We ran aground!

There's a saying among Chesapeake Bay sailors that you've either run aground in the Bay or you're a liar. As we've made our way up and down the east coast of the U.S. via the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (the "ICW") a few times we heard it again, but with a twist--"You've either run aground in the ICW or you're a liar!" Well, we aren't liars!

We earned our stripes and this post's title years ago on the Chesapeake Bay, having furrowed a 6'3" trough at our marina's entrance a few times and touching bottom near the notoriously shifty, partly-marked entrance to Rock Hall, MD...and probably several other times that I've chosen to forget. Our first ICW "touch" was on a spring break trip with our kids probably eight years ago as we made contact with the bottom in an area of known shoaling during a 20kt blow just north of Coinjock. That experience led us to the Coinjock Marina for a night to recover (of course, with their famous prime rib!).

So why is this topic coming back up? We ran aground twice over the past four days! As we departed Vero Beach tracking just adjacent to our inbound track we ran aground! We were thankfully going slow as a manatee had surfaced up ahead and we able to back off, scoot back to the other side of our inbound track, and make for the ICW. Then after a night in Titusville and another in Daytona we headed for our mooring reservation in St. Augustine. It was a busy Saturday on the ICW, but we had a good current pushing us along and Katreina took the helm for a bit. While she was cruising along just right of the channel centerline (still in the channel!) our depth reading went from 18' to 6.5' in a matter of seconds and we felt a "bump" or two! We draw between 6'3" and 6'6" depending on our fuel/water/stores load. Frank immediately jumped to the helm, but the excitement was pretty much over as soon as it began and we were back to having 10 feet beneath our keel. We gave her a little grief, but honestly just laughed about it. She even got some "welcome to the cruisers club" notes from our boating friends. It happens, folks!

Katreina expertly handling the boat traffic on the ICW.

Her "I don't want to talk about it" face after touching bottom.

So are we crappy sailors? I don't think so! Shoaling happens and in places like the Bay and ICW where the water is mud-brown you can't exactly read the depths like you can in the Bahamas, though we have touched bottom there, too, when trying to nose into anchorages. This type of stuff generally happens where the bottom is muddy or sandy, so it's a soft grounding. We use charts, local Notice to Mariners, and the local boating community to learn about places that are known for shoaling and lower speed to minimize the impact should we touch. And we have a tow boat plan in case none of that works!

Could we avoid all of this drama by just staying safely at the dock? Sure, but then we couldn't have great sea stories to share with our friends!