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

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by 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!

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

It is nice cruising up into Mobjack Bay. I had a good ENE Wind of maybe 12 knots or so when I was coming in and was able to get up behind the sails out of the sun and enjoy a beverage while searching for the entrance marker to the Severn River.

I had sailed over from the Eastern Side of the Chesapeake near Smith's Beach after exploring North from there a bit

I anchored across the river from Turtle Neck Point for the night in the Severn River below Red Marker #2 in 6'-8' of water. I could then see the Green #1 and the Red #2 most of the night when I woke up to check on things. It was a pretty good spot especially after the wind rotated SW as predicted

Coming out the next morning with that SW Wind that climbed up to near 16-17 knots was good also but a bit bumpy after I cleared the entrance to Mobjack Bay

Coming out I got over way to close to the Guinea Marshes on the South Side and just skirted around that little Island there to the East and then went on up to Green Marker #5 before turning back down SSE.

The tide was up and going out which helped my speed all the way back to Little Creek. I had mistaken that other tower for the New Point Comfort Light in the early hours. I was low on power and had my GPS off, but turned it on and grab my chart when I saw that the depth under my keel was only 2'-3' while still sailing along at 5.5 knots or so. I started before Sun Rise

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/12238.shtml

Nice job maintaining your boat btw!

[DEAN2140]

I too borrowed my brother's boat (with his permission), an Excalibur 26 out of Loch Lomom Marina in San Rafael. There is a narrow marked channel leading to the deep water near the Richmond Bridge. On the way back, I must have strayed and ran aground near the Marin Islands. I got out the anchor and tried to kedge off but only succeeded in getting the Bay's primordial mud all over me and the boat. In the meantime as we were drifting towards the shallower water as the tide came in it dawned on me that if I didn't set an anchor we would never get off. Finally around 3 in the morning we floated free and got back to the berth.

Not wanting my brother to know of our mishap, my girlfriend and I scrubbed down the boat in our underwear (our clothes were mud soiled) and left the boat hopefully in pristine condition. Later that day, my sister-in-law called to ask if we had any trouble. "Why do you ask? Because we found two muddy hand prints on the mainsail." Busted!