Capri wrote:
snip

Anyone else have any good grounding tales?


The only time I ran aground with me at the helm..was on a friends Viking
28 sailboat. There is a narrow channel between a point on the mainland
and an island that is fun to pass through. You can only sail it on
occasion when the wind is directly out of the north (run south) or vice
versa. The predominant winds are southwest in the summer so the island
quickly blocks the wind and we usually 'motor sail' through the narrow
passage.
The previous week, on our first time through on the Viking, conditions
were perfect. We sailed right through and could almost touch the people
on the banks. Following week, our skipper had a gang of people aboard
and wanted to impress them. I warned him that the winds were different
(night on our nose) for the way we were approaching (south to north).
He insisted that we try, so I tacked as far east & west as
possible...going inside a large red buoy on the theory that it was for
larger fishing vessels.
Next thing...bang/crash...looked overboard and all I could see were hugh
boulders everywhere. What a time...the ladies were on the edge of
getting panicky so we had everyone on the port rail and pointed the bow
west. The wind was from the north so we hauled the main sheet in snug.
This allowed us to heel over and bounce over boulder after boulder until
we cleared the minefield. We immediately took the boat back to the yacht
club and used the lift/slings to haul it out, hang it over the dock and
inspect for damage. Luckily, it was minor.
From that point on..the area was known as 'Donnie's rock'.
The next year, another crew member put us on a sandbar in the same area,
but we were able to power off.