Another record bites the dust!

29 November. This just in...

Dean Foulis has broken his newly-acquired record for shallowest sailing. Today, Dean sailed his 5 foot 8 inch draft boat in just 3.4 feet of water! Asked why he attempted this record, Mr. Foulis said, "It just felt right."

Seriously, we were sailing near Alligator Bay today about a half mile behind another sailboat that had both main and jib up (we had just a double-reefed genoa out and were motoring). We noticed that they were sailing outside of the channel a bit, and then they suddenly stopped. They heeled over until they were resting on their side, totally stopped and stuck. We caught up to them pretty quickly, so by the time we figured out that they were aground--way outside the channel--we guessed that we couldn't do much for them except to call Boat US Towing.

Alligator Bay has cans on only one side, and during the excitement of watching the grounded boat, I drifted just a little to the right. I slowed suddenly, and saw my depth was 3.4 feet. If we weren't heeled over quite a bit by the genoa, we'd have been stuck as well. As it was, we managed to sail our way back into the channel.

Later, while anchoring, Jill grounded in 3.3 feet, her own personal best, but was going so slowly in anticipation of the event, she was able to back out of the mud. This is becoming a bad habit. At least we're not in New England, where running aground usually involves rocks and causes hull damage.

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