Agree. I've gone aground in panic situations and found that strong short thrusts with the engine got us off. I always try to back out straight but if she won't budge, I apply some rudder and try and spin her free, first in reverse, then forward. A burst of throttle in forward will hit the rudder and turn the boat. A burst of reverse helps push mud off the keel. It also helps to put crew on the bow to rock the keel free. I once got off by idling in reverse, setting the autohelm and joining the crew on the bow. She came free and backed off.
I remember one event where we entered a small creek off of the main inlet. The entrance to this creek changes slightly with each tide and current was running about four knots and the tide falling. The range here is 4.5 feet. I know boats who stranded at this spot and had to wait for a high tide to get off. This gave me great encouragement to try anything and everything before we too were stranded for six hours. Luckily we tried every trick including timing throttle up when a boat wake came along and were able to spin and power into deeper water. It's great having tide charts that provide the estimated tide heights for any given day and I've used those to time my trips across shallow water and GPS to keep me in the channel. Tide charts showed me there are a few days each month when there is enough water in the back bay to get my boat to a marina fifteen miles inland. I ran that course ten times using the tables and only touched bottom once when I got a little off the magenta line. Just good planning. I know skippers of shoal draft boats who have suffered because they didn't consult the tables and wound up aboard a boat leaning forty five degrees for many hours waiting for the next tide. > On April 25, 2019 at 10:09 AM "Dennis C. via CnC-List" > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Buddy of mine is a salvor. He got called to free a 48 footer stuck on a > shoal a few years ago. He showed up at high tide with all his air lift bags > and gear. He got on the boat, put the boat in full reverse, hit the bow > thruster alternating port and starboard. After a couple minutes of wiggling > the bow back and forth, the boat backed off the shoal. Never used the > salvage equipment. > > Similar to the trick with a dinghy pushing on the bow. > > Dennis C. > Touche' 35-1 #83 > Mandeville, LA > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each > and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use > PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > >
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