Weekend trip report

[Pipe_Dream]

Originally Posted by Blue_Runner

Speaking of sandbars though, I'd be on pins and needles the whole time! Did your buddy get stuck too?

We were relying on our friend's experience, because he's made the trip so many times. And we would have never run aground except that we left the ICW to make a side trip. He was really mad at himself (we were way out of a clearly marked channel), but when you're wet and tired stuff happens. We were running down a wide river at about 30 mph, me behind him and off to the side a little, when suddenly my engine felt funny -- I thought I had spun the prop -- but then when I realized what was happening it was too late. Our boats ended up only 20 feet apart, right beside each other. Checked the tide tables and found it was still going out but only about 45 minutes until low. My friend felt so bad, but we made the best of it, stepped out of the boat and walked around the sandbar as it became more exposed. We were there almost 2 hours. I'm sure the people in the nice houses across the river had a good laugh at the sight: two boats stranded, and us strolling the sandbar in our rain gear (it was still drizzling). We had a lot of laughs ourselves later, when we were warm and dry and enjoying a few drinks!

Yeah, the spray photo -- I asked my wife to take a few. That was near the end of our trip home, coming down the Broad River, winds behind us at 20-25 kts and gusting to 30, which made for about 3 foot following seas. A LOT of spray!