The SOB Ran My Damn Boat Aground!!

I get a call last week from a coworker from Oklahoma City who is the manager of our Standards Department, the guys who give us line pilots checkrides.* He's an old friend, a fellow boater and is coming to Sacramento on business.* He'ss be in town for the weekend and wanted to hit the CA Delta to see what it's like.* No problem, I said, we'll make a day of it.

We rendezvous at his hotel on Saturday morning and head to the boat.* He's never been out on anything larger than 22 feet in lakes and rivers, so this whole tidal water and big boat thing is all new to him. We get to the slip, dust off the boat and back out of the slip.* To show him the maneuverability of twins, after backing out, I make a 360 degree spin in position just off the dock, holding position perfectly as we spin.* Once we completed 450 degrees, we're headed in the right direction and proceed down the fairway.

After a nice jaunt under the Mokelumne River Bridge and up Georgianna Slough, we arrived at Oxbow Marina, surprised to see the party crowd from my marina there enjoying a relaxing weekend.* After exchanging niceties and lies, we headed out for a relaxing cruise.

Along the way, we had a nice lunch as a quiet lagoon, then cruised slowly via the long-way home.* Along the way, while relaxing on the flybridge enjoying the view, I passed the helm to Steve with the instruction to stay right and make the next right at the next turn.*

Not 3 minutes later, as I reached to open the first beer of the day, I hear Steve say, "It's not turning like normal!"* I looked down to see half right rudder, looked back to see the churn of muddy water behind the boat...I think I found the problem!!* Just then, the boat slowed from 3 to 0!* I can't believe the SOB just ran my boat aground!!

I headed below and all was normal and the port engine had stalled due to the excessive resistance caused by plowing through mud.* I restarted the port side and successfully backed out of the area, easing toward the deeper water alongside the levee.* We watched the engine temps closely and all was well.* Looked like we dodged a bullet.

So for the remainder of the day, I razzed poor Steve for running my boat aground.* I told him no hard feelings...you just can't BUY a reputation like that, and besides, I don't think I'll have to worry about failing any checkrides from him for the near future!!

All in all, it was harmless, but I learned a good lesson to keep an eye on those at the helm, even if they are friends who have experience.* Better to trust but verify than to run aground again!!



-- Edited by FlyWright on Monday 30th of January 2012 10:26:12 PM


-- Edited by FlyWright on Monday 30th of January 2012 10:28:21 PM

As a newbie and an admitted budget nerd, the wife and I budgeted tow service and one new prop per year*

May not be enough

Think there should have been an option:

"Yes, The USCG chose not to put the buoys where the channel was!"

*

I got off easy on my one and only grounding. I veered a little too far north when leaving Fisherman Bay, Lopez Island, WA about ten years ago. One quick thud and $1,000 repair to my keel confirmed a rock strike. This occurred in an area of very few rocks in an otherwise sandy bottom.*
<table class="forumline borderline" style="font-size:12px;background-color:#0053a2;border-collapse:collapse;margin-bottom:10px;width:100%;border-width:1px;border-color:#0053a2;border-style:solid;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="row1 borderline" style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;border-collapse:collapse;background-color:#eff2f9;border-width:1px;border-color:#0053a2;border-style:solid;padding:4px;" colspan="2" align="center" valign="top"><table class="gen" style="font-size:1em;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yup, it's happened before and will happen again. I'm budgeting now for the repairs!!!</td></tr></tbody></table>
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-- Edited by Carey on Monday 30th of January 2012 08:39:53 PM

O C Diver wrote:
Think there should have been an option:

"Yes, The USCG chose not to put the buoys where the channel was!"

*

Click to expand...

*That's what I wanted to tell my wife at the time.

Al, check your raw water strainers. *They may be half packed with mud. *Did you run it up to see if you had a vibration?

Never ran Gray Hawk aground but we did have a massive strike on our Malibu Response one summer.* It has the wedge hydrofoil that applies down pressure on the transom and we were running in the Shuswap River.* It was late in the summer and we were routinely pulling in 3 feet of water.* When I hammered it to pull my football player son out on his wakeboard the wedge went deep enough to hook on a tree stump on the bottom of the river.* It could have been a lot worse - twisted the crap out of the starboard side bracket on the wedge but no hull damage.*

So far we haven't run Gray Hawk aground.*

We were in our twenty eight heading up the inside for Deception pass, just putting along. finally realized we weren't moving. Yep, sitting in about 18 inches of water. Incoming tide. No harm. Nobody saw us!!

No good deed goes unpunished

Right after we bought the boat my Dad and stepmother bounced off the granite bottom going into Fisherman's Bay,*Lopez Island*on*low tide.**Minor 6" scrape on the bottom of the keel*which we repaired at haul out.* Just happy I wasn't with him to take the blame!!* **

The boat has never been aground.* Knock on wood!!

Larry B

I have run aground many times, but have always been able to back off without any damage at all there is lots of very shallow water along the Northern and Florida Gulf coasts. 25 miles out were in about 30' of water around here, it is almost all sand or mud. I do keep towing insurance, it is not expensive at all.
Steve W

AL...be honest with us here- we're your buds. It was really you behind the wheel, eh? About 10 years of running boats 33' and up and so far, thankfully, not run aground EXCEPT for when my dad was navigating and piloting his former deck boat. Dad is not known for his navigational abilities!

Ha!* Funny Woody!* I'm still responsible, but I'm sticking to my story!! Steve was at the controls.*

Yes, Don, the strainers are clear and there are no new vibrations.*

During my (instrumentless)*sailboat days, I ran aground several times, on mud.* Each time on a rising tide so would just float off.* One time had to drop the anchor to keep from being pushed higher*toward shore.* Feel blessed.

Thanks to the Coot's GPS, electronic chart, and depthometer, haven't grounded since.* But there will be "the day."* Hope it will continue to be on a rising tide.

Fortunately, most of the San Francisco estuary consists of packed or sticky mud.

Check your engine-water intake!* (Right!* You did.)

*


-- Edited by markpierce on Monday 30th of January 2012 10:45:11 PM

"Yes, The USCG chose not to put the buoys where the channel was!"

This is a surprise?

Mark, I sure do like that water intake manifold!
Steve W

The SF Bay estuaries continue to silt in as mountains erode and developments spring up. In the middle of the last century my Dad kept a vessel at the Palo Alto Yacht Club. One*late afternoon*we missed the channel markers coming in and the boat went into the mud on a falling tide. Six hours later and midnight off she floated. Now that entire area is totally silted in and*a wetland.

If you don't touch bottom once in a while, you're just not going to all the fun places. My worst grounding was in an 18 foot bonefish boat. These boats are meant to go in very shallow water. My buddy and I were fishing a falling tide on a grass covered mud flat and we waited too long to leave. It was several hours before enough water came back that we could get off. By then it was very windy, cold and dark. We were covered in mud from our earlier attempts to push the boat to deeper water. Now that's fun!

We have a couple of shallow bays at the north and south ends of the Swinomish Slough. I used to take pictures of boats sitting in the mud, waiting for the tide because it was a rare event. Then it became an every year event to see someone sittine there and wasn't any fun anymore. Every so often we'd see someone on the rocks piled on the sides of the channels. Those looked a lot worse than the soft mud groundings. The channel is marked, the bouys are there, you just have to follow them.

Now, with the budget cuts they haven't dredged the Slough for a number of years and the channel itself is starting to collect groundings. Well known problem, just don't take your 6' draft sailboat down the middle on a zero tide.

It doesn't matter who is behind the wheel if my boat goes aground. If I'm on board, I'm responsible. I can delegate turning the wheel, even picking the route, but ultimately when bad things happen it's because I didn't watch closely enough. Sometimes I'm accused of micromanaging when I ask what their plan is for a boat approaching or overtaking us. They generally already have a plan and a backup in mind, but if I don't know what they have planned, generally because they haven't indicated their intent as soon as I would have, then I'm not comfortable.

I touched bottom many times in my shallow draft 23' sailboat, but only got stuck once.* Fortunately, my 14 year old son was aboard who was more than willing to walk the anchor out ahead so we could kedge off.

The trawler has only hit bottom once, so far.* It was at the nasty little entrance to "Dock of the Bay" on Miller Island outside Baltimore. I was stuck for a few moments but managed to power off.

In some 30 or so years of being on a boat I've only (myself) run aground once, in Sesuit Harbor in Cape Cod. It was charted at about 6', and my sailboat drew 4' or 5' I believe. Either way - the inlet had silted up - and I had a soft grounding on the sand, dead center of the inlet... it had silted up to about 4' of water at low tide. About 30 minutes later the tide floated me off.

Only other time I've been on a boat that grounded was when I was about 7 years old on a 46' Post (sport fishing boat) leaving Montauk in DENSE fog - I mean DENSE - we had a guy on the bow spotting buoys to get out of the inlet - and we couldn't see him on the bow. We drifted about 20 feet to Starboard, and just touched the bottom (sand/mud) at idle speed. Just backed off.

But - cruising in Boston and Maine - uff. We had a large (100'+) whale watching boat miss a buoy in the entrance channel (South Channel) into Boston and ran up HARD on "Devil's Back" - took on water, several injuries, had to evac all aboard. Devil's Back is a "finger" of rock that comes straight up from the bottom - you go from 35' of water to a vertical spire of rock that barely is covered at low tide in about 100' feet of travel - and the "finger" is only about 20 feet wide.

Scroll through the pics -

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/Massachusetts_aground?pg=3

For those of you who don't know Boston harbor - it is a pain. Tons of unmarked ledges, shoals, flats, etc. What's worse - you can be a mile from any harbor island, in 60' of water - then it goes to 1' of water in 20 yards, then back to 30'. And we have a 10-12' tidal range. Lots of unmarked boulders too, near my yacht club, as they used to use boulders to moor seaplanes in 20's and 30's. Also some VERY confusing buoys / daymarkers. In a few places you have parallel channels, with very similar daymarks (ie, by Great Brewster Spit you have 2 red daymarks, just 1,800 feet apart, at a sharp bend in the channel in open water - if you confuse the first daymark as the second one - you will turn into submerged rocks).


-- Edited by 7tiger7 on Tuesday 31st of January 2012 11:19:25 AM

Anchored on a shallow sandy bottom and let the tide go out. I needed to look over the bottom and check my zincs.

Floated on the incoming tide.

SD

sunchaser wrote:
The SF Bay estuaries continue to silt in as mountains erode and developments spring up. ...

Click to expand...

*The San Leandro Marina is likely to close down in a few years.* It hasn't found money for dredging the marina and the two-mile approach channel to handle the silting.

Silting in SF Bay? Ain't seen nothin' yet.... Wait until the powers-to-be divert 30% of the Sacramento River and ship it to Southern California deserts in the near future.... We will have to resort to pushing our flat-bottom boats around with poles! Follow the money and political donations for a full understanding on what is about to occur. I'll get off my soapbox now.

That's my fear, too, Ray.* The politicians are about to ravage the delta in the name of big business.* There is a great risk that it will all turn into a desolate salt water swampland.* But I will continue to support it and enjoy it until its dying day or my dying day, whichever comes first.


-- Edited by FlyWright on Tuesday 31st of January 2012 12:37:48 PM

I don't buy into the "two kinds of boaters, those who have gone aground and those who will" notion. To me, it's "those who have gone aground and those who haven't." In 39 years of boating in various kinds of watercraft, power and sail, I have never gone aground in anything other than beaching a canoe or dinghy. The closest we've come to going aground was when our worthless Bruce anchor dragged in strong winds a few years ago and we came within a few feet of being blown up against a railroad trestle before we got the anchor up and were able to power away. But so far I've never touched bottom in anything and we intend to keep it that way for the duration of our boating years. We'll see if we can fulfill our intentions.

does a kelp island count? other than that i try to stay afloat.
that being said in port of Long Beach, near the Queen Mary, there are shoals, you got to be careful..

my parents had a retrofitted fishing boat, made into a true trawler.. with a full hull.
he ran that aground once inside a fjord, it was sandy bottom so no big deal, but did need the CG come and pull us out.

Marin wrote:
In 39 years of boating in various kinds of watercraft, power and sail, I have never gone aground in anything other than beaching a canoe or dinghy.

Click to expand...

Have you spent much time in the Chesapeake?* It's possible that's where the saying comes from.** I've heard that the average depth is only 20'.* The shipping channel is around 50' so the rest is pretty thin. There are endless chances to run into the mud.


-- Edited by BaltimoreLurker on Tuesday 31st of January 2012 02:10:28 PM

Marin wrote:
I don't buy into the "two kinds of boaters, those who have gone aground and those who will" notion.

Click to expand...

*I always heard it was "those who have gone aground and those who lie..."

Anyway, my saying is "If you didn't call Sea Tow then it doesn't count as a grounding..."* Using that criteria I've never gone aground

BaltimoreLurker wrote:Marin wrote:
In 39 years of boating in various kinds of watercraft, power and sail, I have never gone aground in anything other than beaching a canoe or dinghy.

Click to expand...

Have you spent much time in the Chesapeake?* It's possible that's where the saying comes from.**




*Could be, I don't know.* I've never boated the east coast and have no intention of ever doing so.* So while it may be that boaters are running aground willy-nilly back there it's not anything I have any need to be concerned about.