Hard Aground in Georgia

[Roger Long]

The boat is leaning slightly with that horrible, dead, feeling I only dimly remember from decades ago. I’m looking out anxiously every five minutes landmarks in the mud. Half an hour to go before it turns at the nearest tide prediction point but it’s still dropping so, who knows? It had to happen sometime and it is Friday the thirteenth so it figures.

However, my navigational streak is intact. I’m tied to the travel lift finger at Saint Marys Boat Services [URL="http://www.stmarysboatservices.com/[/url"]http://www.stmarysboatservices.com/[/url], a great little boatyard whose business plan is serving the long term cruisers and liveaboard do it yourselfer's. It’s a little dicey to get into so I came up on a rising tide. After I looked at my depth sounder and did some math, they assured me that boats larger and deeper than Strider have laid at this dock. I forgot to ask, “Without going aground?”

Excuse me, the docklines are creaking again, I’ve got to go slack them a bit. I’m trying to end up with them taut at when the tide starts flooding so there will be minimal line tending during the night.

No complaints about this place though. I tied up, pumped the oil out of the hot engine for a slightly overdue oil change and the mechanic showed up just as I was turning my attention to the water pump studs. The pump has been weeping slightly since Canada and the flow increased during the past week to the point that the whole front of the engine under the pump was frosted with salt stalactites.

$45.00 later, yes, you read that right, the rebuild kit which I had shipped to the yard was installed and the pump was back on the engine. No charge for dockage, oil disposal, or anything else. This is going to be [[]Strider’s[/i] spa from this point on. There are several boats with people living aboard on the hard while they do major repair work. A great place.

Ah, I just looked out and I don’t think the water is any lower than the last time I looked. I could have avoided all this but, after what I saw on the way in, I didn’t want to try going down the river on a falling tide. Besides, there is a brisk wind today and backing out would have been very difficult in the tight space to the mudbank.

I’m headed back to Saint Mary’s tomorrow where I have to hang out for a couple days to pick up mail. I’m still undecided about what to do next but just hanging out seems very attractive.

 

[Rick D]

I really hate that feeling! There are very few places in SoCal where one can be aground, but I have manged to find them twice. If you do this often, you would feel very at home in San Diego!

 

[Bill1565]

We've had boats that drew 3' 4' and 5'. Been aground with each. Not a big deal. Patience. ? Does this count? Are you not a liar?

 

[Jimm]

Without an occassional minor crisis it could hardly be called an adventure! Sounds like you've found the nirvana of marinas, so a little extra work to get in and out should be worth it

With 10-15 W winds predicted, thought you might consider and excursion outside to St Augustine?

 

[Roger Long]

With 10-15 W winds predicted, thought you might consider and excursion outside to St Augustine?

I've got to wait for some important mail, delayed by the N.W. nor'easter, to arrive. There will be other W winds if I decide to go further south.

 

[Ian McColgin]

One gains a special place in the Kedgers' Club for grounding at a slip. Bravissimo. Granuaile in one winter slip made a depression in the bottom so she only leaned the first week (fourteen tides) and after that sat upright. The hole was visible through the following August.

G'luck

 

[Benny17441]

I remeber one time in the Keys we missed the Pass we wanted to go in and went in this narrow creek that led to nowhere. It was fun watching the expression on some small power boaters faces which probably had never seen a boat that big in there. The surprise was on us when the depth sounders indicated we were inches from running aground. Knowing how to turn a boat around in its axis came in handy and as we left the creek we seen the entrance to the pass we wanted to take. I'll be darned if we did not run aground entering the pass. You can be patient ot call towboat US, we opted for the 2nd alternative.

 

[Roger Long]

It wasn't as funny this morning. I was woken by a loud creak about an hour before low tide and about two hours before I would like to have opened my eyes. Strider was heeled far more than yesterday and down at the bow. Things started sliding on shelves.

I went on deck to find that the upper shroud had just missed contacting the head of a pile. I'm not sure I would want the mid span of this wire keeping the boat upright and further heeling was going to bring me close to the lifelines doing the same job.

After putting on a cup of coffee (always time for coffee in an emergency) I tied a line to the spinnaker halyard and ran it across to a piling on the next pier. It wasn't too difficult to take off half the heel with the single speed winch. I've never handled a semi grounded vessel so it was nice to get a feel for the forces involved in case I'm ever doing it in another situation. The line strain was considerably less than the anchor rode strain in a stiff wind so, if I could get an anchor far enough out in a grounding situation, I think I could keep her from from going over. I have about 400 feet of spare rode and line quickly available so I should be able to get an anchor out far enough to have holding scope.

I think nothing of being below underway when the boat is heeled 20-30 degrees and pitching. It's strange how disconcerting and alarming it feels to be heeled just about five degrees when dead in the mud. I can't get over it. This gives me some appreciation of the anxiety landlubber guests feel when experiencing heel for the first time.

 

[Jimm]

. . I think nothing of being below underway when the boat is heeled 20-30 degrees and pitching. It's strange how disconcerting and alarming it feels to be heeled just about five degrees when dead in the mud. I can't get over it. This gives me some appreciation of the anxiety landlubber guests feel when experiencing heel for the first time.

Perhaps that when underway you have control - not so much in the mud?

 

[Roger Long]

Perhaps that when underway you have control - not so much in the mud?

No, I think it's a clash between expectations, perception, and reality, something that is major factor in seasickness. When the boat is moving, even with just the small aliveness of floating in still water, you expect heel. Solidly aground and as dead as if hauled out on blocks, heel feels as strange as it would in a building.

There's also an anxiety factor, will I end up repairing lifeline stanchions today? This is certainly a factor with those guests who you simply can't convince that the boat isn't going to suddenly turn over.

I'm sure the head intake is solidly in the mud. Good thing I installed this alternate fresh water flush arrangement.

The line from the dishwasher connection at the top of the tail piece goes to a shut off valve at a tee into the head intake line. By closing the red valve at the bottom and the head seacock, I can then flush the head with fresh water run into the sink. This will flush out the critters and plant bits that can make the head smell like low tide. I can also pour an appropriate deodorant into the sink with the water and really sweeten the whole thing up. The high connection on the sink drain makes forgetting to reset the valves less likely to sink the boat.

Another advantage to this arrangement: If the sink drain clogs, you can pump it out through the head before starting work on clearing the drain.

 

[Jimm]

No, I think it's a clash between expectations, perception, and reality, something that is major factor in seasickness. When the boat is moving, even with just the small aliveness of floating in still water, you expect heel. Solidly aground and as dead as if hauled out on blocks, heel feels as strange as it would in a building.

There's also an anxiety factor, will I end up repairing lifeline stanchions today? This is certainly a factor with those guests who you simply can't convince that the boat isn't going to suddenly turn over.

I'm sure the head intake is solidly in the mud. Good thing I installed this alternate fresh water flush arrangement.

.

Makes sense.
I closed the head thru hull valve some time ago and use only fresh water to flush -- the Bay water odor was simply too much. Now I just turn on the sink faucet to supply flushing water..........

 

[Terry411]

I have also gone aground in a slip. The wife and I were bringing our new to us 78 hunter 30 up from chicago to holland . We stopped in st joe for the night. The slip we found was on the corner of two rivers. It had a foot or so under the keel when we got up in the morning the boat had that weird still feeling. I talked to a guy in a slip down a few and he said sailboats will silt in from the current acting on the keel. I got out just by running about 3/4 power and we shifted our weight back and forth side to side to break the keel out. Roger any plans to come to the lakes for a summer?

 

[captainpat]

A reminder; there are two kinds of sailors. Those who ran aground and those who lie. True even if grounding in the slip - which i have done.

 

[Tom J]

I like your sink drain to the head intake idea. The grey water from my shower pumps through the same through-hull as my head intake. I'm thinking maybe I can use the grey water to flush through the head once in a while, and get rid of the salt water critters and crystals that way. Thanks.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Makes sense.
I closed the head thru hull valve some time ago and use only fresh water to flush -- the Bay water odor was simply too much. Now I just turn on the sink faucet to supply flushing water..........

There's really no reason to do this all the time, just do it for the last cycle each day.

 

[Jimm]

There's really no reason to do this all the time, just do it for the last cycle each day.

Stu - Understand your point, but perhaps you may not fully appreciate the fragrence of Chespaeake Bay water - I prefer to keep it on the outside of the hull. I'm rarely very far from fresh water supply and this way I don't need to be opening that raw water intake.

 

[Ian McColgin]

Not a chance the head intake is in the mud. It's not down through all that lead in the keel.

 

[Roger Long]

Not a chance the head intake is in the mud.

This was against a sheet pile bulkhead that had been dredged for the travel lift and starting to fill back in. Very soft mud with a steep profile approximating that of the forward hull. The tide line was back almost to the head location and the mud was almost up to the waterline even though the rudder was clear of the bottom according to how the wheel felt.

I think the head intake was in the mud. I wasn't going to verify it by sucking that abrasive and smelly stuff into my intake lines and pump though.

 

[Ian McColgin]

Ah-ha. Amazing that the mud could even maintain the slope. Here's the value of an air cooled engine which you could just run in gear a bit to hydro-dredge your space. And clean the prop!

Ironic aside: On my computer this page is advertising "floataboatfab.com" - a sort of mae west for boats. A catboat shape is perhaps the best you could have for such a unit since the tubes could be gotten fully under the boat and 100% of the volume put to lift. They claim that it can be inflated by a normal 12v pump which would be might danged slow. But if you could get air in with the unit deployed under - always assuming you could fill to enough pressure that the unit would not collapse - it's very best lift would be about 1200#. At the very best that could get Marmalade up by 1-1/2". We have a modest tide of only 3' so if I ran aground enough to require the floataboat at mid-ebb, I'd need to deploy and fill in less than 20 minutes. I don't see the thing as being worth much compared to getting a kedge out and twisting off.

 

[lml]

More than enough power

Thank you for showing me a weakness in my ad. The tubes are for power boats. The little air mattress is for sail boats. The pump supplied with the floataboatfab is a high volume (15 cubic feet per minute) and medium pressure (2.5 psi). Therefore it fills the floataboatfab in under three minutes. I don't think that is too slow. Also the fab only lifts the boat body, not the ballast. If your 25 ft. cat boat weighs 5000 lbs., with 1500 lbs. of ballast, one fab would lift either the front or back of the boat completely out of the water. Deployment takes four or five minutes, depending on the amount of practice. Thanks for the suggested improvements to my ad. Sincerely Leslie Mark Levitan/Floataboatfab.