Good grief, towed part II

[millerbb77]

Does anyone here feel that admitting to going aground once or more suggests being a lesser skipper?

Seem like even those that are fessing up to going aground once or twice are doing so apologetically.

Lol, racing sailboats in NC waters we used to say "tack on the first bounce." I'm not ashamed of running pleasure boats aground. Not to say I don't try to avoid it though.

Now, in my job if I ran aground...well, I'd be looking for a new job.

 

[psneeld]

Lol, racing sailboats in NC waters we used to say "tack on the first bounce." I'm not ashamed of running pleasure boats aground. Not to say I don't try to avoid it though.

Now, in my job if I ran aground...well, I'd be looking for a new job.

Sorry, I moved my post over to the good grief thread...but even a lot of commercial vessels ground themselves or go aground because of where they are forced to work.

 

[millerbb77]

Sorry, I moved my post over to the good grief thread...but even a lot of commercial vessels ground themselves or go aground because of where they are forced to work.

Oh, no doubt. My professional experience has been large ships, where it's considered a big no-no.

 

[No Mast]

Does anyone here feel that admitting to going aground once or more suggests being a lesser skipper?

Not for me. It happens. if you're out there enough it'll happen to you, especially if you travel to new areas i feel.

Heck, i've been aground lets see, twice just last season. Both times in the ICW. Luckily we were able to back ourselves off both times. It was kind of funny actually. We see a boat aground ahead of us who's clearly misread the markers. They're visually in the middle of the water, but no longer in the marked channel. I think I'm smart and I'll follow the markers and go right past him. so we run aground in the channel pretty much abeam of him. Within 10 minutes there's 2 more boats aground around us. Tow boat US and Seatow are coming our way. We're all talking wondering where the water is. A cat tests for a possible route not finding it. Then a local comes by saying I just missed the deeper water.
I'm wondering where it is. Off to port is the marker showing the edge, beyond it is the first boat aground. Off to starboard not 20 feet are grasses growing and then land. He comes along splits the distance between me and those grasses and goes right through followed by a boat parade of everyone who had bottled up waiting to pass.

I used the thrusters to take the pressure the current was putting against us and backed right out and followed the parade of boats.

If that sounded like an apology, it wasn't meant to, just a story.

 

[AKDoug]

Looks like you have some nice quiet spots not to far away. Can you see Russia from your porch? No? How about Kevin, can you see Kevin from your porch?

Can't see Russia, I can see Kevin though There is about as much coastline between here and there as is on the entire West coast, perhaps more. Most of the charts here have warnings on them that there hasn't been a new survey since 1964, when the earthquake shifted the bottom as much as 30' in some places. The only places they have deemed it prudent to re-survey are the shipping channels where large vessels pass through. There is so much coastline to survey it has never been done properly.

 

[Pineapple Girl]

A couple of few times.
One time (sailboat) we were coming back from a race outside the golden gate, heading back down to the south bay. I forget who played what role in this but someone said, isn't the san bruno shoal around here somewhere? (My husband and I had a route we always took home that avoided the shoal so I know neither of us were driving and it was not our boat). Right after that we hit it. Luckily we spun right off it. A diver checked things out after and said everything was fine. Next time the boat was hauled, the owner found out there was actually a chunk out of the rudder that was allowing water intrusion and causing delamination. Can't say for SURE it was from that incident though.
A more fun incident was after a club race in the south bay, on our boat. We cut the corner into the marina's channel a little too close when we headed back in. We knew better! We sat in the mud for awhile and waited for the tide to come in and lift us off. It was a beautiful day and fine to hang out. The channel itself was quite shallow for awhile between dredging and more than one person got stuck in the mud at low tide. actually one of the race markers at our club was in kind of shallow water and one particular person/ boat had to be careful rounding so he did not get stuck. Helped everyone else out as that was one of the faster boats in the fleet and he had to take the mark wide.
We've had a few gentle kisses in the trawler but nothing alarming or that caused us to get stuck. thus far!

 

[BandB]

I think one reason we may not have the groundings many have, although I'm sure ours are to come, is that we tend to do the shallow creek and side tributary exploring in a RIB. We use our tender more than any other human beings according to some who know us. To us it seems normal though. We'll spend hours exploring in a RIB. So, we don't try to get the larger boat into those tricky areas.

 

[Steve]

Several times, only once had to wait for tide to lift us, the rest eventually backed off.
Once We were transitng the Miserable Mile near Ft Myers Fl there was a 45-50 foot go fast up on a sand bar. He was on the VHF pleading for folks to slow down as they went by (good luck with that there) the name of his boat got some laughs and comments, it was the "Sitting Duck"

 

[BandB]

If we were close to shore and in calm water, we could actually tow ourselves with our RIB. Just drop it and go. Further out or in more than 4' seas, we couldn't or wouldn't.