Two sailboats on the beach Outer Banks

[Montanan]

The map snipet of which is attached below and also linked below indicates that there is a local magnetic disturbance 5 to 7 nautical miles offshore from the cape observed to be as much 11 degrees from the normal deviation between Charrituck Beach of northeast North Carolina and Wimble Shoals off the outer banks about halfway along Pamlico Sound which aberrant reading may induce a navigation challenge if operating by compass.

https://usa.fishermap.org/depth-map/pamlico-sound-nc/

I remember going on a fishing trip to the Coronado Islands, Mexico leaving from San Diego in the early morning and upon our return late in the afternoon we entered dense fog and the compass started just rotating in circles with some odd local disturbance and thus lost our bearing. We just kept course by observation of the angle from the swell of the ocean for about ten miles. Couldn't see but about 100 yards, a bit nerve racking when in a 25 foot power boat out at sea. The skipper was glad that I had paid attention to the relative direction of the swell when we headed out from San Diego and then I suggested that we just reversed by 180 degrees relative to such angle to return. The dense fog eliminated using the shadows from sunlight to determine direction. Could have spent quite a bit of time drifting waiting for the fog to lift to get visual bearings relative to the western setting sun or by stars at night. The fog did not diminish until we came within about a 1/4 mile from shore and we thence just followed the coast north to San Diego harbor entrance. Swells are often useful for determining the direction towards shore, [well at least towards a shore, may be distant mind you]

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by malbert73

I wonder if the open frame generator strapped to foredeck obscured their vision? Or all of the stuff on the stern? This one is likely more understandable from a state of repair perspective

the sad thing was he never even unfurled the sails

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by gonesail

the sad thing was he never even unfurled the sails

Not necessarily so. If the line from the bow was to an anchor, one would expect the sails to be furled. Please, no offense meant.

[SailingHarmonie]

Having delivered TWO boats in just the last three weeks south down this stretch of coast, I can with 100% certainty assure you there is NO excuse for this.

Bad sailors, putting their boats in the wrong place, at the wrong time and not knowing what they are doing. I know there will be the soft hearted people who will object to me putting it that way, but it is the truth.

This is not the "graveyard of the Atlantic" this is the graveyard of stupidity. Darwin Rules!

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Having delivered TWO boats in just the last three weeks south down this stretch of coast, I can with 100% certainty assure you there is NO excuse for this.

Bad sailors, putting their boats in the wrong place, at the wrong time and not knowing what they are doing. I know there will be the soft hearted people who will object to me putting it that way, but it is the truth.

This is not the "graveyard of the Atlantic" this is the graveyard of stupidity. Darwin Rules!

I really have to agree with this. This is like people saying they were "blown off course" as a reason for going aground.

[Kettlewell]

Bad sailors, putting their boats in the wrong place, at the wrong time and not knowing what they are doing.

I don't know enough about why these boats went where they did, but this summer I noticed quite a few big, beautiful boats venturing into waters where they shouldn't be. Nothing too dangerous mind you, but stupid stuff like trying to anchor in a spot that is charted as a couple of feet deep at low tide or entering a channel at low tide that is charted as shoaling to 5 feet or less. Entering one popular harbor I noticed the boat ahead of me slow right up and wait for me to pass so that I could lead him in the easy entrance. Are people cruising without the proper charts, not understanding their chart plotters, not reading the cruising guides, not looking at tide tables?

[Kettlewell]

More info. in another story about the 51-footer.

The boat was identified as a WASA Atlantic 51 Sloop by Phillips Boatworks. “The vessel was motoring southbound to Florida on the ocean side of Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke when they ran aground near Ocracoke Inlet after experiencing electrical and mechanical failures aboard,” the site reported.

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/st...#storylink=cpy

The guy stranded on Jax Beach decided to stay there. Apparently he can't get it off the beach. https://www.firstcoastnews.com/artic...8-de9e9470b0a5

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Having delivered TWO boats in just the last three weeks south down this stretch of coast, I can with 100% certainty assure you there is NO excuse for this.

Bad sailors, putting their boats in the wrong place, at the wrong time and not knowing what they are doing. I know there will be the soft hearted people who will object to me putting it that way, but it is the truth.

This is not the "graveyard of the Atlantic" this is the graveyard of stupidity. Darwin Rules!

The "Graveyard of the Atlantic" saying was based on vessels that got beached on the Outer Banks before modern navigation was available.

We are talking mostly the late 1500's to the early 1900's.

https://islandlifenc.com/the-graveya...the%20Atlantic.

Outer Banks Shipwrecks
Ever since ships began navigating the coast of North Carolina, the area has maintained a reputation for being dangerous. Today, the region that stretches from the Currituck Outer Banks south to Bogue Banks is referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. From the 1585 grounding of the English ship Tiger off the Outer Banks to the 2012 loss of the Bounty, more than 2,000 shipwrecks have occurred in the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Weather, geography, war, piracy, and human error have all contributed to this dense shipwreck zone. The stories behind the shipwrecks illustrate the best and worst of mankind, showing courage and compassion as well as the atrocities of war. This history informs readers about commerce, technology, war, environment, maritime life, and the complexity of the human element.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard_of_the_Atlantic

More than 5,000 ships have sunk in these waters since record-keeping began in 1526.[1] The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, located in Hatteras Village, focuses on the history of this area and features many artifacts recovered from area shipwrecks.

[chrisr]

gota say stupidity is not unique to any particular area

there was a 44' cat ran up on the reef recently at huahine. understand they came out the passe on huahine, turned left, put the auto pilot on...and a few hours later hit the reef that rings the island. fine weather

don't ask me what they were doing as regards a look out, or plotting a course...

cheers,

[Kettlewell]

The "Graveyard of the Atlantic" saying was based on vessels that got beached on the Outer Banks before modern navigation was available.

We are talking mostly the late 1500's to the early 1900's.

The first linked article quotes a local that 8-10 boats are wrecked a year in that area.

Typically between eight and 10 boats are wrecked yearly at the Outer Banks, according to Jay Phillips, owner of Phillips Boat Works in Buxton.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Not necessarily so. If the line from the bow was to an anchor, one would expect the sails to be furled. Please, no offense meant.

yes the anchor failed .. after he lost power. but if he had unfurled the sails he could have sailed away from the shore and avoided losing his boat and being sued by the city for many thousands of dollars. just one man's narrow opinion

[Chotu]

Would love it if I didn't have to read about the guy that stole 10s of thousands of dollars from me though. As if he's some kind of authority on something? Please. He's a known thief even aside from his theft of my money. It's all over the internet.

He set up there because he can steal every boat that washes up. He claims salvage on every single one that gets in trouble. Half of them sink at his dock due to bad seamanship (dockmanship?), but he sells the rest

[Laxlife]

Bad things happen close to land. Stay offshore.

[Peeew]

I was sailing past okracoke when the last episode was occurring. Listening to the boat and the coast guard communications it was obvious that something more than simply running aground was going on. Unable to describe their position, eventually we saw the flare that the coast guard requested. The Ch was closer than we were and they located the boat as the flare was burning. Lots of confusion for sure.

[Reeve21]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Both Oregon Inlet and Ocracoke are the types of inlets where the buoys are not all charted because the channel shifts constantly due to swirling currents, sandy bottoms, storms, etc. I don't know why these two boats went up on the beach, but my guess would be they decided to try the inlet for some reason, often fatigue or a breakdown of some sort, or impending weather, believed their chartplotter too much, and went hard aground. Personally, in this season I would be taking the Intracoastal Waterway between Norfolk and at Least Beaufort to avoid having to round Cape Hatteras. There are many inlets like this up and down the U.S. East Coast. I have done a few of them in good weather with good visibility, and they can be confusing even then. On the chart things look so clear, but then when you are down at sea level coming in from offshore you can't really see where things are breaking, there can be a strong current pushing you one way or another, the channel twists and turns between shoals with zero depth, and you have to make split-second decisions about which way to go even though you don't know.

I had a sailboat delivered north from NC this summer. Spoke with several delivery captains. None of them wanted anything to do with these inlets, even in settled weather. For all the reasons John mentions above.....