aground

The students have now spent 5 days on the water and all the instructors are very impressed with the progress they have made. As Annica said, we ventured into some new areas today that required reading charts and following channel markers. Tampa Bay is very shallow, with an average depth of only 14 feet, so there are many places where you can't go in a sailboat. Before a student gets to it, I will announce that today my boat was the first in the course to go aground. I briefly forgot that the channel marking system on the intercoastal waterway is different and directed the helmsman, Craig, to the wrong side of a green marker. There is no room for error at that spot and we immediately fell that sickening bump, bump, bump of the keel on soft sand, followed by a complete loss of headway. I, of course, turned it into a teachable moment, since on Tampa Bay there are only 2 kinds of sailors: those who have gone aground and those who are not telling the truth. We adjusted the sails so that the boat spun nearly into the wind, piled all 5 crew onto the side of the boat away from the wind, leaned out as far as we could, tipping the boat enough to give Jon Mott a wet butt, and with another sail adjustment we felt a reassuring bump, bump as the boat sailed off the sand and into the channel. Don't worry, those of you on other boats who were laughing, you too will have your teachable moment.