15. The Coast Guard assigns the losses of most small boats to operator error
Even those who deny the supernatural effects of the Bermuda Triangle often claim the region is the site for more lost ships than any other in the world. It is not. In fact, though it is one of the highest regions of the world for sea traffic, it does not rank highly for losses. It does have an inordinate number of incidents involving small boats operated by their owners. According to the US Coast Guard the vast majority of those occur due to the inexperience and lack of preparation of the boaters. Boats departing Florida for the island of Bimini for example, frequently either fail to correct their course due to the northerly current of the Gulf Stream, which will push a boat northward as it travels across. Others overcorrect. In either case, they miss the island completely, and can quickly become lost, especially if the weather deteriorates.
Such was the case of the 23-foot yacht Witchcraft, which carried its owner, Dan Burack and a friend, a Catholic priest named Father Patrick Horgan, about a mile out from Miami in order to view the Christmas lights displayed in the city. According to the accounts by Winer, Berlitz, and others the water was calm. According to the Coast Guard, which received a distress call from Burack, the water was rough, with winds and sea rising. The Coast Guard responded to the area where Burack reported he was, but found nothing. A search over the following week failed to find the boat, or evidence of its two occupants. Burack had reported he was near a buoy which, if he was, he misidentified. To proponents of the Bermuda Triangle the boat simply vanished, in sight of land, on a calm day. Coast Guard reports indicate otherwise.