Inlets
Inlets in Florida
The ways in from the sea: the depths their keepers publish, the nearest gauges, and what the Coast Pilot warns about.
Fort Lauderdale, Miami & Biscayne BayBakers Haulover InletA cut dredged through the barrier beach at the north end of Biscayne Bay, 11.6 miles south of Port Everglades, to circulate water in the bay. The A1A bridge over it is a fixed span with a published clearance of 32 feet.Stuart, Jupiter & the Palm BeachesBoca Raton InletA narrow dredged cut 5 miles north of Hillsboro Inlet Entrance Light, crossed by the A1A bascule bridge. Coast Pilot 4 reports 1 to 3 feet at low tide, currents to 7 knots, and an unmarked channel whose bar shifts with the wind.Fort Lauderdale, Miami & Biscayne BayGovernment CutThe dredged entry to the Port of Miami between two unmarked jetties. A federal project carries 52 feet from the sea buoy to inside the cut, and Coast Pilot 4 records that the Biscayne Bay Pilots find cross-channel current variations here particularly difficult to negotiate.Fort Lauderdale, Miami & Biscayne BayHillsboro InletThirty-one miles south of Lake Worth Inlet, a marked entrance channel under the Hillsboro Inlet Entrance Light. Coast Pilot 4 warns that the jetties are submerged at the entrance channel and that rocky reefs extend north and south of the entrance lights.Stuart, Jupiter & the Palm BeachesJupiter InletThe way in to Jupiter Sound, the Loxahatchee River and Lake Worth Creek, with the Intracoastal Waterway half a mile inside the entrance. Coast Pilot 4 calls it dangerous and particularly hazardous to small boats not designed for the open seas, and describes a sandbar across the whole inlet whose openings shift with the weather.Stuart, Jupiter & the Palm BeachesLake Worth InletA dredged cut through the barrier beach, 11 miles south of Jupiter Inlet Light, protected by two jetties. A federal project carries 35 feet through the entrance channel, and Coast Pilot 4 puts the Gulf Stream about 2 miles off this stretch of coast.Fort Lauderdale, Miami & Biscayne BayPort EvergladesTwo unmarked jetties protect an entrance Coast Pilot 4 calls virtually landlocked, 301 miles south of Jacksonville and 20 miles north of the Miami Harbor entrance. The port authority gives the outer entrance channel an existing depth of 45 feet.