And perhaps this is one instance where the Captain was negligent. Conditions where a real risk of peril existed and he chose to continue to proceed in shore without his passengers donning pfd's.
I was not there to be able to scan the sets of waves running at the time, and I don't think you were either.
When I had my Regal out and the seas came up a lot, the only reason for stopping and watching the sets, would be that the tide and shoaling was such that the large waves were being complicated by much too shallow water between the waves. This would be a common concern at certain times when coming in to the Boynton Inlet, but it would never be a factor at the Palm Beach Inlet( Lake Worth Inlet). In fact, any captain that was really scared about the Boynton Inlet on a given return trip, would likely be thinking about how nice the Palm Beach inlet would be, and if they had fuel to get there.
If I was going to stop in this accident scenario, I would have to stop COMPLETELY OUTSIDE the surf zone. From there, you would read the set, and decide which wave to run after, and get on the back half of, and to ride in.
But if I or any other Captain was going to stop, we would be very sure we were out beyond the surf zone of the inlet.
At this point, I can only add conjecture....he must have been where he would usually stop to read the wave sets.... Maybe some scouring or shoaling had occurred, and the waves were changing in the area from which they would begin to stand up....usually where it starts to get shallow...so maybe a sand bar was forming much further out than usual ? Or...Maybe this really was a unique wave that formed much farther out than waves ever form....this taking the boat by surprise....
Because I had lots of power on my boat, and could run in only 3 feet of water, I would usually read the sets well before I got close, and just grab the convenient wave on the way in...Stopping for me usually would occur only if other boats were lined up reading the sets, and at Boynton you go in single file, and you take your turn
In other words, I would do this from a stop sometimes, but this was not the way I liked to do it. I never liked stopping and getting off of plane on my way in. Stopping also means having to worry about the waves hitting your stern....usually being outside the surfzone makes this benign as problems go. Clearly the captain felt the shape of the waves, the tidal flow, and the depth of the inlet, dictated that he stop and attempt to find the safest and easiest way to "ride in". The "rogue wave" was a shock to him. I think if he had any concerns whatever that he was going to have a dangerous entrance, he would either have alerted all the passengers to what he considered a "Dangerous Situation" --and certainly the PFD talk would have been covered----OR, more likely, he would have decided to go in a major inlet like at Port Everglades or the Palm Beach Inlet ( which ever was closest). If he had insufficient fuel for the big inlets, there would have been radio chatter if this was the conundrum.
