Sunday, May 27

If you run a ground but you get yourself off, is it an official “grounding?”  On our way to the anchorage by St Mary’s College in the St Mary’s River needed to get fuel at Dennis Point Marina, which is off in one of the smaller coves.  Upon entering the cove we could see it was very shallow but with the sunlight at the right angle we could actually see the deeper water.  We made in but, “YIKES!” the depth gage went to zero on the way.  I told Shirla we would have a hard time getting back through.  Shortly after docking we heard one of the power cruisers who had just left the dock call over the radio, “We’ve run aground in
3½ feet of water!”

“Oh boy,” I thought.  It took about 10 minutes for the other boat to get pulled off, before we could take our turn.  Sure enough, as we tried to snake our way out in what looked like the way we came in; the boat lurched up out of the water then back down again, stopping dead.  What a sickening feeling.  Thankfully the wind blowing helped us get off as I first tried forward, then backward and sidewise.  Once off, I could not get the bow turned to go forward  so now instead we are backing out the narrow channel; I am thinking,  “I really do not want to hit something going backwards with the rudder,” when…too late.  As soon as I felt the tug on the rudder, I put it in forward again, did a spin, finally able to get into the deeper water.  From there we went on to the beautiful anchorage by the college.  As soon as the hook was set I needed a cold beer, cigar and nap to fully recover from the stressful fifteen minute adrenaline rush.