Hey Dave, Exactly where was that grounding, I want to mark it on my charts. LoL Actually, I always say that you're not a real boater unless you've grounded at least once. Well, I have, just like Dave. Coming across Moriches Inlet (south shore of Long Island, NY), on the inside, I see up ahead a towboat and about 6 other boats, milling around. No sooner did I pull the throttle back, WHAMO!, I was hard aground, IN THE CHANNEL! I became victim number 7. Apparently boats were getting stuck on the outbound tide. The towboat came over and tried to pull us off, but I was afraid the boat would tip over 34' flybridge, not pretty on her side). So we set the anchors and waited for the flood. Limped home with a dinged prop, bent shaft, and crushed pride. Now I'm a real boater.
"Bloody islands just floating around at will without notifying the chart makers. Just wait until I see that Bassani fellow.."
Tom The area is called Palm Valley. It's just south of Jacksonville, about 8 or so miles south of the crossroads with the St. John's river. We limped up to a really nice marina (3 or so miles from the crossroads). The TowBoatUS guy was absolutely fantastic. He did the diving and ran the prop over to the repair place within an hour. He picked it up the next afternoon & had it back on the boat in no time. The poor guy was leaving in two days for Iraq. My favorite saying: There are captains who have run aground and there are the other captains who will.
Looks to me that you already made the decision. I did see the photos, and the captions were not funny (okay, maybe the first one about the bbq was). I just think Capt Evan was trying too hard. Hey Capt, we're a friendly bunch here, but we do respect people's property and do have compassion for bad situations. Of course, when someone does something a bit darwinian (new word, just ask President Bush), we like to share it. Browse around and observe a little, you'll get the hang of it.
I am going to try to look for the other pictures of that boat. There were several angles I saw including a few interior shots. What's funny is what was pointed out on the site where I saw it. If you looked at the interior damage but then looked at the personel effects scattered about the cabin, you could see some, well, "marital aids" as well as a bra with very realistic rubber *****. Makes you wonder what the capt. & mate were up to at the time of the accident
Wow, does that photo bring back memories. Ran my dads 36' sport fish aground in the grand river (mich) only problem is I didnt have tides to blame. Nothing to blame but myself. I wish I had all the money back Ive spent on bent props over the years. Whats worse is Ive done the same thing with my sail boat (different spot). Just as easy to ground but a lot harder to get back off. The only good thing is around hear the bottom is all sand so it usually does not hurt too bad.
Many years ago (A place far far away!!) my father got his car stuck on the slipway whilst trying to recover my 25 foot fisher. He could not get traction to climb off the slip, so I told him to back down towards the slip so the boat engine was still in the water. Bemused he did this! I fired the boat engine up, pushing the car up the slip with his wheels spinning too. WE didn't make it first try, so more throttle on the second go pushed us clear, but also shoved the boat 8 feet up the trailer and inches from the roof. Ooops! I took 12 guys to bring the boat safely back onto the trailer rollers!! Some of these pics bring back the "Oh S**t!!" factor.
Now, that's impressive. I mean, she's a minesweeper, meaning FRP or wooden hull, right? From the looks of it, she didn't just nudge the rock and hang up on the low tide....she whacked it at speed! Strong stuff them Germans build, eh?
These 54.4 m boats are built by Abeking & Rasmussen of a special antimagnetic steel (NMST) also used in submarines. Speed with 2 x 2.200 kW is 18 knots.