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Bashed and battered

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Sunday afternoon, June 14, 2015
We passed West Point, perched on a hill on the west side of the Hudson, and we arrived at an area that had potential as a place to anchor for the night. We were just offshore from the town of Cold Spring. We have an app called Active Captain, and six reports had been posted about anchoring in the cove. The Hudson in the area is deep, and it is shallow. Too deep and too shallow to anchor.

We rounded the red nun that marked the rock that is clearly marked on the chart. I headed east very slowly, watching the depth on the chart plotter. Suddenly we stopped. We’d run aground again in the mud. It was fairly easy to back off and go searching again for s good spot to anchor.

I know all about charts and I know about rocks. There are lots of rocks in the  waters we sail in Frenchman  Bay. But I guess I wasn’t thinking straight.  I was so intent on finding some middle ground water, say 16 feet, in which to set out anchor, that I totally ignored what I knew to be true.  I circled back, heading for the area by the nun. Jim called out to stop. The water looked wrong. Like it was boiling. Like there was something under the surface that we could not see. And then it happened. With a sickening bang, and crash, and lurch to the side, we ran up on the rock.

It was so stupid on my part. What was I thinking? Clearly I was not thinking.

the good news is that it was low tide, and the tide was rising. A few motor boats roared by, and their wake sent us grinding into the rock a bit more. We called for a tow, but they were 40 minutes away. Finally the tide lifted us up enough so that we could back off. We were free! We called Rick at boat works and he said we should check the bilges. Dry! Everything seemed to be working ok. what a relief!

We headed north about 5 miles to Newburgh. The Marina there had space for us on their floating dock. Hurray. Another perfect landing in front of a huge audience, diners at the dockside ribs restaurant. The wind picked up just as we landed. But we were safe of the night, or so we thought!

 

 

 

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