run aground and other stories

[ahmch]

Hey fellow compacians. A couple of interesting things have occurred recently in my high desert sailing.  Some good some not so good.
So here's the good news.  I have three sailing students.  They just sort of appeared. One guy called me out of the blue, still not quite sure who gave him my number.  I think it was the guy at DMV who remembered my boat and looked up my name.  So I got a nice little sail on a Vangard 15 with a novice at the helm.  Managed to keep him upright, and even taught him to jibe.  He was afraid to because he had been told how evil it was. I explained that sometimes when sailing around other sailors, motor boaters, and docks, you had better know how to jibe because that may be the only way to avoid a collision.  He understood and got the hang of it pretty quick.
The other students just appeared at the lake asking for help rigging up. One thing led to another and I got to ride a Tanzer 16 and a Capri 14.
Lake people are friendly.

Not so great news, but all's well that ends well.
My daughter and I went for an overnight at the lake. We were between two thunder storms.  One at the mountain by the lake and the other coming off the mountain to the south.  I thought we could ride the front of the first storm across the lake and duck in the lee of an island before the second hit.
no such luck.  The second storm hit while I was on a lee shore.  I quickly dowsed sail and dropped anchor.  Too late.  I guess the storm was 50 mph or thereabouts.  It simply drug my little anchor and we were side ways on shore with waves coming over the coamings.
I put the girl below and shut the hatch, leaped overboard to try and drag the bow into the wind.  No luck, too strong a gale.
I stayed with the boat for a good while and fought the waves. I finally managed to turn the bow into the wind and drag the stern into the mud so we were no longer in danger of filling with water.  The boat was now head to wind and not rocking violently any more.

This water was,... well...icky.  The lake was full of runoff from recent storms. This runoff was filled with mud and ash from recent fires.
I was filled with mud and ash from recent fires as well. if you know what I mean.
I open the hatch and Sarah was more than startled at swamp thing coming into our little shelter.  I said cover you eyes cause dad is getting naked and drying off.  (at least we remembered towels.)
The stormm was a real doozey. wind, rain thunder and lightning.  It was kind of exciting seeing it through a port hole rather than chest deep in runoff.  Fortunately I choose an area with rushes to crash my boat.  So the only real damage was to my spirit and some small scratches to the stern where i pulled it ashore.

So I finally get into a berth and try to sleep. no go as the boat is listing slightly. maybe 5 or 7 degrees. Just enough to stuff me into the hull and put my arm asleep.  Now it gets a little strange. You puritans may not like this part.
The wind finally abates and the storm passes. I would say after an hour or two.
I am still in my birthday suit. I warn the young one to not look or she may go blind.  crawl out and put on my shoes.  everything else is soaked and yucky.  The stars are coming out and it has become a beautiful night.  I stand on the bow and retrieve my anchor and heave it offshore. after one more trip into the muck I was able to kedg myself off shore and get a nice hold in deep water.
The whole time the stars are shining and so is the moon.......Freckles and all.

Woke up the next morning, Beautiful weather. put on some coffee and some clothes. not in that order. had breakfast and rode the morning thermal inversion coming off the mountain.  

Oddly enough my daughter does not want to camp this weekend. Not in the boat any way.  I did not tell my sailing students about my stupid trick. I am also in the market for a new outboard.  My electric was a joke in the storm.  We were literally 100 yards from the inlet when the waves hit.

I also ran across this blog about some goings on in sailing circles in northern New Mexico.
I remember the news about the fire but did not realize the owner of the property was a sailor and lost his boat.
If you don't want to read the whole blog. here is a pic of hi 25' boat.
My little accident doesn't seem so bad...
Here is the link.
http://desertsea.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

Cheers
Andrew



 

[crazycarl]

Wow! I thought I was the only sailor who had these type of experiences.

It's always good to hear other's mishaps, it puts my experiences in perspective.

The bright side...we all learn from them!

Carl

[skip1930]

I'm guessing that better ground tackle carried on board is in order?

The Bohemian anchoring system as described in Bob Burgess's Book 'Handbook of Trailer Sailing' illustrates the use of two anchors spread out in front of the bow, about 60 degrees angle and about 100 foot apart.

That's if time is at hand.

Begs my question; What are you doing out there with an electric trolling motor and a limited battery supply?

This fellow and his daughter took a trip around Lake Superior in a Hobby Cat. That's a trip man.

Dad came down and gave a talk about this trip that he and his daughter did at the Door County Maritime Museum and Lighthouse Preservation Society.  


skip.

[Bob23]

   Thanks for the story, Andrew. My daugher and I have done a lot of camping together when she was younger...everytime turned into an adventure! If they had been uneventless, I doubt she would remember them but the tales of fireants, deluges and getting lost while looking for one of my "short cuts" still comes up in conversation. The time spent between a dad and daughter is priceless.
   Glad all is well and no injuries except to pride.

Bob23

[ahmch]

Yes better ground tackle. Yes in a V.  And of course I have another 20 lb danforth. Sitting next to the bird bath for decoration....
I should not have attempted the crossing with only the electric.  Had plenty of juice, just no horsepower to fight the big waves that came across.  Thought I could beat the storm and didn't want to camp near the boat ramp.  One or two mistakes and you are in trouble.

Going out tomorrow.  The monsoons have abated and the evening breezes are now perfect. 

Andrew

[curtisv]

Andrew,

It is easy of others to give advice after the fact, but things happen.  Nothing bad came of it as long as your daughter still wants to go sailing with you.

Here is my strategy for sailing on the Atlantic off Cape Cod and in Nantucket Sound.  Daysailing where I am moored in Pleasant Bay doesn't require as much forethought.  These Com-pac sailboats are quite capable if set up well and with good crew.  Some ideas I've used may apply to your sailing -- you decide.

I own a trolling motor but mine is sufficiently useless on a CP23 and unreliable that I leave it in the garage.  Before that I had a 8 HP Honda outboard.  I've sailed engineless for quite a few years now.  That's OK here since I'm in a windy coastal area which seldom suffers windless conditions for more than a few hours -- except sometimes at night, and occasionally in August for the better part of a day or so.  So its completely OK if its fine to sleep aboard now and then if there is no wind and/or tides won't allow you to go anywhere.  I don't mind sleeping aboard now and then.

My strategy is to first make sure the weather won't overpower the boat.  For my CP23 as set up that would be steady near gale or gusts in the fresh gale to strong gale range.  Therefore if we have gale warnings I watch the sky and don't venture very far.  Small craft advisories mean that I need to do some careful checking of what is going on, though I have made up to a 60 mile passage in a small craft advisory when a weak front moved though.  There was very little to no chance of an isolated very weak front getting stronger.  Sailing in these conditions is not possible in a completely stock CP23, particularly if its only head sail is a genoa.  It is possible because I have added a second reef to the main and have a 110% and a 60% jib.  If there is a chance that the sails may be overpowered getting to shelter is important, but I've made is so I could handle most unexpected changes in weather.

For me the anchor is there to hold me securely in a harbor and for those rare "force zero" conditions or for conditions where the tidal currents are strong and opposing and continuing to try to sail against them in light wind is pointless.  There are two places I could get stuck waiting for tides currents that require a lot of anchor rode.  Both are on the Atlantic.  One is outside Chatham Break (or the newer yet uncharted by NOAA new as of 2007 North Beach Break, both leading to Pleasant Bay).  The other is the northern channel to Nantucket Sound, known as Polluck Rip, just south or Monomoy Island, well north of Nantucket, and just north of Nantucket Shoals.  Here it is best to anchor in deep water and wait for a favorable tide.  Best time to enter is at or just before the slack prior to favorable tidal current.  Waiting is best, whether you have a strong motor or not and the water you'll want to anchor in is deep.  Near shore ocean waves get steeper, so 30-50 feet of anchoring depth is a good choice.  The designated anchorage (historically used by commercial sailing vessels centuries ago) is further out in 70 feet of water.  So I carry a 27 lb plow (good in sand) with 80 feet of chain and not quite 250 feet of 1/2 braided nylon.  My spare 15 lb danforth is used only as a "lunch hook" and has 6 feet of chain and 100 feet of 3/8 3-strand.  I have a spare coil of 3/8 3-strand which I think is 100 feet or maybe 150 feet.

If I somehow where to get caught in winds I couldn't handle, heaving to might help but with a lea shore I could also drop the hook.

You can decide what to do in your situation.  Perhaps the 50 MPH storm is rare where you sail (was it really 50 MPH?).  The same tactics may apply.  Know your limitations, both you and your CP19.  Prepare your boat better if you might get caught in winds over your boat's current ability.

If the area is prone to unexpected weather, prepare for that too.  For us the rare sudden severe thunderstorm can bring 45-50 knot (not MPH) winds but rarely and only briefly.  One thing I could be better prepared for is lightning If there is a chance of a strong thunderstorm coming up unexpectedly where you sail, you need to be somehow prepared for it.  But you also have to head the warnings that the sky gives you.

In my opinion, a motor is not the best preparation for the occasional storm.  On a big lake, like Elephant Butte Lake (you didn't say which lake you were on), there may not be enough time to motor anywhere from when you notice a storm brewing until when it hits.  That is certainly the case here, where I can be 1/2 day from a sheltered anchorage.  I used to own an outboard and some people ask how I could not want one if conditions got bad.  But when conditions get bad is exactly when an outboard is near useless.  As soon a waves pick up, the prop isn't in the water long enough to get you anywhere and the possibility of racing the engine without cooling water when the prop is out of the water forces you to operate at partial throttle.  Better yet, just shut the darn thing off, set some heavily reefed sails and get somewhere.  Or anchor.

On the ocean, the wind won't get you so much as the waves.  Lakes are more fetch limited.  Thunderstorms are duration limited.  The book Adler Cole's Heavy Weather Sailing has a subsection on Wave Prediction within the chapter on Waves.  There is a bunch of graphs more focused on hundreds of miles of fetch and storm durations of 6-12 hours to days but some guesses based on the graphs can be made for short fetches and short durations.  For example, Elephant Butte Lake is 40 miles long but with twist and turns that make for a maximum fetch that looks to be maybe 15 miles. You probably have to worry about short durations for thunderstorm which may blow its strongest for generally at most a few hours.  Even 45 knots (about 50 MPH) puts waves in the 3 foot range (chart is in meters) for 2-3 hours.  The wind would have to blow a steady 50 MPH for around 6 hours to get to  6 feet (2 meters).  At 6 hours of steady 50 MPH wind (I'm guessing that is very unlikely) waves are limited by a 15-20 mile fetch to about 6 foot (2 meters).  I'd guess that you need not worry about much more than 3-4 foot waves.  My experience was that 1.5-2 foot waves have the prop out of the water as much as in.  With 3-4 foot waves you reach the much more out than in stages and the outboard is useless.

For the engineless boat or underpowered auxillary (trolling motor for example) that is near shelter, worst case is no wind or too light to make much headway with a storm on the horizon.  For a boat with or without auxillary power, being too far from shelter to reach under power is the worst case.  Having fair warning from the radio or from the skies and not bothering to head for shelter until it is too late is another issue.  Any of these is best solved with a good anchor (good for your Lake's bottom type), but it is still much better to be in a sheltered slip, mooring, or anchorage before things get bad.

Curtis

[skip1930]

I was in a storm once where the 5 hp 2 cycle running full blast did not have enough umph to keep the bow from being blown off the crests and pushed down in the trough between the waves. Turn into the wind and climb up the hill again.

That was a long 3 hour trip with water being shipped aboard all the way to the harbor of refuge. Now called George Pinney Park in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
I made port and hung on the wall all night till morning when things calmed down a bit.

On the CP-19, the big Danforth weighs 8 lb and has 15 foot of chain and 150 foot of line. The second Danforth, [a lunch anchor] is a bit lighter, has chain and 80 foot of line.

I run a ground once in a while. That's why I cut and glued on a 6 mm KEEL BOOT on the flat of the CP-19's keel. This season I glued on rolled 4 inch 1/8" ss wrap-a-round leading edge above the KEEL BOOT as well.

skip.

[curtisv]

I run aground from time to time.  If you look at a chart of Pleasant Bay, you'd wonder how anyone could sail at all there given some of the depths.  Coast Guard doesn't update the part of the chart (13237) where Chatham Break is having declared the whole area to be "not navigatable water".  You know its shallow when the depth in the channel is under 2 feet MLW (opposite Allen Point, aka Ministers Point on the chart).  The Coastal Pilot has an interesting entry for Chatham Break should anyone care to look it up.

I've also run aground in the very outside of Nantucket Harbor entrance, just opposite the well known Brandt Point Light.  I had quite an audience given it was about 10:30 PM (or 2230) and would have been pitch black were it not for the lighthouse.  A bunch of kids were drinking on the beach by the lighthouse and having a good laugh over my grounding.  I ended up jumping in the water and leading my CP23 to deeper water by hand.  It was just about dead low tide so I would have been off soon on the rising tide.

Running aground in sand in protected water is nothing to worry about.  Running aground on a rising tide is particularly not a worry.  On the other hand, lakes have no tides so you can't just sit back or take a swim and wait for the next high tide.

Running aground in ocean waves can bring a quick end to your boat.  Even in sand the waves will smash the boat to pieces in short order.  Of course rocks are worse.  So don't do that.

Curtis

[Craig]

Man ain't run aground ain't sailed very far!

[Koinonia]

I was very surprised on our trip to the keys that we didnt run aground on the entire trip, the year before we bumped our way into one anchorage but no hard grounds in big Koinonia yet.  The shallow draft on our boats really gets us around.

[curtisv]

I was very surprised on our trip to the keys that we didnt run aground on the entire trip, the year before we bumped our way into one anchorage but no hard grounds in big Koinonia yet.  The shallow draft on our boats really gets us around.

The CP27 is a bit heavier than the CP23, quite a bit -- double.  The CP23 has this nice feature that in a very light wind grounding, if you jump out and tie a leash to the bow, the reduced weight will be enough to pull the boat by hand off the shoal.  Chest high is plenty deep enough to get back on the boat and start sailing again.  CP27 only drafts another 3 inches but the loss of 200 lbs or so may not put her much higher in the water so I suspect the get out and walk the boat back to deeper water option doesn't work for you.

A hard grounding under sail while at heal is going to be a lot harder to get off but groundings should be gunkholing or finding your way to an anchorage or mooring where you are approaching with caution knowing it is shallow.

Curtis

[Koinonia]

I just work my way into a shallow anchorage under power and do so slowly.  I have enough prop on the boat I can reverse if needed.  I have grounded only once on another boat while sailing and luckily I was just able to crank on the engine and sheet in right and I heeled/motored/drug the keel off.  So far Ive never had to get the anchors away from the boat to winch it off but that is another option.

[curtisv]

Koinonia,

Just ran aground again about a week ago and shortly after had a knockdown.  Actually ran aground three times recently, in three different places, but who's counting.  The other two were more boring, but I'll describe them.  They were on the same day.  Tried to use my sculling oar in a narrow spot in a current and wind and ended up in the eelgrass.  Just put up sails and got out.  The sculling oar also comes in handy to push off the bottom and get going.  With a friend at the helm and me setting up reef lines (not to reef, just to have them ready), said friend heads us up the channel to Quanset Pond at near low tide while I'm initially not paying enough attention to what he's doing.  Turns out the channel has about 15" of water at low tide.  I dumped the main to slow us down so we grounded soft.  We then had to turn around in not enough water and avoid moored boats to get back to my mooring.  Yes, a few motorboats and some daysailers are moored in not much over a foot of water at MLW.  The helmsman's logic was he wanted to go to the dock and after all "we were in the channel", not realizing that the channel is the best way in, but not always a viable way in near low tide.  That was a jump out and push off the sand ungrounding.

The most recent grounding and the knockdown was last Saturday.  I had sailed into Little Pleasant Bay (see chart 13237, or Maptech 50E, or look here http://www.faster-light.net/remote-access/image/50E-01.png) earlier close to high tide and on a broad reach and run through The Narrows.  Real easy.  Did a bit of kayaking (another story for later).  On the way back it was close to low tide through The Narrows, wind had picked up a bit to a reported 15 knots with gusts of 20, and sailing the narrows was close to a wind on the nose situation.

The Narrows needs a bit of introduction.  On the east side is Sipson Island.  On the west side is a spit of land known locally as Minister's Point, not to be confused with the place marked Minister's Point in Chatham on the chart whish is known locally as Allen Point.  Just north of The Narrows there is a nice little 7 on chart 50E.  Mostly though there are little 1s and 2s and a channel with some 3s and there is an occasional 1/2.  Not much depth.  There are also a bunch of *s, some with Rk and those among us literate in charts know these as rocks.  About 90% of the rocks actually there have no asterisk including an entire area of 2s that is dotted with rocks just below the surface.  In a sailing vessel knowing where these unmarked rocks are located is called "local knowledge" and you need a bit of that to tack up The Narrows at or near low tide.  And one other detail is that the pinch point in The Narrows is about 2-3 boat lenghts wide right about at the nun marked "40" on the chart.  To the east of the nun about 5 feet the birds are walking at low tide, on a spit that extends from Sipson Island.  To the west is one of those nasty 1/2 depths marked on the chart and in the middle is a nice 7, just not much width to that channel.

So as I was saying, the goal was to tack up The Narrows near low tide, something I have done many times.  While in the north end of Little Pleasant Bay the prevailing SW wind is somewhat blocked by land.  I started out with full sails up.  It looked to be mostly about 10-12 knots in Little Pleasant Bay due to the very few occurances of white caps.  Heading south I ran into increasingly strong gusts so I tied in the first reef in the main.  As I approached The Narrows the gusts got a bit nasty.

One thing I forgot to mention about The Narrows, is the high bluff along both Sipson Island and along Minister's Point.  The latter land feature and other high land helps block the wind in Little Pleasant Bay.  But those land features conspire to funnel a SW wind through The Narrows.  Nasty surprises in the form of very strong wind gusts can be had entering The Narrows.

That local knowledge stuff helps to know where outside the marked channel it is fine to tack when approaching The Narrows from north.  In the last few short tacks close to Sipson Island the stronger wind and stronger gusts from Greater Pleasant Bay could be felt.  Looking out on Pleasant Bay the whitecaps indicated a steady 15, which matched the predicted wind speed.  I took a nice long tack (well long for that area, maybe 6-8 boat lengths) into the vicinity of the 1/2 on the chart.  I then tacked a bit late and bumped bottom before finishing the tack.  It was a great spot for approaching nun "40", but I wasn't planning to put the keel on the sand.

The easiest ungrounding of a CP is to get out and walk.  So I lowered the boarding ladder, lashed the tiller, jumped out, and pushed the bow off the sand.  I held the rubrail until the stern cam by and hopped onto the boarding ladder.  I had to be in the cockpit fast for the next tack and was ready with tiller unlashed and in hand and sheets also in hand.

That is when a big gust came by.  I needed to hold off on the tack and did.  I then started the tack and the gust strengthened a lot.  The mast went over and before the bow was to windward water had come over the coaming, first time that happened to me, and the gust subsided just before I finished the tack.  This was to be a very short tack, about 2-3 boat lengths and I finished the next tack before the water fully drained from the cockpit.  Luckily the strength of that gust was not repeated.  Just in case I reduced headsail by a few rolls on the furler.  Once out in more open water I tied in the second reef on the main, set the full 110 jib and had a fairly easy sail back to the mooring.

So a lot more significant that the light grounding was the knockdown that immediately followed.  I guess the point is soft groundings on sand don't matter much in the smaller CPs and where I sail you have to expect them to happen on occasion if you don't want to limit your sailing a lot.

I did the same course to windward through The Narrows on Monday in lighter winds, more like 10-12 than the 15 of a few days ago and no strong gusts, and less near low tide and everything went smoothly, every tack nice and neat and nothing resembling a grounding or knockdown.

Curtis