Aground!

[Lex]

THANK GOD FOR POWER BOATS

I ran aground in the channel about 2 mile s from my harbor. I had only been in that harbor a few months. The marking for the channel was horrible. I was out with a few friends having a good old time then, well you know what happened. I tried everything I could think of sails, anchors, everyone to one side, a combination of the three. NO LUCK. Finally a 45' Hatteras came by (granted we had been there a couple hours and done decided to relocate the party from the island to the channel)anyways, as the boat passed hae actually slowed down (go figure) well, I managed to hail him on the VHF and told him "don't give me a break now I need the wake", he felt the need for power and so we were saved. We still had fun, guess any time on a sailboat is fun.

 

[Roger]

Navy to the rescue (not)

When I was a kid (45 years ago) we ran aground in our family's 36-foot wooden cat boat off the Navy Yard at the mouth of the Schullkyl River (gee, I forget how to spell that) in the Delaware River. Even though the 'Sunbeam' was a centerboard boat, we where fast in the mud. Someone at the Yard saw our predicamant, and sent out a launch to assist. They promtly went hard aground. So they sent out a second launch, who managed to extradite the first launch. They waved goodbye to us, and we then just waited the eight hours until the next high tide. Go Navy.

 

[Eric]

Don't pull up that keel!

Our first cruise ever was in a 19' Oday Mariner. After a splendid day of sailing we turned to port to enter Swan Creek (near Rock Hall on the Eastern Shore of Maryland). Of course we were blissfully ignorant of the notorious bar that came down about 1/2 mile from a spit of land to the north of the cove. Near dusk, we turned, and with a cool 15 knot northerly breeze at our back plowed right onto that bar. Our gut instinct was to pull up the keel which turned out to be the exact wrong thing to do! It allowed our little boat to get blown so far up onto the bar that we were ankle deep and had no hope of pushing her back into deep water. After my first mate (newly wed wife) stopped crying, we ate chicken soup and hotdogs. Finally at 2:00 am we began to float, fired up the old British Seagull and gingerly poked our way around the bar, through the darkness and into Swan Creek. It was our worst grounding ever, but we learned some valuable lessons that night. Keep the keel down, and turn around fast!

 

[Bill Coxe]

HARD aground

During the last sail of the season, summer before last, when I hadn't yet found the O-28, I put my O-22 aground in the Mystic River. The bad part was that we were doing about 6 knots when we grounded and it was beginning to look like a get-out-and-push scenario, and my partner (now my fiancee) didn't have a lot of sailing experience. The good part was when she asked me what I ws going to do next, I told her I didn't know, and she said "OK." Definitely a keeper. I accepted a tow (gratefully) from a fisherman out in his older twin-screw boat. He had a full crew of family and friends and DID NOT gloat. After we were off and I tried to thank him, he just said "Don't go forward." We called it a day.

 

[Bob Walker]

thank goodness for a swing keel

Just completed 20 day cruise with my daughter in the British Columbia Gulf Islands. When sailing from Wallace Island to Dacourcy Island we did a quick exploritory detour into the new Whalback Island Marine Park. On heading back into the main channel the depth guage started to back up and as I turned away from Whaleback Isl. bang!! luck was with us and after the keel bounced up and over there was enough water for us to pass over the reef. I was a getting a little too cockey and after re examining the chart I could planly see the shallow area. One of the highlights of our trip was my daughter catching our dinner of Crabs from our dingy in a cove with her butterfly net.

 

[Bob]

Hit the crank,Sweets!!

Sure! When you sail Little Naragansett Bay at Watch Hill RI its almost a way of life unless you're willing to be jammed in with lots of others on a weekend. We like serenity and seek out the quiet places where its cleaner and well away from cigarette-stench. Unless there's rocks, aground is no problem; just keep the keel down and if it touches pivot around, crank it up a bit, and go. I'll trade a bit of performance for a swing-keel shoal draft anytime

 

[John Averell]

Only the starboard side ran aground.

On the Great South Bay in Massapequa, Long Island (NY) one must sail within the channel, as the surrounding waters are very shallow. In my 21' Narrasketuck, I slipped out of the channel and the starboard side, long centerboard and skeg ran aground, stopping the boat. I jumped over the starboard side into six inches of water to push the boat back into the channel, when my crew, a helpful but inexperienced friend, lept over the port side, fully expecting to be ankle deep also, when he disappeared into eight feet of water on his side of the boat. My friend.....ASTONISHED.Myself.....breathless with laughter. That's my running aground story.

 

[SailboatOwners.com]

Final results

Final results for the Quick Quiz ending 5/5/2002:Have you been aground?40% I went aground in home waters30% I went aground underway in unfamiliar waters24% I have never run aground (yet!) 07% I went aground while at anchor 1027 owners responding

 

[Bob]

It finally happend

Well, I was told it would happen sooner or later and it did this past weekend. My wife and I were sailing "home waters" in the Chesapeake Bay near our port of Havre de Grace. For those of you who know don't know this area, there is a channel (which we call the "slot") that runs from Havre de Grace to the bay proper. It's only about 200 ft. wide at one point (near red 14) and while we were returning to port I just simply wasn't paying attention. I noticed that red 14 was way to far to our port side and was just about to change course when we hit bottom. What a sick feeling! We were only there for about ten minutes but it felt like ten hours. We got out by lowering our sails (we we running wing to wing) and then both my wife and I hung over the port side while I ran the motor with the wheel locked. The list shortened how much our draft was and we popped right out. Wonder when it will happen again!

 

[steven]

not yet, but just started sailing.

i just started sailing about 3 years ago. haven't run aground but i'm pretty anal about watching charts. thankfully i only draft 3 feet with my shoal keel. it makes for bad close hauled sailing but i can sail in some shallow waters. Here in the Potomac it is all pretty much soft mud so if/when i do, it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[John Dorowski]

Aground at night

I was sailing all day with my ex navy father-in-law (his first time with me) in the Gulf of Mexico along St, Pete Beach. At days end the water turned choppy, and we got headed for our return. I turned a 180 and went back to the IC and all the bridges. I followed a large paddle-wheel dinner cruise boat throught the first bridge into Gulfport's Boca Ciega Bay. I let him pull away from me tostay out from his wake.It was about 10 in the evening now, and I had fixed on my 4 second red flasher, but couldn't see my nearby markers. Sure enough, I was 20 feet to port of the narrow channel. The egrets standing there as if laughing, as I crawled into the dark mushy, bottomed water, and began to push. My wife manned the 5HP Nissan as I twisted the boat at the stern near the engine!I sent my father-in-law to the forward berth to get some leverage, and after my wife suggested spending the night, I persisted until I oushed her through the 20ft of muck to the channel. An hour later, we were back under way.It's real shallow here, but an O'Day 222 only draws 18 inches with the board up. That's embarrasing.

 

[Bob]

The Hazelwood Award

Our Catalina 30 with a full fin keel has sailed Southern California, the Chesapeake, Potomac, and the San Francisco Bay. We found the East coast waters to have the bottom too close to the top. After an afternoon of frustration in trying to stay within a narrow channel leading to our slip in Southern Virginia, running aground, backing out, running aground, kedging off, repeatedly , we decided to give recognition to the helmsman who ran aground last; the Joseph Hazelwood award. He who drives us aground last is holder of the award. It passes on next time. Of course our groundings don't have the impact of the Exxon Valdez, but we thought it appropriate. Since we have returned to the Pacific, it looks like it will be a long time before I get to pass this "honor" on...