Navigation:
Fire Island Light (40°37’57″N., 73°13’07″W.), 167 feet above the water, is shown from a black and white horizontally banded tower about 4 miles east-northeastward of Democrat Point. Fire Island Coast Guard Station is about 1.9 miles west-southwestward of the light. A water tower, about 208 feet high, marked by floodlights and visible for 16 miles, is about 0.1 mile southwest of the Fire Island Coast Guard Station.
The Robert Moses Causeway Bridge over Fire Island Inlet, 2.1 miles inside the entrance, has a clearance of 65 feet at the 464-foot center span. The bridge is an excellent radar target at a range of more than 12 miles.
Two boat basins at the Robert Moses (Fire Island) State Park are entered just westward of the southern end of the bridge. Berths and water are available in the basins between sunrise and sunset. In 1981, depths of 7 feet and 6 feet were reported available in the east and west basins, respectively.
The currents in Fire Island Inlet, after crossing the bar, have a velocity of about 2.4 knots at full strength and are influenced greatly by the force and direction of the wind. In the bay, currents have little velocity except in the narrow channels between the shoals and within a radius of 3 miles from Fire Island Coast Guard Station where their estimated velocity is 1 to 1.5 knots.
Fire Island Inlet remains open throughout the year, but ice does become a problem in the inland channels through Great South Bay from early January through about mid-March.
Several channels lead from Fire Island Inlet to places in Great South Bay and connecting inside waterways. These channels are marked with buoys that are shifted in position with changing conditions.
The area between Fire Island Inlet and Jones Inlet is characterized by low, sandy beaches and numerous islands fringed by vast stretches of marshy ground. Many shallow areas, irregular in outline, are a serious menace to the navigation of light-draft vessels. An extensive network of bays, creeks, coves, channels and inlets covers the entire area.
The channel connecting Great South Bay with Jones Inlet, East Bay, and South Oyster Bay is narrow and treacherous and has numerous short bends. Caution should be exercised when navigating in these areas in small boats.
From Fire Island Inlet the State Boat Channel leads westward through Great South Bay and South Oyster Bay to Zacks Bay at Jones Beach State Park, thence westward in Hempstead Bay through winding channels, well marked by lights, buoys and daybeacons to Reynolds Channel at Point Lookout, just west of Jones Inlet.
The speed of vessels is limited to 10.4 knots (12 mph) in the channel and 3.5 knots (4 mph) in the areas designated as basin or anchorage.
A marina on the south side of the channel at the eastern end of Captree Island has berthage, gasoline, diesel fuel, water and ice.
The Robert Moses Causeway Bridge over the State Boat Channel, connecting Oak Beach with Captree Island, has twin bascule spans with a clearance of 29 feet at the center. The twin fixed spans of this bridge and causeway over the inside passage in Great South Bay between Captree Island and Conklin Point have a clearance of 60 feet for a middle width of 460 feet.
A shellfish closure area, marked by private yellow buoys, extends from the Robert Moses Causeway at Conklin Point westward for about 6.8 miles to Narraskatuck Creek.