Stuck aground at high tide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ย. 2022
- Sailing in the River Blackwater, I managed to get my 20' Norfolk Gypsy stuck aground on the bank of a creek at the worst possible time: the peak of high tide.
As the tide went out, my boat was left stranded four feet above the river bed. And I wasn't sure if I would be able to get her off again.
This is how it turned out and the lessons I learned. - กีฬา
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Speaking on behalf of WMLB...don't ever be worried about asking for help...if you've not touched the mud in the Blackwater you're not using your boat (I've even been rescued by my own crew). We don't judge and will always try and help you. :)
Thanks Simon, that's kind of you to say so. And thanks for being on lifeboat duty - good to know you're there.
As a blackwater boater I know your angle!
When aground, even if you are not stuck, it never hurts to place your anchor out towards deep water. Then you might be able to winch off.
Good point about the anchor. Though I don't have a winch, so would have to be just me pulling...
@@tobygoessailing Winches are over-rated.
An anchor also reduces the likelihood that the incoming tide will push you even further up the bank!
Great video - nicely done!
Agreed at least an anchor out she wouldn't get any further up the bank good advice my friend Marty Australia
I was thinking a kedge anchor would have helped a lot. Perhaps it would be possible to rig some sort of purchase block and tackle using the main sheet to help drag her off? Great story and video, thanks for sharing!
You had me at "how did I get myself into this ridiculous situation? What stupid things had I done?" I thought, this sounds like my life - better keep watching!
😂😂😂
Excellent storytelling Toby and generous knowledge sharing also. There isn't one of us who has never got it wrong but those with humble spirit and generous hearts let us learn from their experiences. Thanks.
Thanks Chris, appreciate the comment.
I had 12 years on lifeboat crew and we never minded a little practice
Even if it meant setting an alarm to get up and standby just incase needed
You did the right thing informing the coastguard of your situation
Every other lifeboat crew members I never meet felt the same way
Loved the story, it brought back lots memories 👍
Thanks very much. That's good to know.
As they say, “Been there. Done that. Got the Tee Shirt!”
Mine was a 27ft keeler and she lay over at about 50° when the water went away. We put an anchor off into deep water, then rowed ashore while there was still water to do so.
Kudos for telling us. Lovely little boat❤. Seems ideal for those waters.😊
1. Always explore on a rising tide.
2. By choice, do it between neaps and springs.
3. In muddy rivers slow right down. Drive into soft mud at speed and your momentum may drive you further up the bank. Do it at HW Springs and, like the yacht you show, you may need machinery to get you out.
4. Get an anchor out into deep water. Had an onshore breeze sprung up you might not have been able to shove her off.
5. It’s 50 years since I sailed the East Coast (I’m a Kiwi, now), but we always carried a 12 - 15ft quant.
I found myself on the edge of my seat with this story Toby. Really pleased it ended so well. I have heard sailors saying about going through channels a couple of hours before high tide. I've seen that some carry a garden cane to take soundings off the side of their boat in addition to the depth gauge. I know the tidal range at Dover, where I live is 5m and more. I think you did right contacting the Coastguard as soon as you had a problem, it does give you a chance to work out a strategy with plenty of time to be ready, and the lifeboat would have come if needed. You have gained yet more experience. They do say there are 2 sorts of sailor: those that have been aground and those that are just about to.... Fair winds Toby. PS, I liked the drawings.
Thanks Dale. Actually I do have a cane for sounding out the bottom when going aground for the night - just didn't use it here. Glad you liked the drawings!
Absolutely wonderful story. Thank you very much!
Brilliantly told. You have given me an excellent lesson, thank you.
Great story and very well told. Lots of learnings to be had.
Brilliant story, thanks for sharing
I'm really glad that things worked out for you. It must have been a tense time. Excellent points you made too. Thanks for an informative video.
Yeah, it wasn't my most fun afternoon. But a very useful experience.
There's lessons for us all to think about within Toby's experience. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing this experience with us, many of us will benefit from your taking the time to make this short educational video. Looking forward to following any other sailing adventures you may share. Fair winds.
A very informative video, thank you.
A lesson well learned. Thank you.
A humble story teller.. Well done
What an interesting and well told tale - Thanks for sharing.
Really enjoyed this!
Thanks for sharing Well done and what an experience
Great yarn. Liked the sketches and the way you told the story. Glad you got away okay! Josh
As a recent first time motor vessel owner based a little further south in the Roach, I really appreciate your honest, generous insights. Thank you.
Experiential knowledge and story telling....great learning opportunity. Thank you.
Great little video story and valuable lesson shared thank you 🙏 😅
Your humility will get you far in this life. Thanx for sharing
Great video...good tale....enjoyed it
Enjoyed watching 👍 glad all turned out ok in the end
Anyone who has ever sailed alone, has gone through this, or worse. You never forget those desperate times. The big takeaway is the certain knowledge of your own foolishness, and armed with this, the (slim) possibility of avoiding a repeat performance.
Well done, you!
Thats a really excellent video, thank you. I went aground in the entrance to Bradwell Creek when departing the marina back in 2000 on a falling tide, when I had a year off to go sailing. I was right on the edge of the channel too, and was seriously worried about tipping down into the channel, but luckily my bilge keels got into the soft mud and held the boat upright. Going aground is a real wake-up call . . .
You would be a great writer such a captivating story! Im glad to hear you made it out of there happy sailing stay safe!
Really enjoyed this Toby, thanks for sharing!
Thanks Dave, glad you liked it.
Thanks for sharing Toby. Interesting video. I've done the same on the Solway here in Cumbria. Not a fun experience....Take care
A well told story with thankfully a happy ending. It's easy to share your successes but rather harder to share your lessons so thank you.
I remember the term "beneaping" from sailing courses years ago but have never seen it in practice, this came close, well told and well done
Great wee vid - thanks for sharing. Easy to do. 12h of worry about the next tide being high enough. Enjoy sailing :-)
Thanks for a tale well told. I've also had a few anxious groundings. I always tow a dinghy when exploring so I can row an anchor out towards deeper water in the event of a grounding. Even a sheet winch can help haul in an anchor line.
Great story. Glad it worked out as well as it did.
You were very brave to cope with such a frustrating situation, and during the spring tides to boot. I ran aground once on mud in the Rance river in Brittany, but with the tide coming in quickly, so I was off the mud in only minutes. Dylan Winter on KeepTurningLeft has some fascinating tales about the east coast and "gunk cruising".
Sound advice, nicely narrated.
Excellent video my man. Im so happy you got off without any help. Great story and very well done. You have a new subscriber here friend. Love your boat too!
Lesson learnt . keeping a level had is often a life / boat saver. Reliving the event throughout your story recollections was truly evident .
Great account of your adventure! Lots of good advice in your account too. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Good Story, told well. I felt your anxiety, and the lesson about sailing in certain places at high tide. Thanks!
Thanks Bill, glad you liked it.
excellent account of a situation that certainly is good food for thought! thank you
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, particularly with the use of your illustrations. What a refreshing take on storytelling.
We were all cheering for you at high tide!! A well told story that most all sailors experience something like in their days. We had to wait 6 hours for the tide to come in on our first port of a two week cruise this summer. But we had warm water to swim in and our family to enjoy. I always think that any trying experience on the water that ends well without injury is a good thing in the ends cause it teaches us.
Great video, and glad it turned out well for you. At times like this we are grateful for the wonderful muddy estuaries of the East coast (I sail on the Stour), and that mostly the stuff we hit (and we all do it) is soft and forgiving! If I sailed on a rocky estuary I reckon I'd have been sunk years ago! All the best.
Thanks. Yes, three cheers for mud!
thank you for telling this story, i feel like ive been there with you!
thats the kind of adventure story I needed on a cold november evenning...!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Un raconteur par excellence! Merci!
Merci bien
Well done indeed.. and bravo on the montage and narration.. patience and a cool and calculated brain working well.. lovely boat
Great story. Greetings from the Netherlands
Nice story, helpfull indeed 👍💪
Hi Toby, I really enjoyed your video : ) Many a time I got a little too personal with a mud or sand bank when I owned a bilge keel boat ! I was for ever being drawn into beautiful up-river areas ,and could sometimes feel my keels touch . Never got stuck 'luckily' though ! No harm as long as you are not neaped . Love the area you were in , like watching 'Riddle of the sands' !
A nice idea to have the drawings illustrate the predicament. I've been aground twice, once on sand in a bay in the Scilly Islands after a mis- calculation and in a creek in the estuary at Salcome after the prop key disintegrated and the flood tide pushed me on a bank. In both cases, the boats just heeled over but were not high and dry.
I was in Nova Scotia back in 1995 and saw massive boats in the harbor laying on their sides waiting for the huge tides to come in. You got luck with the tides. Could have been a year later.. Loved the narration and though the use of drawings was great!
You are a talented communicator, really well produced, I throughly enjoyed it, thank you.
Thanks v much
Brilliant. I did that. 25 hours stuck on the bank of the Napa River in California. A passing cruiser pulled me off at high tide. Great story well told.
Really enjoyed listening to you and great sketches.
Thanks!
A brilliantly told story. Thank you so much.
Thanks Sandy, appreciate the compliment.
If the lifeboat did not come at the high tide it's going to be pointless coming at all.
You don't mention reducing ballast eg water. You were lucky the tidal range was at maximum. It's amazing how fast one goes from touching the bottom to being high and dry we went aground when some criminal untied us from a mooring. Went to the local hotel which was hosting the submarine fleet, yes, so had access to toilets, and food and drink, then at dawn the fleet Commander came and told us to call him if we needed help. Someone had earlier called the lifeboat and they put out an anchor, this was rather dramatic as the guy carrying the anchor suddenly disappeared when the water went from zero to ten feet!
Yes some of us have been there, well placed anchor, a winch can pull some. Thanks for your video.
I always enjoy listening to other peoples storytelling about messing around with boats, glad you got her off
What a story‼️
What a relaxing video to watch.
Also the sketches are very nice, not your first time.. I think.
All in all, a pleasant, educational and informative video.
And luckily everything turned out okay.
👍🏻
Well done, seems like you did everything the right way in the end.
That was wonderfully presented and I really liked your description and drawings: quite Ransomesque!
Anyone who has ever sailed the East Coast to any degree has been aground and you managed very well. Thanks for uploading your story.
High praise indeed! Thanks very much.
Yes did enjoy your video , glad you got off safely , I almost had the same predicament myself in the Medway but luckily still had time before high tide so I got off , only problem being going in reverse with the engine put strain on the rudder going through the mud that thankfully did no permanent harm but a good lesson in shallow water sailing I will not be chancing that again !!.
Hi, Den here. A proper adventure. Well told and well done boy.
A good tale well told, been and done similar and probably will again! Anchor out is always a wise move as others have said.
This was an amazing account of your time stuck on a salt marsh .. thank goodness for that 3am high tide it's amazing! A nessicary release of a vessel, an of your emotions an relaxation of your nerves...
Fantastic illustrations
Thank you very much for this video and the advices you give at the end.
We had the same problem on our 6.30 meters wooden old gaffer.
As it was no use to puch her, we dig up under the keel with a hand pickaxe. And it worked !
Since that, we always have an old pickaxe in the boat...
You are a great storyteller! And I also enjoyed your drawings. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks Elizabeth
Hi Toby, loved the story, well done for having the courage to go places, and the tenacity and calmness to get off. I applaud you. My wife and I have a boat on the Crouch, I would love to share a coffee break with you.
Great story-telling, and thank you for sharing. I got stuck once when on a falling tide I left it too late to head back to my mooring upriver on the Deben, and was stuck for six hours on a mud bank waiting for the tide to turn and the Dragon to re-float.... and it can be very difficult trying to find your way back to the mooring with nothing but nav lights.... Glad your story had a happy ending!
It's not ridiculous.... its hilarious 😂 funny....
Those stories are exactly what makes you fall in love in your vessel. Those are the parts of sailing you always will remember.
Thank you for sharing.
Happy sailing ⛵️
Good lesson, well learned!
I generally don’t watch too many sailing videos far from where I’m likely to travel but I’ve taken an interest in yours since stumbling across your ‘First time out to sea’ episode. In a magnificent display of stupidity, I once ran afoul of the same bar twice! Glad you made it off with the loss of no more than time, rest and, perhaps, a little pride.
It gives me a warm glow inside to hear of other people doing similar things. And yes, no-one was injured & the boat was fine, so in the end no harm done really.
You have a gift of storytelling.
Thanks!
Thank you for sharing both your experience and analysis. I put us into the bank further up Lawling Creek only a few weekends ago but was fortunately able to reverse out. In our time afloat, my motley shipmates and I have shredded our Genoa, lost a pump and fender over the side and gotten very nearly stranded in the dinghy outside of the marina...we're out for our 3rd ever sail in a couple of weekends time! Be sure to listen out for us on channel 16!
Sounds like you're having loads of fun. I'll be listening!
Superbe pictures of that nice landscape and boat! Also an amazing story: i really felt with you!
Thanks very much. Glad you liked it.
Beautiful Norfolk gypsy. Fabulous sailing boat. I had one once.
Great true story, very humbling .. A lot of sailors wouldn’t have told it .. Whenever I explore an unknown tidal creek I never do it at high tide, 2 hours or so before high tide like you stated ..
Even though my boat is a flat bottomed with shoal draft and an off/centerboard, I always think about a similar scenario of what happened here …
Thanks. Yes, I'm not in a hurry to repeat the experience...
As said before me, Great story telling. Very nicely put together imagery and the little sketches really added to the charm of it. In one of my similar cock ups, I ended up with 20 knots of wind blowing a big mound of sand up in front of the boat which I had to shovel away before the next tide - at which time I only just got off. 😓Just checked out your boat tour video, Geez that is a pretty and well designed little boat. Most of our trailer sailers here in Oz are butt ugly (including my barge 😣)
thanks for sharing your story, brilliantly illustrated
Thanks v much
Thanks for making this video. As a novice, this kind of experience is invaluable to me.
Excellent account. I sail out of Tollesbury, so all very familiar. Well done. I’ll bet that all in all you are actually pleased to have had the experience.
Thanks Peter. You're quite right. I learnt a lot... and it makes a not-bad story.
That’s one of the best videos I have watched so far . I felt I was the individual that. Was stranded on the bank.. Thanks Eamonn Ireland
Thanks Eamonn, very kind
I really liked your story! I can relate to that feeling of being alone and being fully responsible for yourself, even if not in danger still facing a world of difficulty to get your boat home; and the relief at finally succeeding; oh there is nothing like that feeling :)
Pleased to hear it, thanks!
Great storytelling- I really enjoyed your sketches. I’ve nearly been in the same situation several times myself
Dig anchor in and use winch seems obvious
Excellent account of your dilemma and your lucky escape from running around. The higher tide was very fortuitous wasn't it. I did a bit of sailing when I was in the Royal Marines and when I retired I had an Angling Boat. One of the lads at our Boat Club had a Sailing Boat and I went out with him a few times. It's something else isn't it. I am going on for 80 now and don't go out much(River Tyne to North Sea) but still love all things Boat. I agree with your reluctance to get the RNLI involved, but informing the Coastguard was spot on. Your level headed don't panic handling of the problem was spot on and I watched your vid with baited breath, till you floated, loved it.
Thanks Peter. Appreciate the comment.
Helpful story! Most every sailor has a going aground story if they are honest. Glad yours turned out ok. We learned the hard way to explore small, shallow creeks before high water. An anchor out toward deeper water is usually helpful if you get stuck hard but the boat has to be ready to come off for that to usually work as the tide turns. Getting a tow off can be dangerous if the tow boat isn’t experienced or impatient. Ask us how we know. Thanks for sharing!
High and dry indeed.
Poole Harbour ( some say Poole Puddle) has similar Hazards.. so glad you had a happy ending to this problem.
Tide and time wait for no man!
Cheers .
It's a nice story with them drawings and beautiful pictures and you have a very relaxing narrating voice.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Happy sailing!
Thanks Manfred, glad you liked it.
Phew, I felt your relief when she started moving. This kind of thing can happen to anyone at any time. But we learn from this kind of adventure, eh? Happy for you and for Shamrock.
Thanks Ray. Yup, learnt a few things from this.
Great story, thanks for sharing it.
It’s all part of sailing, some are prepared to admit their mistakes and learn from them, others not so much 😂.
You make good points here but I think the most important is entering creeks before high tide. This also helps to identify flatter seabed for anchoring in future.
Thanks. Yup, even more conscious of the state of the tide now.
Brilliant and really enjoyable. Glad it ended well.
Thanks!
What a story and I'm so glad things turned out good for you. I had an experience in the Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico. I was in my boat, a Hans Christian sailboat with my wife. We had entered a bay and found a very shallow channel. After spending a few hours we turned around to leave and we were following the channel back out. As we started to get into deeper water I realize I had completely lost situation awareness, all I could see you was flat all around and no landmarks. I had no idea where the exit was. At this point the the boat settled into bottom point of a swell I felt it touch bottom and I knew if I didn't do something immediately we were going to get lost on a Lee Shore. Carefully turning the boat 90 degrees to port and into the incoming swells I could feel the boat rising at the high point of a swell I'm settling back down to touch bottom at the low point. Finally after about 30 seconds we stopped grounding out. This absolutely was the most terrifying moment I have ever had on a boat and we probably had over fifteen thousand nautical miles on this craft.
Looking back I contemplated all the mistakes I made and there were a lot of them, it was a sailing lesson that almost ended in tragedy but also an extremely potent learning experience.
Good luck with your boat.
Thanks Gary. That sounds a whole lot scarier than my experience. Glad you made it out.
We have all done it!.. lol
That Tollesbury creek is a pain as is has deeper holes that you can be swinging around the anchor on .. But get under way and you can go aground in the channel!..
I did such a thing with my Smack Our Boys...
The tide went out to nothing and I was high and dry. Thankfully the Smack stayed perfectly upright..
Thanks for a nice story..
Hi Tony, very nice story and channel! I think you would be fine even if the next tide would be lower. 1.5 tonnes is not the end of the world on the soft ground :) There are some powerful motorboats on the river that would be able to pull you out. Anyway, in addition to anchor methods, I would call PanPan on the radio. A lot of boats around, so there would be a chance to pull you quicker. Very often during PanPan coast guard is finding a vessel that is happy to assist in the rescue. I am looking forward to seeing more sailing around the river on your channel!
I had a 24ft twin keeler and went aground on it several times unintentionally. Happily, like you I was able to wait for a rising tide to kedge or motor or push off. Pays to do your exploring only up to two hours before high tide! Also a good idea in unfamiliar creeks to explore with the dinghy before taking the bigger boat into tidal inlets. So we've all done it and lived with the interminable wait for the next high tide, it seems like forever before she floats again.
Yup, it was a very long 12 hours!
In a pinch seal up all hatches run out n dig in achors for and aft down deep water side , use sheet winches to pull her right over on her side ,she will float in 6 inches of water , kedge her out a bit and repeat , lot of work but we've done that with couple of large yachts stuck in creek after cyclone in Australia , never give up is the key , glad you got your boat back well done