Part II

Boot Key, Florida
24 41.73 N 081 07.21 W

Yesterday, I alluded to trouble getting in to Boot Key Harbor. Here's the story.

After passing under Seven Mile Bridge, we turned the corner toward the harbor entrance. The wind was strong. 30 or more knots. I was concerned that we might miss the entrance and not be able to get in. Tarwathie can't manage motoring with her nose in winds more than 30 knots; even at full throttle. Therefore, I left the foresail up. Thus we headed in, close hauled, heeled 30 degrees under motor and sail.

It worked fine until we were halfway through the entrance channel. This channel, shallow under all conditions, must have been shallower than normal because of the wind. The depth under the keel started to drop. I moved us to the green side; the deepest part of the channel as far as I know. The depth sounder showed, 5 feet, 4.5 then 4. We were screwed. I couldn't go forward, and I couldn't turn around and go back. In the space of a few seconds, we were aground and the wind pushed us far to the red side where Tarwathie laid on her side on a mud flat.

Darn. I violated one of the cardinal rules I learned in flight training. Always leave yourself an out; a plan B. I should have thought in advance that under these conditions I couldn't turn around and back out of the channel. Without an out; it was wrong to attempt the entrance. Oh well.

We called for Sea Tow. We have towing insurance with Sea Tow, and this was an occasion where we really needed it. However, our call on the VHF radio was heard throughout the harbor, our friends included. Soon we had an offer of help from Anything Pawsible and from Noble House. Their help was appreciated. The wind was so strong that it would have been risky to try to launch our dinghy; it might have gotten caught in the wind and swung out of control.

Anyhow, our friends Shelly and Dennis came out with their dinghy. I put the Danforth anchor and 120 feet of rode in their dinghy. They carried it across the channel for us and dropped the anchor. Then Libby and I went to work with the manual windlass, cranking in the line bit by bit. In the low gear stump puller mode, we are able to crank with about 3,000 pounds of force. It did no good. The nylon line stretched to half its normal diameter, yet we didn't budge. Oh well, it was still help. At the very least, as the tide rose we would not get pushed further on to the mud flat.

There was nothing to do other than wait. We waited 3 hours as the tide rose 0.8 feet (tides are really low here in the keys.) Tarwathie righted herself. Every 20 minutes we tried again with the windlass -- no luck. Finally, around noon the Sea Tow Boat came. The captain said that he had to get permission from the Florida Wildlife Commission to tow us. and that he was required to wait for high tide. He attached his tow line and moved out in the channel. The first thing he did, the clutz, ran over our taught anchor line and cut it! Now we lost our anchor too with 50 feet of chain and 80 feet of nylon rode. Of course, the waiver that I had to sign in advance says that Sea Tow is not responsible for damage.

After that, the tow boat had to pull us for only 15 seconds and we were off the flat and afloat once again. We left the channel and anchored outside the harbor overnight. Today, Sunday, the winds aren't so strong we'll attempt again to get in to Boot Key Harbor.