Avast! Astern! Aground :(

Vergennes City Dock, N44 10 W73 15
(09/12/05) As we arrived in Vergennes at the end of Otter Creek, we were greeted with two delightful sights. First there was a large modern city dock with a big sailboat tied up to it. Second was the sight of the waterfalls ¼ mile ahead. A man at the dock said the depth there was 8 feet. We scrambled to put out fenders, and lines, and to snap a picture of the falls. Alas, while all this scrambling was going on we drifted right past the navigable portion of the creek and into the shoals. We were aground. The bottom
wasn't soft so we couldn't back out.

Well it took almost an hour of hard work but we successfully kedged our way afloat again. Thank God Tarwathie is a full-keeled boat that can withstand groundings without damage more than some scrape marks on the bottom of the keel.

For the benefit of those who don't know what kedging is, I'll explain. You put the anchor and a hundred or more feet of chain into the dinghy. Then you row out 100 feet away and drop the anchor. Then you row back to the boat and use the windlass to pull on up about one inch of chain per 30-inch stroke of
the handle, so the mechanical advantage is about 30 to 1.

In this case, it took us three tries, the last try kedging with two anchors 45 degrees apart, but eventually we got Tarwathie afloat again. We had to drag her 60 feet by kedging. That took 720 strokes with the windlass handle, therein is the hard work part.

Anyhow we provided good entertainment for several Vergennes locals who were eating their lunches on picnic tables nearby. Watching other people work greatly increases the pleasure of eating.

I have a nice picture of the pool below the waterfall. I'll post it on the blog. When you see it, just picture us aground smack in the middle of that pool.