NOAA ENC® NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION US5FPOBB - GULF OF AMERICA - 6NM S OF FREEPORT HARBOR ENTRANCE INDEX: NOTE A AUTHORITIES CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS) PUBLIC BOATING INSTRUCTION PROGRAMS CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES AIDS TO NAVIGATION WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES CAUTION - SMALL CRAFT CAUTION - LIMITATIONS CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA CAUTION - WARNINGS CONCERNING LARGE VESSELS RULES OF THE ROAD (ABRIDGED) SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION POLLUTION REPORTS RADAR REFLECTORS HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS MARINE WEATHER FORECASTS - NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS BROADCASTS OF MARINE WEATHER FORECASTS AND WARNINGS BY MARINE RADIOTELEPHONE STATIONS WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES ADMINISTRATION AREA ADDITIONAL INFORMATION COMMENTS REQUESTED NOTES: NOTE A Navigation regulations are published in Chapter 2, U.S. Coast Pilot 5. Additions or revisions to Chapter 2 are published in the Notice to Mariners. Information concerning the regulations may be obtained at the Office of the Commander, 8th Coast Guard District in New Orleans, LA, or at the Office of the District Engineer, Corps of Engineers in Galveston, TX. Refer to charted regulation section numbers. AUTHORITIES Hydrography and topography by the National Ocean Service, Coast Survey, with additional data from the Corps of Engineers, Geological Survey, and U.S. Coast Guard. CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS) Limitations on the use of radio signals as aids to marine navigation can be found in the U.S. Coast Guard Light Lists and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Publication 117. Radio direction-finder bearings to commercial broadcasting stations are subject to error and should be used with caution. PUBLIC BOATING INSTRUCTION PROGRAMS The America's Boating Club®, United States Power Squadrons®, and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary (USCGAUX) conduct extensive boating instruction programs in communities throughout the United States. For information regarding these educational courses, and finding a course near you, click on the following public sources: https://www.americasboatingclub.org/index.php/learn and https://www.cgaux.org/boatinged/ . CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES Additional uncharted submarine pipelines and submarine cables may exist within the area of this chart. Not all submarine pipelines and submarine cables are required to be buried, and those that were originally buried may have become exposed. Mariners should use extreme caution when operating vessels in depths of water comparable to their draft in areas where pipelines and cables may exist, and when anchoring, dragging or trawling. Covered wells may be marked by lighted or unlighted buoys. MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES Obstruction lights and sound (fog) signals are required for fixed mineral development structures shown, subject to approval by the District Commander, U.S. Coast Guard (33 CFR 67). AIDS TO NAVIGATION Consult U.S. Coast Guard Light List for supplemental information concerning aids to navigation. WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER The prudent mariner will not rely solely on any single aid to navigation, particularly on floating aids. See U.S. Coast Guard Light List and U.S. Coast Pilot for details. CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES Temporary changes or defects in aids to navigation are not indicated. See Local Notice to Mariners. CAUTION - SMALL CRAFT Small craft should stay clear of large commercial and government vessels even if small craft have the right-of-way. All craft should avoid areas where the skin divers flag, a red square with a diagonal white stripe, is displayed. CAUTION - LIMITATIONS Limitations on the use of radio signals as aids to marine navigation can be found in the U.S. Coast Guard Light Lists and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Publication 117. Radio direction-finder bearings to commercial broadcasting stations are subject to error and should be used with caution. CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA The areas represented by the object M_QUAL (Quality of Data) are approximate due to generalizing for clarity. Caution is advised, particularly for nearshore navigation or voyage planning. M_QUAL represents areas of uniform quality of bathymetric data. The CATZOC (Category of Zone of Confidence in Data) attribute of M_QUAL provides an assessment of the overall zone of confidence. CAUTION - WARNINGS CONCERNING LARGE VESSELS The "Rules of the Road" state that recreational boats shall not impede the passage of a vessel that can navigate only within a narrow channel or fairway. Large vessels may appear to move slowly due to their large size but actually transit at speeds in excess of 12 knots, requiring a great distance in which to maneuver or stop. A large vessel's superstructure may block the wind with the result that sailboats and sailboards may unexpectedly find themselves unable to maneuver. Bow and stern waves can be hazardous to small vessels. Large vessels may not be able to see small craft close to their bows. RULES OF THE ROAD (ABRIDGED) Motorless craft have the right-of-way in almost all cases. Sailing vessels and motorboats less than 19.8 meters/65 feet in length shall not hamper, in a narrow channel, the safe passage of a vessel which can navigate only inside that channel. A motorboat being overtaken has the right-of-way. Motorboats approaching head-to-head, or nearly so, should pass port to port. When motorboats approach each other at right angles or obliquely, the boat on the right has the right-of-way in most cases. Motorboats must keep to the right in narrow channels when safe and practicable. Mariners are urged to become familiar with the complete text of the Rules of the Road in U.S. Coast Guard publication "Amalgamated International & U.S. Inland Navigation Rules". SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Consult U.S. Coast Pilot 5 for important supplemental information. POLLUTION REPORTS Report all spills of oil and hazardous substances to the National Response Center via 1-800-424-8802 (toll free), or to the nearest U.S. Coast Guard facility if telephone communication is impossible (33 CFR 153). RADAR REFLECTORS Radar reflectors have been placed on many floating aids to navigation. Individual radar reflector identification on these aids has been omitted from this chart. HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS Hurricanes, tropical storms and other major storms may cause considerable damage to marine structures, aids to navigation and moored vessels, resulting in submerged debris in unknown locations. Charted soundings, channel depths and shoreline may not reflect actual conditions following these storms. Fixed aids to navigation may have been damaged or destroyed. Buoys may have been moved from their charted positions, damaged, sunk, extinguished or otherwise made inoperative. Mariners should not rely upon the position or operation of an aid to navigation. Wrecks and submerged obstructions may have been displaced from charted locations. Pipelines may have become uncovered or moved. Mariners are urged to exercise extreme caution and are requested to report aids to navigation discrepancies and hazards to navigation to the nearest United States Coast Guard unit. MARINE WEATHER FORECASTS - NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CITY TELEPHONE NUMBER OFFICE HOURS Houston, TX *(281) 337-5074 8:00 AM-4:00 PM (Mon.-Fri.) *Recording (24 hours daily) NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS The NOAA Weather Radio stations listed below provide continuous weather broadcasts. The reception range is typically 20 to 40 nautical miles from the antenna site, but can be as much as 100 nautical miles for stations at high elevations. Galveston, TX KHB-40 162.550MHz BROADCASTS OF MARINE WEATHER FORECASTS AND WARNINGS BY MARINE RADIOTELEPHONE STATIONS CITY STATION (kHz) DAILY BROADCAST-CST SPECIAL WARNINGS Galveston, Texas NOY 2670 4:50 6:50 10:50 A.M. *On receipt 4:50 P.M. Port Aransas, Texas NOY-3 2670 4:40 6:40 10:40 A.M. *On receipt 4:40 P.M. * Preceded by announcement on 2182 KHz and 156.8 MHz Distress calls for small craft are made on 2182 kHz or channel 16 (156.80 MHz) VHF. WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES Real-time water levels, tide predictions, and tidal current predictions are available on the internet from NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) at https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/water_level_info.html and https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents_info.html. ADMINISTRATION AREA This area covers land, internal waters, and territorial sea. The territorial sea is a maritime zone over which the United States exercises sovereignty extending to the airspace as well as to its bed and subsoil. For more information, please refer to the Coast Pilot. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Additional information can be obtained at www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov COMMENTS REQUESTED NOAA encourages users to submit inquiries, discrepancies, or comments about this chart via NOAA's ASSIST tool at https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/customer-service/assist/. END OF FILE