “You can rest assured we’ve encouraged the city to be more aggressive and dredge on an as-need basis,” he says.

Safe Passage To stay safe when heading out of the Boca inlet, you can check sea conditions on an Internet Webcam. The camera allows boaters to see live wide-angle views and close-ups of the inlet. Visit: www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/webcams/bocainlet/   The north side of the inlet is shallower, so most boaters navigate through the south side where it’s deeper. Turn south at the mouth of the inlet, running parallel to the beach for about a third of a mile to avoid the shoal. Turn east at the third condo building to head out into the ocean. Be aware that the shoal regularly moves, so watch for the sandbar before turning east. The north jetty is damaged from recent hurricanes and repairs haven’t been started yet, according to Gene Folden, who is on Boca’s marine advisory board.

The inlet controversy pits boaters against the owners of pricey homes on the beach. Beachfront residents want the city to keep their beaches fat and wide with regular sand renourishment projects. That very sand pumped in from offshore creates dangerous inlet shoals.

“Renourishment is a great part of the problem,” says Folden. “The city tends to put people who live on the beach first. But they need to set funds aside to keep the inlet safe.”

The city now spends about $462,000 a year to dredge inside the inlet. Several days a week, sand is pumped from inside the inlet to the beach directly south. But that does nothing to open the mouth of the inlet.

The bottom line: Beach renourishment and big storms equal big trouble for Boca Inlet.

In 2004, a beach renourishment project pumped 478,000 cubic yards of offshore sand onto 1.5 miles of Boca shoreline. That sand hadn’t even settled when hurricanes Jeanne and Frances blasted through and left the sand near the mouth of the inlet for area boaters, a threat to navigation and life itself. Beach residents were upset because the storms washed away an estimated two-thirds of their sand, a huge waste of time and money.

Bill Fenner, a captain with Sea Tow, has been rescuing boaters from Boca’s inlet for six years. He was involved in the rescue effort in the 2001 inlet drowning.

“I’m really upset at the city,” he says. “Common sense isn’t prevailing. They need to dredge every 3 to 5 years, instead of 5 to 7. Otherwise, one of these days there will be another fatality.”

Before the scheduled 2005 dredging, Fenner says the inlet was unsafe for boats with more than a 4-foot draft. Part of what makes the inlet so difficult to navigate is that the position of the ebb shoal can be unpredictable, moving with each storm.

“The local captains know how to do it, but it’s tricky,” says Fenner.

FS