Ask sailors about running boats aground and they will fall into one of three catagories. Those that have, those that will and those that lie about it. Up until about 11:30 pm December 24th, me and tawn were solidly in the “Those that will” group.
I had no intention of running my boat aground, ever. Actually it is the one thing that I hoped would never happen. But before I get into the details of the grounding, I’ll let you in on our Xmas holiday plans…as boring as they were.
Me and Tawn decided instead of going snowboarding, we decide to sail the boat over to Poulsbo and spend Xmas there in the Marina. A friend of ours Mike, came over on his boat (Bamboo) and hangout too. Other than a small diesel leak into the bilge after filling up the fuel tanks. Everything was normal and fun.
Me and mike spent the majority of Xmas eve fixing the leaks, but we got it done and spent the rest of the time boozing and eating. Tawn made an awesome dinner and after eating, we watched a couple movies and had a few more drinks.
At about 11:30pm, Tawn says: “Uhhhh…why is the boat heeled over so much? The wind is not even blowing!” And right then her wine glass slides across the table and almost drops to the floor.
I got up and went up on deck. Something did not seem right. We were at an odd angle and the water seemed to be further way that it normally is. I stepped off the boat and on to the dock, which was also further away than normal. Which almost resulted in me busting my ass. I did not, but it was close.
We looked at the tide charts and noticed that X-mas Eve had one of the lowest tides of the year. Which resulted in our boat touching the bottom. Not only touching the bottom, but actually sitting on the bottom. And as the tide continued to go out and the dock kept dropping with the tide. The boat had hit bottom and was now leaning heavily against the dock and sticking up a foot or two out of the water. It was very odd. But as the tide, as it is known to do came back in, and we were floating again within the hour and things were back to normal.
We woke up to a very cold and very rainy X-mas morning. After getting the boat packed away we took off and headed for home. As I said the weather was cold, rainy and windy. And a first for us….it was actually snowing!! Sailing in the snow! That was a first.
At this point I have to mention that for X-mas Tawn got me a new digital camera. Me and Tawn have pretty bad luck with cameras. To date, we have dropped and broken two and and dropped and lost one. So this one is drop proof, water proof and my favorite feature….it not only takes pictures, it takes movies as well.
Lucky, lucky you!!
We I just had to try this new feature out on the sail home. And about half way through, you’ll see that I also tried out the drop proof feature as well. :P Ooops!
Anyway, here’s the first of may crappy home videos shot by me or Tawn for your viewing pleasure: