Aground: Failure of skill, failure of judgment, bad luck

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by houseofcharm

And perhaps learn from others misfortunes, not merely laugh at them like Dame Edna.

If someone wants a bumping bottom experience to laugh at. I did in the channel. It scared the hell out of me, since I didn't want to be late getting back and have my wife at the marina. She would probably not believe the young redhead was just out for a sail. Which she was but selling that would be hard.

[rgranger]

Well it is easy to armchair captain.

... that's all I got say about it.

[NevisDog]

All this talk of bumping bottoms and young redheads could take some amount of explaining. Much more fun to learn from the mistakes of others than to be the one in the gun, but ol' man Murphy will find us eventually.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by houseofcharm

And perhaps learn from others misfortunes, not merely laugh at them like Dame Edna.

That's a vile slander, Dame Edna has never run aground in her life, beneath her dignity. However I'm reasonably certain that her nemesis, the cultural attache bloke would spend a significant portion of his life aground.

I have not run aground for years, I put it down to a regrettable dampening of the spirit of adventure with the onset of old age.

If your not going aground occasionally you are probably not making much of an effort to explore interesting places.

[boatman61]

First time I ran aground was between Brownsea and Green Island in Poole.. tried to run the 'Withey' Channel on an ebb tide.. we dropped sail, made coffee and sandwiches and lolled in the cockpit looking like we meant it..
My Tiki 21 was the best.. cutting across the shallows in Poole Harbour she'd kiss bottom and start slowing so I'd jump of the back and run behind her till the water was near knee deep again.. challenging but great fun.
Most humiliating was on a boat I bought called Deep Water.. she had more draught than I had ever had before and you could say familiarity bred contempt.. instead of keeping an eye on the depth guage I was eyeballing my tack marks going up the channel on an ebb tide.
Sure enough halfway up I went further than I should have with the new 5ft draught..
&ust as the hull kissed the mud with a 5 hour 45 degree list my old boat sailed past with her new owner who took great delight in calling on CH16.. "Deep Water you need Deep Water..."
Since then I have 'kissed' a few times but usually work my way off.
Almerimar this year was the last time.. the channel behind the breakwater to the fuel dock.. were near mid channel and bottomed.. got off but had to keep more to the red than the green buoys the rest of the way into the marina proper.. winter silting not dredged.
It happens.. and 'Grounding' means different things to different folks..

[Capnjb]

If you haven't run aground in Chesapeake Bay you haven't been sailing enough... when in doubt go in on a rising tide and take your time

[John Saylor]

Originally Posted by akprb

Those around you are idiots, ignore them and welcome to the club.

Plenty to hit in the ocean as well! I ran over (with a catamaran so literally over) a bouy of some sort 1500 miles out from the Galapagos. Made a hell of a racket. Dinged a good size something in Moorea (the French do not put the markers at the edge of the obstruction, just kind of near it) and have seen all kinds of insanely experienced individuals in all kinds of precarious situations.

So there ya go. Sure lack of skill plays into maritime incidents but so can hubris and a lack of humility.

As a relative Noob, I find your perspective refreshing, akprb!There is a lot to be said for the fear and caution inexperience provides versus the potential stupidity that experience and hubris may compel.

[hellosailor]

Even in well charted waters (LI Sound) I have seen shopping carts, 55 gallon drums, sixteen foot runabouts, all sorts of things in 10-20 feet of water that shouldn't have been there, and certainly would never get charted. OTOH most of the rocks are charted and have been there since the last ice age, literally.

I don't see any difference between skill and judgment when it comes to avoiding shallows. You can't make proper decisions (judgment) unless you have the proper skills to make the calls.

Call me squeamish, if I have ANY doubts about where the bottom is, I don't want to go there in anything besides a dinghy or a runabout. At least you can usually hop out and push off without damage in those.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by NevisDog

All this talk of bumping bottoms and young redheads could take some amount of explaining. Much more fun to learn from the mistakes of others than to be the one in the gun, but ol' man Murphy will find us eventually.

Explaining? Could have been an expensive grounding. Sinking the boat may have been cheaper.

[HIMARKS]

My family and I were in Baja Mexico on vacation when I saw this Ketch aground. The previous day I had been envious seeing the boat at anchor in the bay. It looked so peaceful of there swaying to a gentle wind. It's been a long time away from that feeling of being at anchor.

My heart felt heavy watching it floundering in the surf. It's a SAD,SAD feeling.
Don't know if it was ever floated or still there. I hope for the best.

[Alanr77]

Originally Posted by DEAN2140

There are two kinds of sailors: those who have run aground and those who lie about it.

It happens and it will continue to happen to recreational boaters. No way around it. Literally.

And sometimes....yes it’s embarrassing.

Night of July 3rd, 2009. I was under canvas at about 2330 entering the sound off the lighthouse on Tybee Island Georgia. No GPS running; memory, charts and channel markers only.

Didn’t factor an especially strong outgoing tide and its effect on leeway vs CMG. As I passed a blinking green to port, I exhaled thinking I was good. Not so. I ended up shoaled right off the tip of the point on North Beach. Once grounded and steerage lost, I was blown further up the beach by the Force 4-5 “breeze” we were dealing with. First mate was asleep in the saloon right up until we were lying on our side. She was not happy....at all.

Everything was good....right up until it was not.

Once “ashore”, I hopped off the side of the boat, walked out 50’ of chain and a Danforth in the direction of the ocean, secured what I could and went to bed.

Want to know what’s “fun”? Waking up on a stranded boat, high and dry surrounded by THOUSANDS of beach people because guess what... 4th of July weekend and hey....it’s the 4th.

Thankfully 99.9% of people are awesome and as the tide came in we had people giving us sandwiches, cold water and massive help kedging the boat off. Keel centerboard boats are great because they let you get into shallow places.....but they also let you get further up the beach.

Anyway...I’ve been navigating for a long time. I remember taking a Coast Guard Auxiliary Navigation class for the first time in about 1986? Or 87....and it still happened to me. It’s happened since as well. Not as bad mind you, but happened nonetheless.

While I’m sure there are many instances of “dumbassery” that cause groundings, oftentimes it just happens and you deal with it. If it’s an unmarked submerged wreck or obstacle, report it. Otherwise just run out some spare anchors, wait for the tide, and pull yourself out.

[rolandcavanagh]

It wasn't quite a grounding (I've done plenty) but I'm pretty sure we bounced off the top of a car in the Jersey waterway the Spring after Sandy. At about 5 knots, it made a resounding "crunch" like crushing a car roof, and we lurched forward, free. I popped it in my chartplotter, but didn't find it the next Fall.

[thomm225]

Being a bit tired on Friday, I tried to cut close around the New Point Comfort Light. (the tide was getting on near high so I thought I might make it)

I was inside the channel markers coming from the ENE.

I was going to try and get over but then saw the water line clearly marking the shallow water. I was lucky the wind was up to mark it.........and with that much disturbance I decided not to try it

So I sailed back South a bit and rounded the mark (Red #4)before heading into MobJacK Bay where I went up and anchored in the Severn River for the night due to the forecast of 10 - 15 knots SW Winds.

Coming out at 0615 the next morning was another adventure but on the Southern Side of Mobjack. I wasn't using the GPS or chart until I saw that I had only 2' under the keel and going 5.5 knots. (the wind was 15 knots or so) I had mistaken another tower for the Light. I was headed home.......which was SSE.......and again trying to cheat a bit

Chart 12238

[Capnjb]

Glad to see another sailor enjoying Mobjack Bay! I spent the weekend on Contented Turtle at East River exploring all the creeks - found the ground multiple times in the dinghy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsniWgKMZvw

Always surprises me how few boats cruise in this area...

[Sir_Crabs_A_Lot]

I remember my first boat, in 1984 it was, a beautiful 1953 Nordic Folkboat that I couldn't afford but bought it anyway by borrowing the money from my brother.

So I kept it in Olympia, WA, USA at the south end of Budd Inlet right in town. One day my boat was taken and when it came back I found my brother at the helm soaking wet!

Going north out of Budd you get to the end of a peninsula on the other side of which is another bay. When he got to the end of the peninsula he made hard right turn and plowed into the mud at hull speed. When he reversed, the outboard just kicked up because it couldn't lock down. So he jumped in and pushed her off, to the great merriment of surrounding boaters.

He figured since he had loaned me the money he could take it anytime he wanted. I yelled "Didn't you look at the CHART?!?!"

He replied, "What's a chart?"