I am confessing to all that want to know that I ran aground. Not a bump, ooh we're too shallow. This was a surprise - going 7 knots one moment in 10 feet of water to a dizzy-ing stop and spin around from the momentum loss. In my defense, you can see the hard stop and turn around on the chart plotter - it clearly shows I should have been in 15 feet of water at the point of impact!!! The grounding was in soft sand, so no harm that we know of. I actually had noticed in the last few seconds that our depth was rapidly diminishing and had pulled the throttles back so it could have been worse. We were able to use the engines to back us off the sand bar. A nice family on a power boat had watched the grounding and had come over to offer assistance. He said "yeah, this is a sneaky sandbar"....I'm just glad we didn't have to call TowBoat US! I will be more vigilant looking out for shallow spots in this murky water! (Large tides and currents here account for the ebbing and flowing of uncharted sandbars....)
Lots of boaters out enjoying the sunny day.
And lots of folks/families on the shores fishing and playing.
Just lots of traffic in general. Was really tiring to spend 10 hours rocking and rolling with passing boats. On the bright side, we got a smile and a wave from almost all who passed.
With the 5' tides, it's a perfect environment to pull a small power boat up to a sandy shore.
Passed the "Black Raven" while waiting for the bridge opening in St. Augustine. Wow, there were singing pirates on that ship!
Went a few miles past St. Augustine to a lovely and secluded anchorage.
A couple more days "in the ditch" then weather will be nice offshore for a run towards Oriental. Will be happy to be away from all the hustle and bustle of the Intercoastal Waterway!
...I hope you went to St. Augustine...it was one of our favorite places when we lived in FL...
ReplyDeleteLove,
T