We have a saying aboard Journey; "If we're aground, we must be in Beaufort!" Truly, it must be a great destination, we always go aground, and we keep going back. We won't discuss the relative intelligence of the sailors who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.
In fact, I'd like to make the case that we are perfecting our grounding technique, and I will stand up and challenge anyone that we are more proficient in going aground in Beaufort than any of you. The first time we went, we were warned we might go aground. "Throw caution to the wind, Honey, we're going anyway!"
We were heading to Discovery Diving's dock on Town Creek. Al is in the diving business, and so the owner is a friend. We take advantage, I mean graciously accept the invitation to free dockage at least once a year.
We checked the charts, used the plotter, stayed in the ICW channel, and promptly went aground. We called the dock. Apparently, that leg of the ICW is now a "Spoil area". We back up, turn around, go back, and take the Russell Slough channel; which is the suggested route nowadays.
The next time we came to Beaufort, we were smug. We now had the insider's secret. We made it all the way to the turn into Town Creek before going aground. We called the dock. "I believe we've arrived.... We're aground." We powered off, and made it to the dock fine, if not a little less smug.
We learned the true reason for our groundings. TIDES. Water comes in, water flows out, and we arrive in Beaufort at low tide. In our defense, we don't have tides; the only way the water leaves our creek is when the wind blows hard for a full day or more, from the west, near a full moon, after a black cat walks across the dock.... Well, you get the idea. In short, if I'm standing on the finger slip, and get blown off my feet into my boat, the water might be getting shallow enough to cause fret to our neighbors with deeper keels. But TIDES. Well, that's a whole different ball game. One must plan for TIDES. That requires a TIDE Table. We promptly got one. Now we were prepared, and would never go aground in Beaufort again. We were set. We were smug with our newly acquired knowledge.
The next time we went to Beaufort, we checked the chart, used the plotter, checked the TIDE Tables, and planned our arrival. Of course this meant that we had to spend the night at anchor near Adam's Creek, set off at an ungodly hour to arrive at high tide, but we did it! We were headed directly through Beaufort to Lookout Bight, and we made it through unscathed.
On the way back, we needed to cross over from the Morehead City side of the channel to get to Town Creek. Al suggested we use the ICW connector that he had seen captains use in past years. Good. That would shave several miles off our trip. We made the turn and went aground. Aha! Low TIDE. I had Al throw the anchor and about 10 ft of chain off the pointy end. We would just wait; the TIDE was rising.
In less than 5 minutes, a Tow Boat US boat came motoring our way. This was good. We are members, I would ask for local information from him. Well, turns out that Al was a little disorientated about the whereabouts of the connector channel. I asked if the captain could show us where it was. In fact, I'm pretty sure I asked if he could lead us there, so we could follow him to avoid going aground.
He towed us. For free. (We're members) I didn't feel embarrassed. After all, our engine worked, we and the boat were fine and we had floated free, but hey, why turn down a free tow to the dock?
And now we know where the connector channel is. We are set. We are smug in the knowledge we won't go aground in Beaufort again. We're headed there this summer. I'll get back to ya.