Aground!

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Aubrey

Keeping off the bottom

I took a CPS course, run a GPS patched into my laptop (Sony) and usually stay out of trouble! However, I have been known to fall overboard. I attribute that to the fact that growing old is mandatory while acting young is optional! Besides, I never was one to take the world too serious....unless I'm on board "Ma Gamine"! Then everything is taken with a serious smile!!! Happy days and warm winds!
 
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Rob Maas

Chesapeake!!! of course!

I live in Delaware and sail trhe northern tip of the chesapeake. There are 4 rivers and a canal dumping into the bay. With the silt in the rivers the bottom changes constantly. charts and depth finder read 15' the all of a sudden 3.5' hello bottom. Good thing its only mud bottom. I sailed in Newport RI with someone who cut a bell bouy short and hit rock....not as forgiving!
 
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LaDonna Bubak - CatalinaOwners.com

So *that's* why everyone else tacked so early!

Ran hard aground while solo last summer (on my first solo trip no less!!) but was buddy boating with Rob so he came back & pulled me off. Phwew!! Guess I'd better pull those river charts out again. :) LaDonna
 
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Jay Eaton

Wrong Question for Bay Sailors

The question for Chesapeake Bay sailors is NOT have you run aground or when did you last run aground BUT were you able to get off by yourself or did you need help?
 
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J.L.Miller

Kedging practice in San Diego bay

A blue sky day, running with the wind, what could be nicer. then the dink came up and nudged the stern. I look up, sails are full. Dink is now trying to pass me. I look over the side, Sand, lots of it, real close. My worst fear is realized. I'm aground!! FREAK OUT!! Drop sails, Get spare anchor and line out of lazeret, put it in dink, row out sixty feet like I'm motorized. Drop anchor, row back,set anchor and put tension on line. Held fast to sand bar. briefly wonder how well winches are attached to hull. Check tide times book, tide is coming in. Quit freaking out, make sandwich,let heart rate return to normal, pretend I'm fishing. In about forty five minuites check line tension, fin is free, pull off bar, ship anchor, raise sail, slink off. Kedging practice complete with no damage exept to pride. lesson learned. Long life, Be well. J.L.
 
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Len Eldridge

Breakfast Bump

First learned to sail on the Columbia River. After two months of sailing on the river, we towed our Catalina 22 to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound. We sailed against currents (going nowhere), sailed against the tide (going nowhere), but we finally made it into Fisherman Bay. We anchored off and enjoyed the evening with the keel pulled up and us out of the way. The next morning during breakfast we felt the soft bump, as we hit bottom at law tide. Remember our draft is only 24" with the keel up. So I jumped overboard, sunk in the mud, had to be pulled out by a couple of fisherman and we waited for the tide to come in. Just another day in paradise.
 
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Ed

Haven't run aground? You're not sailing enough.

The first time we took out the 34Hunter, we ran aground. No biggie, as we were able to backoff with no problem. While sailing the Chesapeake, the question is not "if" or "when", but "how often in the last season". ;^)
 
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Bill Doyle - S/V Calico Dragon

A lesson Learned

With our newly earned basic boating certificates from a well known but to be un-named sailing school, my wife and I chartered a Catalina 27 for a week in Charleston.S.C. We took the boat out from the Kiawah area and were enjoying a pleasant sail in a pretty empty large bay. Then along came 2 shrimp boats who were not shrimping but with us being new to sailing we wanted to stay out of their way and instead of tacking infront of them (there was plenty of room), we sailed along and hoped the 2 shrimpers would pass by quickly. It soon became apparent that we were running out of water and then made a nice soft landing in the sand. Embarrassed but remembering some of those lessons, we threw out the anchor. We were lucky as it was dead low tide so we simply sat and ate our lunch and waited for the tide to rise and motored away a couple of hours later. It was a lesson well learned as we now recognize situations developing faster and take appropriate steps, including taking our right of way when we need it. Obviously the grounding didn't deter us from sailing as we now sail the Calico Dragon, our Catalina 320, in the lobsterpot and rock infested waters of Long Island sound. Bill
 
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stefan oetter

Grounded

I haven't totally run aground. I have however, hit the rudder on submerged rocks and snapped the rudder cable...making for a difficult journer home!
 
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Robert Glasure

Grounding

The worst grounding I've had was in the Gulf ICW north of St. Petersburg when a large Coast Guard boat overtook us at high speed and forced us to run aground in the narrow channel due to the wake. The bottom was hard and we hit hard. I thought there was structural damage, but fortunately, we had a sturdy boat (no thanks to the U.S.C.G).
 
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Maeve McMenomey

L I. Sound

L.I. Sound is hardly "infested" with lobster pots and rocks - try Maine! You're talking thousands and thousands of pots everywhere - Marked channels mean nothing, they're peppered with them, even in 200' of water! Almost (I said almost) made me give up eating lobsters. And rocks, forget about it. L.I. Sound is a wide open carefree lake in comparison.
 
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Nigel Wathen

Sandy Estuaries!!

Keep away from the rocks, they hurt! In the East Coast of England there are many sandy eatuaries, where the entrance shifts. Coming out one day from an unfamilliar river, yes, after a visit to the ubiquitous pub (bar), I (couldn't blame it on the crew this time) lost by bearings and left the green buoy to starboard. Guess what, yes, hit the sand bar on a 4 knot tide. Wel & truely stuck. Managed to get off by strong wind, big genoa and copious amounts of luck. By the way, the buoyage system in the rest of the world is the opposite to that in the USA, if you're wondering! Enjoy the new season. Dawn Mystery
 
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Ken Little

Oh Yeah .... Pots. You got to Love em'

The Maine Coast is like no other when it comes to Lobster pots. I wish I had a dime for every time I bumped a pot, and a biuck for those that got wrapped around my prop. I know of a working Maine harbor, that the lobstermen purposely place a LOT of pots at the mouth of the harbor to keep out cruisers and other such riff raff. So I sit back and just follow in the lobstermen ... Ken S/V Tameye Falmouth Foreside ME.
 
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Ian Cameron

It wouldn't be sailing unless you run aground

I've grounded or hit bottom more times than I can remember, and around here that means rocks as often as not. Racing around Victoria you have to take chances in a hot fleet (Thunderbirds, IE) and there are lots of nuggets to find. I've also run aground when cruising, and had to wait out a tide or two. The most memorable occasion was on the east side of Galiano Island, in Whaler Bay. I'd never been there, and was motoring slowly in a TBird, giving lots of room to Rat Rock, which extends out from the land a fair distance. Not enough room, as it turned out. We hit, and couldn't get off with the outboard. Right at high tide, too. Fortunately, the guy we were there to visit came out in his ski boat (about 200 HP) and hauled us off. Apparently it happens all the time. What made it memorable was that we moored not far off the rock, and the next morning we woke up to discover that the tide had gone down 10 feet (not uncommon around here) and Rat Rock was dry by about 6 feet. We would have been right on top of it if he hadn't pulled us off.
 
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Joris Hitt

"Better call Vessel Assist"

I went to Catalina in my hunter 37 for the first time in quite along tme. From SD you generally come into Avalon but this time I went between San Clemente and Catalina up around the west end. I was going to moor at Emeral Bay. After an all night journey I came into Emerald Bay on a beautiful day. I turned the helm over to a long time sailing companion as I readied the boat for mooring etc. After dropping the sails etc I noticed kelp coming up and realized we had drifted further south than we shoulld have. I signaled the turn and at the same moment the boat stopped. This wasn't a soft thud, it was more like a brick wall. We had hit a rock and pushed the keel up through the galley. Long story short, we got divers in a hurry to stop the water from coming in and I limped home 80 miles the next 2 days. 30k in damage and an bruised ego to match. I had become careless when line of sight came in and things looked clear. I have since outfitted the boat with all safety needs in the event I ever have to ditch as well as taken navigation courses refreshers. I'm much more chart minded now than before.
 
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Robert "Smith"

Hard aground? Who, me?

Well, there was that time that the anchor was in 30' of water, but the boat swung into 11' of water. I figured, hey, that's fine, I draw 5', leaving 6' of liquid below. However, throw in an 8-10' tide, and there was my boat, lying on her side in mud, dirty but OK. Spent the night in a corner, making sure she righted OK and didn't dig the keel in and get stuck. Then there was the time I got lazy with a bunch of friends whom I did not want to make them move to tack. Looking over the side, I noted to myself how clearly I could see the bottom, and were those rocks down there as well? Yes, they were rocks!!! And then there was the time pulling up to the local docks where 100' yachts tie up. So it must be deep, even with a dead low tide. It was deep, just not deep enough!!! There is no chance that barnacles get to stay on the bottom of MY keel!!!
 
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Jamie Shreeves

Three times in one day

All of this took place on one "sail" on Long Beach Island with a very good friend of mine. When we showed up to the marina where the old boat was moored we found that it was high and dry where there had been water the day before. Luckily we were creative enough to wriggle the boat off the bottom. Then as we motored out we stopped to raise the sails and once again we drifted to the sandy bottom. And then finally once the sails were up we were sailing along and found we were unable to return in the direction which we had previously travelled, in order to prevent getting pulled all the way out into god knows where we beached the little 21 footer on a sand bar, took a few pictures of the light house. And then spent the next hour with anchors and the previous wriggling method (by this time we were getting good at) to get off the sand bar. Each time we got stuck not a single person offered to give us a hand but at least some of them were kind enough to slow down and gawk at our predicament. Needless to say this was the second time I had ever taken the boat out so it was a learning experience, and believe me I have learned my lesson.
 
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Wayne

You Mean That I'm Not the Only One?

I ran aground twice the first year that I got my 25' MacGregor. I was a first time sailor and the person that I purchased the boat from warned me that since the water level was down quite considerably that I should stay away from a particular area. Well I got just a little too close and came to a 'soft' stop. Thank heavens for sand bottoms. Thank heavens also for swing keels.
 
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Scott

Amuse the old timers

In asking the local "old salts" about the tricks of bottom painting, specifically how does one get the bottom of the keel?, the answer was invariably "you will run aground enough to keep the barnacles off". This was often followed by tales of repeated groundings on the same rocks or sandbar. These tales were told with great relish. So remember: when you run aground you are giving the local "old salts" the gift of merriment. Take it with good humor, and when the other guy runs aground lend them a hand and try not to smirk. You shall have your day. The rock field off of Centre Island has more than one barnacle off of my keel. How come I never hit the sandbars? "Oh no, hard to lee!" All a matter of time. Cheers! -Scott Dulcinea '66 O'day Mariner
 
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