Boater warns of metal piling in water ahead of July 4th weekend

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — As the Fourth of July approaches, thousands of people are preparing to hit the waters of the Cape Fear to celebrate and one woman is warning boaters to take extra care around the waters of Wrightsville Beach.

Heather Lane, her two sons, and their friend were headed towards Motts Channel from Banks Channel after parking their boat at the public dock for lunch on Friday.

They noticed a red buoy. Growing up in the area, Lane is a lifelong boater and knows what different buoys mean. She thought the buoy was a channel marker, so did her son, William, who was driving the boat so they stayed to the right of the buoy.

“That’s when we heard a loud noise and that’s pretty much all I remember at that time,” Lane said.

The buoy was marking a metal piling. They hit it and she was thrown from the boat and her oldest son, Patrick, was briefly knocked unconscious.

“I just have this image of water going everywhere, not knowing which way was up and thinking I was drowning,” Lane said.

Her sons and their friend jumped into action. William immediately turned the motor off and after Patrick came to, he jumped in the water to save her when she surfaced. Their friend, Woody, passed off the life jackets to Patrick and kept Heather calm after she got back on the boat.

Despite the boat taking on water, they managed to get it to a nearby island until TowBoatUs Captain Jesse Pushee responded to the wreck.

“Once we did get it out of the water, we found a pretty good-sized hole in there so the obstruction is pretty well planted in there so do exercise caution on the holiday weekend,” Pushee said.

Jason Miller, Officer in Charge at the Wrightsville Beach Coast Guard Station, says the obstruction is a Coast Guard piling that had been hit and broken months ago, but they weren’t notified of the accident, only that it was missing.

“It’s only fully exposed at a real dead low tide, so it’s hard to really see it exactly because most of the time it’s underwater,” Miller said.

Now they are waiting for a CG Cutter from Fort Macon to pull it out.

In the meantime, he advises everyone to be extremely cautious in the channel around the buoy. Since the buoy floats with the tide, it marks the area and not the exact location of the piling.

“You want to give it as much of a berth as you can, that way you’re not running the chance of actually running up on whatever that obstruction is,” Miller said.

Heather Lane and her family are okay. They don’t plan to get back in the water anytime soon, but they want to make sure people who are headed out keep an eye out for the buoy in Banks Channel.

For boaters headed out to sea this weekend, Miller shared some tips on how to make sure your holiday is as safe as possible.

“Take a safe boating course, there’s a number of them online and the Coast Guard Auxillary offers them for very little expense,” Miller said. “Try to be smart. A boat is just as dangerous, if not more so than driving a car.”

Acknowledging Masonboro Island is a hot spot for celebrations, including those that involve alcohol, he advises boaters to have a designated driver and make a plan.

“People go out there without a plan. They go out there and spend the day drinking not thinking about the fact that they have to get back to their boat and drive back to the dock or the boat ramp. Then a lot of them are going to have to get in a car to drive that boat home as well,” Miller said. “Think about how the end of your day is going to go so that you have that plan.”

The officer sums up all his tips simply, urging boaters to be as safe as possible.

“Treat your boat like you would your car, really be safe with it,” Miller said. “Drive it responsibly, drink responsibly, and don’t become one of those search and rescue cases.”