Good grief, towed part II

[Hawgwash]

In the other thread about being towed I can't believe how many people thought they were pilots and tried to land where they shouldn't have.

SO....

You ever run aground?

 

[OFB]

Not yet, have not run out of fuel yet either. But some day you just never know.

 

[psneeld]

With the best of'em....


It's always funny...some guys spend much of their season looking for more than 10' of water in the middle of the channel...others for anchorages less than 100 feet deep.


Sooooooo................

 

[dhays]

Twice. Once was in mud at the Tacoma Yacht Club. I was trying to get the boat closer to the dinghy dock at low tide. Ran aground in the middle of the fairway between two rows of boat houses. Since I was going dead slow, it was a non-event. Sailboat so my keel just ran into the mud bottom. Backed off with no fuss.

Second time wa going into inner Oro Bay. I had the green channel marker about 5 yards to port but ran aground anyway. I was going only 3-4 knots at the time and was able to back off easily. Again a mud bottom. Turns out the channel marker had gotten moved but has since been corrected.

It is much less of an issue with a sailboat if you are going slow. The prop is much higher than either the fin keel or spade rudder. Definanitely don't want my rudder to touch, no matter how soft the bottom.

 

[markpierce]

Six times (including four times in one night) over five decades on sailboats, and always on a rising tide.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. H. Of course...or is it OFF course? Several times, mostly due to pilot error BUT so far I've realized I didn't quite know where I was and had slowed down in anticipation of or in case I ran aground. Been able to self rescue (back off) successfully so far. Not terribly embarrassed by the fact other than my shortcomings in chart reading.

Regarding Mr. ps's "looking for 10' of water in the middle of the channel" the pucker factor only sets in when I've got 2' or less under the keel. "All ahead slow!"

 

[Hawgwash]

Regarding Mr. ps's "looking for 10' of water in the middle of the channel" the pucker factor only sets in when I've got 2' or less under the keel. "All ahead slow!"

Haha...gotcha. Had the same thing when I decided to go inside Whale Cay between it and Treasure Cay. "should be a channel right about here." Closed my eyes an went. Opened my eyes, looked back and saw boiled sand.

All in all, touching a soft bottom once in a while can be fun.

 

[mbevins]

Only once with the big boat.
Running 20 knts up the St. Clair river to Lake Huron. Found a bar 20ft wide by 80ft long 2 ft deep. The only bar in the entire river. Saw it just as I was about to hit it. Stuck there for 6 hours waiting for a tow big enough to get us off. Next morning a lift replacement props on and headed North. Very lucky to only have prop damage.

Now the CC that's another story. Boating around Pine Is. In SW Fl we draw 18-20" and still manage to find the bottom a couple of times a month.

 

[Hawgwash]

Now the CC that's another story. Boating around Pine Is. In SW Fl we draw 18-20" and still manage to find the bottom a couple of times a month.

Hard to fathomblushthat when we run in miles deep water but again, every once in a while there is a pointy mountaintop in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Tom.B]

You ever run aground?

Nope.

 

[eagle419]

I've grounded many times over fifty years of playing with boats.

None of them have been total surprises, and all on a rising tide when 'exploring' in shallows or over shifting bottoms.

So far I've always managed to refloat with the usual techniques and with no damage. To me it's a normal part of life afloat.

I expect to go aground a few times more if I continue cruising in remote(ish) and interesting places.

Of course a bloody big steel shoe helps!

 

[caltexflanc]

If running aground means needing assistance to get off, then yes, once. Technically, I suppose, we ran "astump". I'm not sure how many times we've slogged too shallowly and had to back off, but why count? There's a good saying about those that boat the eastern inshore waters:

"There's three types of boaters: those who will run aground, those who have, and liars".

 

[AKDoug]

Nope, though I will admit to "churning mud" with the prop a time or two. Some places up here the glacial silt and thermoclines combine to make the depth finder useless. A hard thermocline can read as solid bottom in some glacial bays, and in others the silt is so deep and soft it doesn't read as bottom at all. Knock wood...

I have expected to, looking for an anchorage in some less than hospitable and poorly charted places where I REALLY wanted to look around without kayaking (for miles) to get back from a known decent anchorage. Most of my part of Alaska, except for the shipping lanes, is very poorly charted.

 

[Hawgwash]

"There's three types of boaters: those who will run aground, those who have, and liars".

That applies to so many things don't it eh?

So, headlining on up the coast from, pick a place, when do things get deeper than a handful of feet? I gather Maine is more rugged and what we would call coastal. CT, MA ME?

 

[MurrayM]

Nope, not yet......

Came close during a pre-dawn escape from Betteridge Inlet's southernmost basin on Campania Island because the next high tide was after a storm was due to hit. Very dark, very twisty, very narrow, and very shallow

 

[Hawgwash]

Most of my part of Alaska, except for the shipping lanes, is very poorly charted.

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?

 

[cardude01]

Missed the channel coming out of Tarpon Point marina. Dawn was just breaking and the channel markers confused me. I was going super slow when I bumped ground and stopped. Some helpful guys in a small flats boat pointed out that I was not in the channel. I waved thanks! Was able to back off.

Second time I was in the ICW in Lousiana, fiddling with my AP trying to get my icon to line up straight on the plotter. The manual stated I needed to make two slow circles. I lost track on the second circle and ran too close to the shallow bank running aground. A barge captain saw me radioed that he would give me a fast pass, and I was able to back off. ?

 

[alormaria]

In my sail boat several times. A winged keel looks and works just like a Danforth anchor. Luckily the 8-12ft tide range saved me.

I've bounced along the bottom in the trawler. In Barnegat Bay you can just follow the blue line I left where the channel was supposed to be.

 

[TDunn]

Back in the early 90s I lived in New Brunswick, Canada. I kept my boat in a hydroelectric lake on the Saint John river. One day I was up the river about 20 miles from the dam passing a spot where a stream flowed into the lake. The chart showed a bar extending from the mouth of the creek. I was looking at the chart to be sure I was clear of the bar. I had just announced to my wife that we were clear when CRUNCH. I was stuck about 10 feet from the end of the bar. No tide in the lake, so I tried backing off. No luck. After attempting to set an anchor to pull myself off, I finally went over the side and climbed onto the bar at the bow. With my wife sitting at the stern with the engine revving in reverse I was able over 15 minutes or so to push the boat off the bar. What a relief.

 

[Pluto]

Oh hell yes. Worst was running at 20 knots in my C-Dory and hit a mud flat in 6 inches of water. I tried standing on a skim board in the mud to push the boat but sunk 3 feet in the ooze. Had to wait for the tide. Georgia mud is not a joke.

 

[koliver]

Once, seriously. One of those pinnacle things, near Ballet Bay. After I got settled in BB, a friend came in I offered to have him tie on, but he was too angry to be good company. Turned out he had hit the same pinnacle on his way in. When I hauled to assess the damage I found a shark bite from the leading edge of the keel (sail). My friend's damage was identical. His boat drew a little more than mine, and the difference in the height of tide made the damage the same.

 

[GFC]

Only once, and that was on a GB32 we chartered in the San Juans. We were coming into a harbor (don't recall which one) that was notorious for having a shifting channel.


We were at dead slow and nosed the bow up onto a mud bank. I knew we had about 4 hours till the tide started to flow in so I took the anchor in the dinghy and rowed it back astern about 50 yards. I didn't want the boat to pinwheel when the tide started coming in.


I set the anchor, we dropped the crab pots and had some fun. There was only about 3' of water and we were able to watch the crabs climb up onto the pots. We didn't wait for them to get into the pots, we just jerked the pots up and dropped the crabs onto the deck. We got way too many crabs more than legal in the 3 hours before the boat floated free and we were cooking them as fast as we caught them.


The boat floated free, the stern anchor held so I backed the boat down to the anchor, pulled it up by hand then left.

 

[SCOTTEDAVIS]

The log shows "encountered shoaling"

Running aground requires paperwork with some company's.

 

[N4712]

Haha...gotcha. Had the same thing when I decided to go inside Whale Cay between it and Treasure Cay. "should be a channel right about here." Closed my eyes an went. Opened my eyes, looked back and saw boiled sand.

All in all, touching a soft bottom once in a while can be fun.

Yeah don't rock is a little hairy in anything bigger then an outboard boat.

 

[Hawgwash]

Yeah don't rock is a little hairy in anything bigger then an outboard boat.

Did it in a 20' Albury. Just.

 

[ktdtx]

I may run aground multiple times a day in my 24' center console fishing in Galveston Bay, Matagorda Bay or Port O'Connor. That's just part of the trip, especially when you have a boat that runs in less water than it requires to float in at a stop.

 

[RCook]

Poking along at idle speed to fish (casting small jigs into structure) at Lake Powell. Paying too much attention to looking for a likely spot, and not enough to the highly variable shapes of the sandstone beneath us. Water levels can be as much as 50 feet different from spring one year to the fall the next, so charts don't help.

Fortunately, the keel slid along only a few feet onto a bump of sandstone, and the sterndrive did not make contact. We easily backed off, with minimal damage.

 

[dkasprzak]

I may run aground multiple times a day in my 24' center console fishing in Galveston Bay, Matagorda Bay or Port O'Connor. That's just part of the trip, especially when you have a boat that runs in less water than it requires to float in at a stop.

I'm with KTDTX on this one.....had a 19' Shallow Sport designed to run in about 4" of water on plane. I found the sandbar in front of Greens Bayou in West Matagorda Bay on.....New Years Day 2004.....alone. Stepped off the boat into ankle deep water, climbed up on the console looking to find another boat, there were none in sight.

My next thought was, how long can you live on two or three Snickers bars, a thermos of coffee and a gallon of water. Fortunately two guys came along about an hour later and we were able to push it to deeper water.

 

[millerbb77]

When I was 16 years old I took my dad's 30-foot sailboat with some friends (no adult supervision) and ran into Eagle Harbor, Washington...I was not new to boats but we were new to the area (having moved from NC a year or so before), and I didn't fully understand the range of tide there. Anchored in what I thought was plenty of water; woke up in the middle of the night when I rolled out of my bunk as the boat, now firmly grounded, heeled over. Boat ended up completely dried out laying over on her side. Local police came down and questioned me because they thought it was intentional and that I was doing some illegal bottom cleaning. Pretty embarassing but I learned a big lesson.

 

[psneeld]

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.