Two sailboats on the beach Outer Banks

[Kettlewell]

The Graveyard of the Atlantic strikes again: https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-car...r-for-boaters/

[Snore]

Sorry to hear about the loss of apparently stout vessels.



Will not comment further

[thomm225]

Those are dangerous inlets (Ocracoke Inlet and Oregon Inlet) which is why most sailors up this way avoid them.

[gonesail]

then there's this one stranded on Jax Beach.

[Chotu]

It’s kind of weird, isn’t it? The southbound sailors are dropping like flies.

The only good thing about the mishaps at Hatteras are you can just walk home from them lol

not so much a graveyard. Just a parking lot.

[chrisr]

speaking as someone on the other side of the planet, who has no knowledge of this area, is anyone able to explain how this happens ?

all boats appear seaworthy...weather conditions don't appear bad. yet it seems like the normal sort of thing

what is going on ?! are they like a school of whales beaching themselves ?

cheers,

[boatman61]

It's that word of mouth thing you find in marinas and docks..
Psst.. you heading South mate, I know a great short cut..
A delivery skipper told me about it..

[Kettlewell]

speaking as someone on the other side of the planet, who has no knowledge of this area, is anyone able to explain how this happens ?

all boats appear seaworthy...weather conditions don't appear bad. yet it seems like the normal sort of thing

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.

[thomm225]

Going through the inlets a bit further North, you could never trust the buoys so as teens we would always catch a wave coming in and ride it all the way through then just hope our ancient outboard didn't quite halfway through.

I wouldn't risk coming through on a sailboat though because not only do you have to worry about the depth but also the current.

I believe it's close to a 5' tide for the Barrier Islands off the Eastern Shore which is just North of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay.

[Knotical]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Psst.. you heading South mate, I know a great short cut..
A delivery skipper told me about it..

This is good, cold, but good

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by gonesail

then there's this one stranded on Jax Beach.

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

[Kettlewell]

I should have added above that boats headed south want to hug the coast as close as possible to avoid getting into the strong northward flowing current further out. You can't just set a course by a depth contour because there are many shoals, and they all shift too. You can get some idea of what you are dealing with by looking at the satellite views.

[tkeithlu]

Short explanation: the artic current coming south and the gulf stream going north meet at Cape Hatteras. When I was a kid the beaches were littered with WWII ships and landing craft. Oregon Inlet moves about 60 ft south each year. Wisdom says that unless you are willing to stay WAY off shore, come inside and enjoy a sail through the Pamlico Sound.

[keepondancin]

They don’t look like cruising boats from the quick glimpse in the news clip

[JPA Cate]

When you're 50 ft., you can stow all the extraneous junk below. Not like a 26 footer.

Our 46 ft. boat has two spreaders and a jumper strut by way of rig. There are a few triple spreader rigs around the cruising fleet.

You'll notice two of the boats had tried to anchor (line off bow in two photos).

The satellite photo for the area of shifting sands is pretty graphic, but I didn't know about how much currents tend to move sands till we got to Australia. In the US, the Pacific Coast is one where the Pacific plate is being subducted, building the mountains; and the east is subsiding, like the Australian East Coast. Places where two contrary currents meet invite large, confused seas. Thus does geography impact cruising.

Ann