I have so many stories of my personal screw-ups with boats - it's hard to pick out the most appropriate learning curve to share. And as GH and LH already mentioned: "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment or lack of judgment."
Luckily, like smp747 I was able to think ahead and provide alternatives - and not panic when the sh*t happens.
On the getting ashore on a beach and anchoring topic - 2 related and applicable stories:
In many areas on this coast - there is deep water and narrow basins/anchorages. SH just related some of the problems inherent in this situation. The other issue is that many other boaters know this and as darkness happens - many boats can head to the same anchorage. Sometimes there is not enuff room - and only subprime and vulnerable open spots are left - if any. At one time before lawyers got involved - the Coast Guard used to put out mooring buoys to overcome this situation. Most of those buoys are now gone due to maintenance coast and liability issues. So what else can one do?
Carry a long line that can double as either a tow line or a "shore line". A shore line is used instead of and/or in addition to an anchor where the skipper knows of a deeper anchorage that a line can be strung up between 2 large trees on a shore - one tree on a point so that the "anchorage" is in the armpit of the point. This works well if one gets to the anchorage before dark and you have a small skiff to get ashore. Works well if you are using a cove for a home base for a few days. In sailboats - sometimes that happens when a storm brings winds from the wrong direction.
Well I was using one of these shorelines for an extended time and took the skiff to check out a creek. Once I was at the creek I just tied the skiff off to a tree with a long bow line and kicked it out into the deep part because I was only going to be "5 minutes" and the tide hadn't yet started to drop. Those with experience will likely already guess how this goes.
SPOILER ALERT: If you ever say in your head: "I'll only be 5 minutes" or any other small timeframe - kick yourself in the you know what and stop lying to yourself. It only gets you in trouble. As it did for me. I ended-up being like 45 minutes....
Got back to the skiff and the tide had dropped and the skiff found a 5 foot tall boulder and was sitting up on top of it. I knew that if I pushed the heavy aluminium skiff off of the boulder the bottom end would have been toast and maybe even take out the transom. Stranded. So know what to do?
Luckily I did think ahead and I had stashed a small inflatable in the bushes near where one end of the shore line was and left a tire over the side to make boarding easy. So I tromped thru the bush to the inflatable - along the line by hand to the side and in the boat. I waited until high tide @ 2am - get up and do the reverse and get back to the skiff - everyone safe and I only lost some sleep.
Lesson for me: Always think ahead and prep for what can go wrong - don't panic - and always leave a tire over the side when stopped. AND kick myself in the *** whenever I say "I will only be X min".
Another one wasn't my screw-up but instead by someone (a newbie) I knew. Got a call from CG - since they were out of VHF range - they had gone into a nice sand beach (with surf running) sightseeing and dropped the hook but got taken up onto the beach sideways and the tide dropped and left them high and dry. They would have been stuck there for some days until they payed $ for a tug - even if the boat survived. The problem with that is that the next high tide would be at night and would take them even higher up the beach. I ended up showing up at the rising tide just before dark on a rising tide and managed to tow them off the beach using along tow line I had.
The Lessons: sand is there often because the mud is washed out. How does that happen? - surf. Surf fluffs up the sand and washes out mud and is common in more outside facing beaches. Does an anchor hold in sand - nope! So dropping an anchor in front of a sand beach does nothing. And when your leg is up - you have no backup power and get taken onto the beach whether you want it or not. Once they got in front of the beach and pointed to the beach - they got taken into it. I am assuming that was terrifying for them. Most sand beaches are also shallow for a long ways out.
So how so how does one avoid getting taken onto a nice, sand beach? 2 Alternatives:
1/ Don't go there unless you are towing a skiff that you can instead use and anchored the bigger boat in another adjacent spot. And/or find the sheltered rockier, steeper beach that is adjacent to the sand beach and walk to the sand beach from that landing.
2/ Have a really long anchor line some hundreds of feet long and find the mud deeper in front of the sand beach and anchor there and use the skiff.
ALWAYS test the holding ability of your anchor ahead of any assumptions about how well that may work. Drop it and try to drag it. Pick it up and move to another anchorage if it doesn't hold.
Anyways there some lessons for the newbies
Hope it helps
Luckily, like smp747 I was able to think ahead and provide alternatives - and not panic when the sh*t happens.
On the getting ashore on a beach and anchoring topic - 2 related and applicable stories:
In many areas on this coast - there is deep water and narrow basins/anchorages. SH just related some of the problems inherent in this situation. The other issue is that many other boaters know this and as darkness happens - many boats can head to the same anchorage. Sometimes there is not enuff room - and only subprime and vulnerable open spots are left - if any. At one time before lawyers got involved - the Coast Guard used to put out mooring buoys to overcome this situation. Most of those buoys are now gone due to maintenance coast and liability issues. So what else can one do?
Carry a long line that can double as either a tow line or a "shore line". A shore line is used instead of and/or in addition to an anchor where the skipper knows of a deeper anchorage that a line can be strung up between 2 large trees on a shore - one tree on a point so that the "anchorage" is in the armpit of the point. This works well if one gets to the anchorage before dark and you have a small skiff to get ashore. Works well if you are using a cove for a home base for a few days. In sailboats - sometimes that happens when a storm brings winds from the wrong direction.
Well I was using one of these shorelines for an extended time and took the skiff to check out a creek. Once I was at the creek I just tied the skiff off to a tree with a long bow line and kicked it out into the deep part because I was only going to be "5 minutes" and the tide hadn't yet started to drop. Those with experience will likely already guess how this goes.
SPOILER ALERT: If you ever say in your head: "I'll only be 5 minutes" or any other small timeframe - kick yourself in the you know what and stop lying to yourself. It only gets you in trouble. As it did for me. I ended-up being like 45 minutes....
Got back to the skiff and the tide had dropped and the skiff found a 5 foot tall boulder and was sitting up on top of it. I knew that if I pushed the heavy aluminium skiff off of the boulder the bottom end would have been toast and maybe even take out the transom. Stranded. So know what to do?
Luckily I did think ahead and I had stashed a small inflatable in the bushes near where one end of the shore line was and left a tire over the side to make boarding easy. So I tromped thru the bush to the inflatable - along the line by hand to the side and in the boat. I waited until high tide @ 2am - get up and do the reverse and get back to the skiff - everyone safe and I only lost some sleep.
Lesson for me: Always think ahead and prep for what can go wrong - don't panic - and always leave a tire over the side when stopped. AND kick myself in the *** whenever I say "I will only be X min".
Another one wasn't my screw-up but instead by someone (a newbie) I knew. Got a call from CG - since they were out of VHF range - they had gone into a nice sand beach (with surf running) sightseeing and dropped the hook but got taken up onto the beach sideways and the tide dropped and left them high and dry. They would have been stuck there for some days until they payed $ for a tug - even if the boat survived. The problem with that is that the next high tide would be at night and would take them even higher up the beach. I ended up showing up at the rising tide just before dark on a rising tide and managed to tow them off the beach using along tow line I had.
The Lessons: sand is there often because the mud is washed out. How does that happen? - surf. Surf fluffs up the sand and washes out mud and is common in more outside facing beaches. Does an anchor hold in sand - nope! So dropping an anchor in front of a sand beach does nothing. And when your leg is up - you have no backup power and get taken onto the beach whether you want it or not. Once they got in front of the beach and pointed to the beach - they got taken into it. I am assuming that was terrifying for them. Most sand beaches are also shallow for a long ways out.
So how so how does one avoid getting taken onto a nice, sand beach? 2 Alternatives:
1/ Don't go there unless you are towing a skiff that you can instead use and anchored the bigger boat in another adjacent spot. And/or find the sheltered rockier, steeper beach that is adjacent to the sand beach and walk to the sand beach from that landing.
2/ Have a really long anchor line some hundreds of feet long and find the mud deeper in front of the sand beach and anchor there and use the skiff.
ALWAYS test the holding ability of your anchor ahead of any assumptions about how well that may work. Drop it and try to drag it. Pick it up and move to another anchorage if it doesn't hold.
Anyways there some lessons for the newbies
Hope it helps
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