On To St. Augustine (and we run aground)

We left New Smyrna Beach City Marina at first light on Sunday May 7^rd as we needed the high tide at 7am to get over the “bump” Elena had discovered.  By playing the tides and following the directions from “Active Captain” carefully, we maneuvered successfully over this area that had run so many boats aground.  We had a long day ahead of us with a 55-nautical mile run to St. Augustine.

The route takes us through Daytona Beach.  By mid-day, we had found a tactical error in our plans.  It’s a Sunday, it’s Florida, and we are on the water on a warm spring day.  Every idiot who has a motorboat was out and most were running as fast as they could go.  Every few minutes some guy would zoom past us throwing his wake at us and rolling us around.  Highly unpleasant.  Most of the motor yachts transiting the ICW will slow down to minimize their wake.  But these were locals and did not concern themselves which such niceties. 

There was one more “bump” that Elena had discovered at the Matanza Inlet, just south of St Augustine, where ocean currents move a sandbar about.  The “Active Captain” instructions were not clear, but said “stay left” and “don’t worry about where the chartplotter puts you”.  We called on the radio for additional instructions from a local, but these instructions were also not clear.  Creeping along very slowly, I stayed left a bit too long, at some point the depth meter went from 8 to 5 feet, and we gently bumped and stopped. We were aground.  I tried backing off and then pushing ahead and steering to starboard, but sandbar held onto us.  Motorboats were going past us, but no one offered to assist.  After trying several more times, and, realizing it was late in the afternoon and not wanting to go into St. Augustine in the dark, we started to call the towing company for which we have insurance for this very situation.  But it was also a rising tide and I started to realize that all those pesky locals in their motorboats making waves with their wakes would lift Sophia a few inches on every pass.  While on the phone with the towing company, a boat came by and I threw Sophia into reverse and gunned the engine.  Slowly, ever so slowly, she started to move and, throwing the phone at Elena, I backed Sophia off the sandbar.  We had escaped!!!

We had made a couple of errors and did some correct things.  Elena and I had not compared notes carefully.  It was her impression that the deeper water was to our left once we had gotten over the bump, but I had not registered that, although she might have said it.  I really only heard stay to the left.  More importantly, in the middle of all this, she quietly said something to the effect of “I think you might want to turn right”, but it was so mild, it did not come across.  Next time we have a situation like that, I’ve asked her to be more forceful.  If we don’t agree, we can always stop and hold in place to sort it out (as we did in St.  Augustine on the way down).  Standard Navy procedures that I let escape me. 

On the other hand, I was proceeding a dead slow speed, just enough to steer so we did not go hard aground.  We knew we were passing a low tide and had a rising tide to float us off.  Using the wakes of the passing boats was a good trick, if I do say so myself.  We considered using sails to heel us over, a favorite tactic of mine, but the wind was pushing us toward shore.  I was also prepared to put out an anchor to winch us off (called kedging), but that would have required launching the dinghy and calling the towing company would have been far easier.

Elena, as is her usual way, made me feel like hero for getting us off, even though it was my screwup that got us stuck.  She is so good in that way.

We proceeded to St. Augustine without further incident, grabbed a mooring ball, and settled in for some rest and relaxation.