Not to be too critical....

[JimT]

Sitting on the balcony of the Charleston Harbor Resort watching a tremendous T storm come through. 60 mph winds and sideways rain. Cat 50' sailboat anchored earlier in a place I would not between the marina and the main channel. When the storm started to come in they moved the boat 50 yards off the dock house and reset. Within a few minutes their anchor broke free and I thought they were headed to the rocks. They managed to maneuver out and reset about 150 yards off the dock and seemed stable. Then for some reason during a lull they decide to pull up anchor and head directly south across the harbor. I was watching and said to the wife, "They are going to ground on the sandbar at Shutes Folly. Sure enough they did and now stuck hard on receding tide. They have until 11pm before high tide. I hope that's enough to float them off. I wish them well. The tides down here are wicked and I have run aground myself many times.

 

[sbw1]

Do you thinks there is a possibility he knew about the bar and beached it there on purpose in time for dinner? Could move it at high tide to a place for the night when the weather may improves. Maybe a stupid question, but I have little ocean experience. One Lake Michigan we sometimes duck into a small lake during severe weather to wait out a storm if it is convenient.

 

[Chada]

Ive been on the Chesapeake my whole life and have never purposely run aground. I suppose you could in a real emergency but Im not sure what that would be. I certainly would not put myself hard aground on the hope the tide would float me off later. I mean maybe if the boat was sinking.

 

[sbw1]

I wondered because you see photos of boats propped up with side boards in harbors at low tide. So, it does happen routinely in some ports.

 

[Boat Guy]

Did you happen to catch the name / hailing port? What 50' cat was it, do you know?

 

[b_arrington]

I wondered because you see photos of boats propped up with side boards in harbors at low tide. So, it does happen routinely in some ports.

It's definitely not normal to put yourself hard aground when traveling.

Boats you see aground at low tide and propped up generally do so because the huge tide range gives them no other option. The classic example is the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, where the tides can be 53 feet.

 

[JimT]

Did you happen to catch the name / hailing port? What 50' cat was it, do you know?

No, it was coming down hard and at times I lost sight of the boat completely.