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bbriner
Captain

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349 Posts

Initially Posted - 11/26/2007 : 15:52:16

This past weekend the moon was full and at perigree too - what does that mean? It means higher than normal high tides and lower than normal low tides (and of course very strong tidal currents).

I took the family out Friday for an afternoon sail without paying too much attention to all this... I've gotten a bit lax since I've never had a problem (usually I just stay away from the shallows). We had a nice afternoon sailing in very light winds and were heading into the channel entrance to the Emeryville Marina. This is a dredged channel but, like I said, I've never had a problem so I was unconcerned. All of a sudden my nephew says 'Uncle Bill, the depth is only 5 feet!' When I got back into the cockpit it was at 4.5 feet and very soon after that was 3.5 feet. My wife says, 'Honey, I don't think we're moving' and sure enough we were stuck in the mud. I let out some expletives under my breath and after a time was able to back us out of the mud. I took us out into deeper water and checked the tide chart. We were sitting right at a -1.8' low tide. I anchored and told everyone to sit back and enjoy the sunset and moonrise since we had a couple of hours to wait for enough water so we could get into the marina. The lights on the Bay were fabulous and we had a ring side seat as 4 other boats went past us and promptly got stuck too. They asked us what the problem was but I guess they thought they could make it anyway ... (they were bigger than me too). We heard one guy on channel 16 asking when high tide was :)

At 7:30 we figured we had enough water under the keel to get in (we were back up to datum depth) ... If we had more food and drink we could've had a nice party!

You can bet I'll be watching those charts more closely in the future!!

Bill B
Wind Dancer
#4036 84 SR/FK
San Francisco Bay

Edited by - on

Justin
Admiral

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502 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2007 : 16:36:07

That's when a swing keel sure is nice to have

, although it is great that it sounds like you had a good time shared with your family while you waited for the tide.

Edited by - on

ddlyle
Captain

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302 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2007 : 18:17:35

Many years ago, I remember sitting with my niece on a nice sandbar for 3 hours with my Capri 16 leaning over on the sandbar.
She was VERY new to sailing (age 9?) and didnt feel comfortable when I said I could hop out and push the 16 footer off the sandbar. (I'd done it before.) IT DOESN'T TAKE LONG to run out of time with the tide and not be able to back off (especially if the wind is pushing you on the ground.)

Methinks any captain who says he hasn't run aground is a liar.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2007 : 21:29:44

Our first trip on Passage, delivering her 90 miles down Long Island Sound from where we bought her to where we lived, started out on a borrowed mooring in Mystic...... aground. When we arrived in Darien three days later in a wind-driven extra-low tide, on our way to our slip...... you guessed it.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 11/27/2007 08:21:27

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2007 : 22:47:48

Our first (and only) grounding was in shallows as we approached our planned anchorage. Me busy getting anchor ready, Peggy at the helm on the GPS, a million candles breaking through the flat calm water with me watching from the bow flying like on Titanic. Thoughts of 'how clear the water is' and 'the bottom sure is clean' when the boat slid to a halt and I called to Pegs to kill the engine. Quiet, calm, motionless, we sat for a few moments, checking the tide tables to see how long we would have to wait for the moon to do it's stuff and lift us off the sandy bottom.

Quickly realised we could blow the ballast! 5 mins with the battery powered air pump pressed hopefully into the air vent in the anchor locker and bubbles started to erupt under hull. Free! motor into reverse, gently, glad the keel was hauled in, slowly trace our passage from where we arrived. 10 minutes later, under that beautiful moon hidden by fleeting clouds, we tracked back and changed heading. Deeper waters lead to our destination, dinner was hardly late.
Minimal ego brusing, no boat damage, lesson learnt.

Sweet sailing!

Paul

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 11/26/2007 : 23:47:46

I anchored out Sunday evening at Mission Bay's Mariner Basin and I could not believe how low the tide was (-1.6 here). It was hard to find a place with enough water. Very interesting to see where the shallow spots are.

Edited by - on

bear
Admiral

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USA
909 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 06:53:08

Six years sailing "Brandy" I haven't ran aground, any other alleged
liars out there??????

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 07:55:59

I have never been stopped aground in spite of sailing in a very shallow basin. I have felt goo a couple of times and one time I hit a bridge abutment. I sail a reservoir and they often have "things" in the water. We have an old bridge abutment from the bridge that crossed our little river before it was impounded. I was sailing at about 5 knots in my Spirit 23 which has a shoal keel with centerboard, the boat lurched to a stop, spun off, gybed and recovered. Amazingly there was not a mark on the boat; that was over 20 years ago.

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 08:15:45

Due to lowering water levels and the general shallowness of my sailing venue near shore, running aground is a way of life for me. Last season, I probably got stuck in the shallows about a half dozen times but fortunately, I've been able to easily extricate myself on each occasion. Compounding the problem is the increasing seaweed forests which renders a depth sounder almost useless because one doesn't know if the 5 feet the gauge is reading is actual bottom or the top of a dense seaweed bed.

Luckily for me, I have a fin keel that hits the soft mucky bottom first leaving my rudder free to turn. This enables me to put both the rudder and outboard over hard allowing the boat to pivot 180 degrees so I can get back to deeper water. I'm not sure if it would be so easy if it were my rudder that was stuck in the muck.

But as I've read, "If you ain't run aground, you haven't been around!"

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3442 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 12:17:34

Soon after i bought my cat 25, i ran aground from basically not paying attention to how many red buoys I passed before heading to the other side of the river. The depth finder was non-working and so I had no meter warning. since then , i pay more attention as i have gotten more use to the river and I installed a fishfinder which has been great.

I have other things to worry about in the Potomac river especially after a rain storm. Wood debris floats down the river and so it sometimes becomes an obstacle course. Most times this is a minor issue but after a big storm, it's amazing what floats downstream.

Edited by - on

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1484 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 12:28:34

The bay can get pretty shallow, and we've discovered the chart and the markers have not kept up w/ the shifts in the sand bars...as said, "the swing - is a lovely thing!"

Edited by - jerlim on 11/27/2007 12:29:21

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 12:54:55

If you don't have a wing you just have to swing.

Edited by - on

stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 13:08:56

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Methinks any captain who says he hasn't run aground is a liar<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

With regard to running aground: There are only two types of sailors - those that have run aground, and those that have yet to.

Edited by - on

Russ.Johnson
Commodore

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USA
843 Posts

Response Posted - 11/27/2007 : 23:13:58

Bill,
Glad to hear no damage was done.
Russ

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 11/28/2007 : 06:43:25

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dlucier
 This enables me to put both the rudder and outboard over hard allowing the boat to pivot 180 degrees so I can get back to deeper water.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Have to watch out doing that down here in sunny SoFla.
There are many protected seagrass beds around, particularly around the upper keys. There's a $90 per foot fine if you are found carving them up.

So we practice the stop and back out method as it disturbes the bottom the least even if it's not a seagrass area.

Swingers rule skinny waters.

Paul

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 11/28/2007 : 10:24:01

see above

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