Grounding Data Base

Marathon
No LL

The other day, I posted a list of 175 anchorages. It wasn't my most inspired writing, and as I look at it, it seems rather boring. Today, we'll have more fun than that. Below is my list of 14 places where we ran aground.

I can't say for sure that we haven't missed some places, but I can say for sure that we've run aground more than once in the same place, so the actual number of groundings is higher than 14.

12 of these 14 groundings, we got off ourselves by kedging. For the non-boaters among you, that means putting the anchor and lots of chain in the dinghy, then rowing it as far away as the chain will reach and dropping the anchor in the water. Then, one uses the windlass to pull the anchor in. In almost all cases, we can make enough force with the windlass to pull the boat away and re-float it. In fact, we had done this drill so many times, that we can launch the dinghy, kedge off, pull the dinghy back on deck and be on our way in less than 15 minutes.

The other two times, once in North Miami and the other in Beaufort, NC, we had got towed off by Tow Boat US or by Sea Tow. That makes it worth our while to pay $150/year for towing insurance since the list price for each of those tows was around $700.

The only time we ever grounded on a hard rock bottom was up in Vergennes Vermont, right below the dam. We were very lucky to get off of that without trouble.

You may have heard that a boat running aground is terribly dangerous and that the survival of the boat and the lives of the occupants are in peril. That is very true if one runs aground where there are significant waves. The waves lift and drop the boat repeatedly, eventually bashing in the sides. Thankfully, we've never been close to that kind of grounding.

What was the funniest story of the 14 groundings? I like the one about "Aground Breedlove" We were out early one morning on the Indian River in Florida, near the Cape Canaveral canal. I was astonished to see a very unusual boat passing right next to us. It was the vessel "The Spirit of America" and it was being driven by Craig Breedlove. Mr. Breedlove is the is a five-time world land speed record holder and all his cars have been names "The Spirit of America" I don't know if his boat of the same name holds any records, but it looks like it could.

To make a long story short, I turned around to gawk and called to Libby, "Come see Craig Breedlove." and bang we were aground. To add insult to injury, according to the red and green markers we were 30 feet inside the channel where it was supposed to be deep. I was still not paying attention though because Mr. Breedlove, after getting well clear of us put the hammer down and roared on up the river at several hundred miles per hour. Wow!