It Finally Happened

Nov 22, 2008
3,562
Endeavour 32 Portland, Maine
I should have saved the title of my previous post for this one. Or, maybe it was prescient. Anyway, after over half a century of sailing and cruising, I finally ran aground. Oh sure, I’ve bumped before while poking around in places where that was an expected part of the game but, I’ve never had an experience meeting this forum’s definition of “Running Aground”.

During my first trip, I counted off the states I went through without the keel touching bottom until I had to plow through a mud bank about 100 yard into Georgia. The many shallow spots that I’ve plowed through since show the accuracy of the definition we came up with then.

Running aground means being unable to move without waiting for tide or tow due to keel contact with the bottom.
As long as the boat keeps moving, it doesn’t count.

Well, I can’t duck this one. We were coming around the infamous corner in the Amelia River at Marker 18 headed for St. Marys. I had the GPS zoomed too far out so it looked like I was close to the course I had laid over my southbound track. Dreameagle came up from below and, with that distraction and momentary blocking of the GPS, I swung too soon. “Squish!”, we were stuck. Backing off with a strong wind and current behind us clearly wasn’t going to work so I tried bulling through. The numbers on the depth sounder just kept dropping and Strider began to heel. I rolled out the jib but the additional heel and drive wouldn’t budge here even with the engine running hard. Nothing for it but to wait it out, stuck fast right on the line between the two red markers (the favored side here).



We stuck at 1355 with about four inches of the minus tide yet to drop and the sounder reading 3.8 feet. By 1500, the heel was easing. A powerboat went by and I felt the keel bumping bottom with the wake. A lot of power and a bit of jib got the head around and she began to move. Ten minutes later, we were underway scraping and plowing over and through the other little humps in this section.

We were still on schedule to make St. Marys in time for happy hour but the stiff west wind sending spray over the bow and the prospect of the current in the river turning us stern to it made me opt for the shorter run up inside Drum Point Island across from Cumberland. The shelter here is rather minimal and we are bouncing around a bit but the current is only setting us sideways with the chop broken by the low shore a few hundred yards away. Hopefully, the wind will go down with the sun.

They say there are two kinds of sailors, those who have run aground and liars. I've been proud to be a liar for over half a century but I guess I'm not one anymore.
 
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Jan 12, 2011
930
Hunter 410 full time cruiser
Took 50 years? Someone hasn't been trying very hard to tuck into anchorages.

BTW - I went aground the very first time I took my first boat away from the dock. It was in the channel that they had taken the markers out of.
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Took 50 years? Someone hasn't been trying very hard to tuck into anchorages.

BTW - I went aground the very first time I took my first boat away from the dock. It was in the channel that they had taken the markers out of.
The attitude I saw in Florida (lots of shallow water around) was simply: "If you don't go aground a couple of times a year--you're not out sailing enough!" I must have been hard aground at least 5 times in 11 years so I guess I was not getting out enough by a factor of 4!
 
Feb 21, 2010
330
Beneteau 31 016 St-Lawrence river
Secure anchoring

You may still say that you never ran aground... it was just an unplanned very secure anchorage! I've been securely anchored so many times I couldn't even think to start counting.
 

Attachments

BobT

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Sep 29, 2008
239
Gulfstar 37 North East River, Chesapeake Bay
I prefer to think of it as calibrating the depth sounder. Preferably done with soft mud, of course. It is one of the few times we can be grateful for a power boat wake!
 
Apr 11, 2012
324
Cataina 400 MK II Santa Cruz
Great story. The way we said it was, "There's two types of sailors, those who have run aground, and those who are gonna."
 

Nils T

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Jun 1, 2014
44
Precision 23 Winter Park, FL
Three types of Sailors: (3) Those that will not admit they have run aground.
 
Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
Roger, you’ve met my Singles on Sailboats (SOS) club people a couple of times in Galesville. One awards banquet, the MC asked all skippers to stand up and take a bow. We did, but then she added to “stay up”. (uh=oh). We have “Jibe-Ho” awards for those, well, “unusual happenings”, shall we say?
She said the bay is not without its hazards, like running aground, so how about if anyone who has NOT run aground once in a day, “sit down”. No one sat down. How about those who HAVE run aground once in a day “sit down”. Most of us sat down, but a few stayed up. How about those who have run aground TWICE on the same day, “sit down”. All the others sat down. She said, wait a minute, someone should still be standing. “Bob, where are you?”. Bob got up with a quizzical look; “who me? What? Huh?”. According to her paperwork Bob ran aground THREE times in one day. Upon hearing that, Fritz stood up and said “oh, that’s mine”. Seems he had borrowed Bob’s boat for a club weekend cruise, ran aground three times, but never told Bob about it.
 
Oct 4, 2008
142
Hunter 36 Mulberry Cove Marina
No pride here. I can't count the number of times I have run aground since I began boating (1972) here in Florida. Both in the St. Johns River and ICW.
 
Sep 27, 2014
57
Montgomery 17 driveway
I find the abrupt CRUNCH!!! and stopping of forward motion so upsetting I refuse to do it. I will find some other way to "calibrate my depth sounder";-}}}}
 
Jul 13, 2010
1,097
Precision 23 Perry Hall,Baltimore County
My first and only (so far) was last summer,Stillpond )Eastern Shore. I`m getting ready to get out and walk the anchor back to the channel to try to winch out, here comes a guy and girl on (1 standup ) paddleboard. They pushed us off while i closely monitored her movemnts.(Drop dead knockout, killer bikini)!!
Afterwards , I`m inviting them aboard for drinks and dinner, insisting, They laughingly declined.Paddling away, we waving out of the side of the Admirals mouth "Think your smart huh?" "Just being neighbourly ,hun" She didn`t buy it I suspect.:D