What to do once you know you've screwed up?

[daminitaly]

You have a "Sail Boat" and a Schedule?

I you want to keep a schedule, get a power boat. You should always have a "Plan" of the day. But plans change, just like the weather. Enjoy

 

[SoSound]

Thought you might be interested in seeing a picture of Deception Pass taken by my grandfather sometime around 1900!

Thank you for the link! Do you know who the person is in the photo? Looks like he might be hunting for that lunch that I'd planned!

We have probably four of five different stories to come out of the same day that prompted the original post for this thread, and we learned several things along the way;
- Padding your ETA by a fair amount is a good practice.
- Having a plan B is a good idea, having a plan C is even better.
- When neither of those works, know where you are and where you can get to.
- Sometimes the impromptu solution is the best anyway (an experience that we've had on many occasions, but for some reason still prefer to 'make plans').

And that over the course of a very long day in the San Juans some currents will hinder you and some will help you. But it's all better than looking at brake lights on I-5!

 

[slofut]

This happened a couple years ago...
Upon returning to home base after a fine day sailing with our friends the Woods, at Shell Point, Fla., (near St Marks) and on a lowering tide, your captain wasn't paying enough attention and ran the p26 aground in the channel, under full sail. It's very shallow flats and narrow channels there and with 4 feet of keel you have to be on your toes. We were 100yds off the beach and only 3 turns and about 1/2 mile from the dock. Shifting weight didn't work, kicker didn't help. I looked at Mark and he said "we're going to have to get in aren't we" I said yep, because tide is going out and time is wasting fast. Hard to push a 6klb sailboat full of people, but we had wind, about 7 or 8 knots at 90 degrees to the channel.
So I had a plan and told Mark, the only thing keeping us from spending the night out here is this....
We're going to heave this monster around so that the sails are at a broad reach and when that happens the boat will heel over and lift the keel off the bottom, it will be pointed toward deep water and we'll have about 1 second to get back on the boat as it runs off and leaves us... and heads across the channel to the beach about 10 seconds away . ...I instructed my wife to use the tiller to point it toward the next markers when it took off.
It all went exactly as planned, it took us a few very heavy tries to twist it around, but the boat leaned over and took off instantly, I managed to grab a rope at the gunwale and pulled myself up onto the boat in time to grab the tiller and get control. Mark never had intention of getting back in the boat and simply held the aft mooring line and trolled for sharks using himself for bait. Of course, after I got the sails down and the boat in good trim, we got him back up on deck. Spectators on their sundecks and on the beach cheered us as we got control. We docked shortly with no other drama and a lasting story about about how Mark and I muscled a 6000 lb sailboat off a sandbar! :theman:

 

[Bob Cronin]

Reminds me when I set a spinnaker entering Portland Maine harbor. It looked great but with a light wind and a rapidly outgoing tide - we made little or no progress over the bottom.

 

[Stretch]

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." ... Mike Tyson



from a poster named ''Doodles'', had to share that one...

 

[dive7mmwet]

first as said sailing we found no schedule is the best as safety #1
I don't mean you not run tide,wind,,,, charts as needed and with technology today its all at your finger tips in real time! We like to just go with the flow on trips.
Deception Pass reminds me when I was younger my sister a Capt. on a Tug/Barge had a diesel run away on the inbound run and safely made the turn and was flushed back out and extinguished the fire and shut engine down before the whole mess exploded!

 

[YVRguy]

Recently my buddies and I left too late on a crossing from Vancouver to the Gulf Islands and Porlier Pass. By the time we arrived the current was stronger than I would have liked and daylight was fading fast. I was very tempted to push through to our destination but knew that if we had more trouble getting through than we thought it would mean navigating to our anchorage and setting up in the dark - not something I'm comfortable with. I opted instead for pulling into a small cove at the mouth of the pass and anchoring. The rushing water in the pass seemed to want to pull us out of the cove so we set a stern anchor and we were fine. It turned out to be a lovely little stop and we went on our way the next day.

For anyone interested, the full story, along with a number of other screw-ups is on my blog at:http://dougsnewboat.blogspot.ca

 

[Architure]

One of the things that I love about this forum is the variety of experiences that I see posted here, that I can learn from!

This past August, we were leaving Roche Harbor on San Juan Island and had a long day ahead of us as we headed for Deceptioin Pass and a current window which is extremely narrow... About 30 - 45 minutes into our day, I realized that I'd been so focused on the currents at Deception Pass, that I'd completely forgotten to review the currents just outside of Roche in the brief but not insignificant Spieden Channel. We sat, and watched the same meadow on Spieden Island for more than 20 minutes before finally making way to our most important destination of the day. Ultimately, we did get to Deception Pass in time for our current window (but not when I'd planned, and ONLY because I HAD planned for a leisurely lunch ahead of slack current). But my initial oversight had cost us at least 45 minutes at the start of our day. And, we never did have that leisurely lunch that day...

What adjustments have you made, once you realized that you'd made a completely avoidable mistake?

Stay out of the ditch!
Regards, architure

 

[alexco38]

screw down

If screw up is no good, screw down must be better.

 

[rfrye1]

Spieden Channel

I had the pleasure (?) of passing thru Spieden Channel on a bareboated Hunter 376 a couple yrs ago after after the Orcas in the Strait. I guess it was luck or maybe a guardian angel, or Neptune, but I passed thru Spieden "downwind". Boy what a ride. At one point my SOG hit 14 knots. I was very glad to get thru the channel.

Bob