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BruceC · 07-01-2010, 05:59

I remember it will, it was the first time since I bought my fin keel Hurley 22 that I wished she had been a bilge keeler.
We were getting ready to anchor, but the sounder was playing up. Anyway we went aground on mud but slowly so did not know, I was getting the anchor ready and my wife was on the healm. We found we were stuck when we tried to motor forward, this was 2hrs before low water springs, I did the quick cal. NO WATER AT LOW WATER but we saved face because the mud was deep, at low water we were still upright with about 3ins of water around us, we floated out of our puddle 2hrs later. At lest it was a nice day.

Bruce

mrohr · 07-01-2010, 07:54

Hi all: What a great idea re fishing rod depth sounder ! I love those low tech solutions,this is the true measure of seamanship. Lets start a thread called low tech solutions so easy a cave man could've thunk it.

Reluctantsailor · 07-01-2010, 13:40

On Haul out day on a very cold October morning we motored our boat out of the marina and started her up the river...we have done this many times, we know every river bouy and mussel bed by heart, the tide was at mid point, so we didn't have the depth finder on. We were still in sight of the marina in the middle of the river when much to our surprise we were grounded, we looked down and we could see huge mounds of mussels, sand and mud and very little water. It was 6:30 in the morning so no one was around and we needed to be over at another marina for haulout in three hours...we rocked her, used a paddle finally we let out the anchor and I pulled on it and slowly we dragged ourself off...took about 35 minutes but at least it warmed us up and we still made our appointment with the crane. Even though we sail on the ocean we have lots of shoals here and you have to watch the buoys carefully we once cut across one and touched bottom we had to keep the boat heeled over so as not to get stuck, which would have been really embarrassing since it would have been in front of our town and one of the local fisherman would have had to come tow us off, we would have never lived it down...

witchcraft · 07-02-2011, 05:21

witchcraft returned home from the bahama's in July 2010. We had no groundings while there, but did have a great time. we are back home and working, thinking about our next trip(s).

Therapy · 07-02-2011, 08:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by witchcraft

witchcraft returned home from the bahama's in July 2010. We had no groundings while there, but did have a great time. we are back home and working, thinking about our next trip(s).

Good to hear.

How hot/humid was it in June/July?

witchcraft · 07-02-2011, 09:20

Oh baby it was hot on the way home...when we got near Fort Peirce it was like entering a steam bath, and remained that way except for a couple of days in the locks on the Erie canal. At Oswego we stepped our mast in 100 F. An already longish process became very long with frequent rests for cooling. And of course crossing Lake Ontario ended up being a motor trip in no wind.
Fair Winds

Therapy · 07-02-2011, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by witchcraft

Oh baby it was hot on the way home...when we got near Fort Peirce it was like entering a steam bath, and remained that way except for a couple of days in the locks on the Erie canal. At Oswego we stepped our mast in 100 F. An already longish process became very long with frequent rests for cooling. And of course crossing Lake Ontario ended up being a motor trip in no wind.
Fair Winds

Thanks.
I am used to Florida (Tampa area) in the summer though still think it is near unbearable. Keys in the summer one year was much worse than Tampa. If the Bahamas are that hot then I guess I would not have too much fun.........

witchcraft · 07-02-2011, 18:09

Sorry I must not have written clearly...the Bahamas were pleasant the heat and humidity hit when we neared Florida on our way home.
Fair Winds

Feral Cement · 07-02-2011, 18:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by SabreKai

To this day I have a rod on board set up the same way. Sort of a go/no go gauge Sabre

What a great idea - thanks for sharing! Gives new meaning to the term "bottom fishing".

John

tager · 07-02-2011, 18:21

I hit some submerged pilings that were barely outside a marked channel, but I have never run aground unintentionally. I have beached my boat intentionally before, both to avoid the hassle of anchoring, once because I didn't have a dink, to pick people up, to drop people off, etc.

Feral Cement · 07-02-2011, 18:56

The channel from the Atlantic into the sound at Ocracoke is wide and straight as a bowling alley, but when you turn to starboard to head toward the harbor, the closest bouys are NOT the ones you head for. If you look almost 180 degrees from whence you came, you can barely see the bouys just on the back side of the island.

After asking for local nav tips while making this manuever and without the benefit of power (operator error) Easter weekend 2002, I ran my old Ranger 33 aground on a falling tide. The CG was there, since they wanted to have a look at this questionably maintained vessel. They would not help (SOP) and so we put two guys on the boom, swung out to starboard. We were able to free her without dunking anyone in the 50 degree water, much to the amazement of the Coasties.

We then proceeded to execute a textbook-perfect docking without power. A grounding, an ungrounding, and a nothing-but-net arrival gave us momentary legend status.

Good times.

John