Howdy all at Sailnet. I figured I would post a quick blog about a trip my wife an I just took on our 45 Coronado. We are very new to coastal cruising. Our plan was to travel down the west coast of Florida starting at Panama City Florida where we keep our boat. Only posting to help others know about trusting charts about depths.
Here is a quick rundown.
Day 1: 6 foot waves in the Bay in Panama City. Anchored for the night. Figured the ocean would be rougher.
Day 2: Made it to Cape San Blas. Spent the night.
Day 3: Tried to leave but waves were 9 to 11 with some 13 footers.
Day 4: Went to St George Island and Ran out of Diesel. Figured out that nothing was connected to aux fuel tank. We were told Perkins and Generator were connected to two different tanks. Got towed in by seatow. What a fantastic Investment. Bill would have been $1000.00. Muck and water were now in all the fuel filters.
Day 5: Met Harry, A semi famous local repair guy. He helped us go through fuel system and run each engine from a different tank. Had to empty aux tank which had 40 years of fuel in it.
Day 6: Finished up boat and toured the area
Day 7: Headed out to Carabelle
Day 8: Decided to head back because of coming bad weather.
Day 9: Ran aground right off the tip of cape san blas. Chart plotter said 14ft deep. Two hours later seatow arrived. We bumped the ground over and over waiting on them and hence the rudder problems.
They towed us back to Cape san blas and the next day to Panama City. Total Seatow bill would have been $3900.00. Three cheers for seatow membership. $169.00
We made it back safe. After a few weeks we got a quote from the boat yard for roughly $8000.00 to replace the rudder. Boo. We didn't have our tranducer installed and we were going by the chartplotter and we were trusting the depths. When a map says shoals...... Go waaaaay around. That means the sand moves. Very expensive lesson learned. Hope this post helps someone in the future. I still love sailing and I will do it again.
Here is a quick rundown.
Day 1: 6 foot waves in the Bay in Panama City. Anchored for the night. Figured the ocean would be rougher.
Day 2: Made it to Cape San Blas. Spent the night.
Day 3: Tried to leave but waves were 9 to 11 with some 13 footers.
Day 4: Went to St George Island and Ran out of Diesel. Figured out that nothing was connected to aux fuel tank. We were told Perkins and Generator were connected to two different tanks. Got towed in by seatow. What a fantastic Investment. Bill would have been $1000.00. Muck and water were now in all the fuel filters.
Day 5: Met Harry, A semi famous local repair guy. He helped us go through fuel system and run each engine from a different tank. Had to empty aux tank which had 40 years of fuel in it.
Day 6: Finished up boat and toured the area
Day 7: Headed out to Carabelle
Day 8: Decided to head back because of coming bad weather.
Day 9: Ran aground right off the tip of cape san blas. Chart plotter said 14ft deep. Two hours later seatow arrived. We bumped the ground over and over waiting on them and hence the rudder problems.
They towed us back to Cape san blas and the next day to Panama City. Total Seatow bill would have been $3900.00. Three cheers for seatow membership. $169.00
We made it back safe. After a few weeks we got a quote from the boat yard for roughly $8000.00 to replace the rudder. Boo. We didn't have our tranducer installed and we were going by the chartplotter and we were trusting the depths. When a map says shoals...... Go waaaaay around. That means the sand moves. Very expensive lesson learned. Hope this post helps someone in the future. I still love sailing and I will do it again.