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Some people say long distance cruising is about fixing your boat in exotic places. This is very true. It is also true that it about running aground in exotic places (or at least trying not to run aground, but not always being successful).
Not yet. *crosses fingers, toes, anything else that will cross*. Here, aground usually means at best you have hit a large rock causing damage, or you are hard aground on a rocky shore.
I should say, my husband ran aground! I pointed out the shoal to him well in advance but as we got closer it "looked" ok to him despite what the depth sounder (and charts) indicated, lol. I was down below quickly grabbing some food and when I felt the large bump and came up, he got the stink eye! But, we were in a race and the others that sailed by us haven't let us forget it! We have our badge of shame...
I think the fact that I have yet to do so is indicative of something I'm not doing right. I don't have a depth finder, so I play it safe. Probably too safe. I bounce harbor to harbor and never anchor. That will change this season, I hope. Not the running aground thing, the anchoring one!
I have run aground on hard and soft bottoms, in the fog at night, and in so-called "channels". Have always managed to kedge off without calling for a tow. When poking around slowly, when you might run up on an uncharted/questionable bar, it helps to have a light anchor (I have a small Danforth) to quickly throw out as far as you can in the appropriate direction to get a quick bite and pull off.
The first time I ever put my boat in the water, I ran aground almost before leaving the dock. I got it off the trailer, parked the truck, got in the boat, and put the outboard in reverse. The outboard mount was not low enough in the water, so the motor could hardly move the boat. As I revved the engine, I managed to get a boat length back form the dock, and the crosswind took over, and blew me aground into the harbor wall. I had to jump in the water and drag the boat back to the dock. It was a proud moment. That said, setting the bar that low has made all of my subsequent sailing excursions seem like rousing successes.
i always park my 6 ft 6 deep draft sail boat in 5 ft of water. no problem.....it will float a couple times a day harder to steal it that way.....
rodlmffao...
we touched ha ha ha ha ha bottom in my uncles boat when i was 8 or so...and some few times thereafter...... get out the lead line seehow much water we have....
every so often moving around here i touch bottom, until i was anchored in about 5 and half feet water with my deep keel...lol i am 6´6 draft. stands up proud and tall on her keel, as she is designed to do .
.
Then you don't know what you're missing!!! All those shoal anchorages and shallow river entrances you could be exploring..
I've not run aground on my own boat.. yet... ..but I've run other people's boats aground, so I guess that counts. Hey, I even ran the Womboat aground once (he claims twice, but I'm sticking with once).. Poor 'ol Fuzzy - I can still remember the look on his face.
Having said that, I do fully subscribe to the Don Bamford quote: "Only two sailors in my experience never ran aground: one never left port and the other was an atrocious liar.."
I've run aground and scraped the barnacles off the nose of the keel where I'd run aground and scraped the bottom paint off.
I bought a boat and the former owner watched me sail away from his dock, expecting me to run aground on a shallows in the channel, but I avoided the one where he was watching. It was the three others that I plowed after I got out of eyesight that were bad. And the one where the boat nearly laid over on it's side outside the channel but I managed to get off before the Sea-Tow people decided to answer my call! Note to self, "The Captain should never show fear, no matter how close he thinks he is to losing the ship" It has a negative effect on morale of the crew.
Oh, heck ya!!
After reading the above posts and saying..yup did that one, and that one, and that one too!!
Up too and including launching the boat off the trailer, and promptly getting it stuck.
You certainly learn new and exciting skills with this method
Ironically, I've been boating in the Chesapeake Bay for more than a half century and only run aground once. Ran aground three times in the ICW, though.
if you believe this, and that I have not run EVERY boat aground at least once that I have owned, some on purpose......I have an ACTIVE volcano in SW Washington state, USA I can sell you.....CHEEP!! or is that CHEAP!
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