The Tinii

It's plural for Tinius, because we said so.

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Day 1 on the ICW-By Josh and Allison

Yesterday was crazy. It was awesome, it was intimidating, it was my childhood Treasure Island fantasies come true (that sounds dirty), but most of all it was worth it.
We shoved off from Marsh Harbor boatyard at 9:00 am.  Said goodbye to the friends we had made over the past several weeks and were off.  About two miles from the boatyard is a drawbridge.  Just as the bridge was opening for us our engine died. We hailed the bridge on the vhf and told them not to hold it open for us. We got the engine started quickly and went to anchor nearby to steady our nerves a bit. We
decided to try again, but guess what? Engine died again. Once again it started back up quickly. At this point Josh figured out it was dying when we pushed the engine too hard. The mechanic had adjusted things a bit and we were giving it too much gas for the new tweaks. So we tooled around in am open area for a solid 45 minutes to make sure that was it. Another boat was coming through northbound so we radioed in to let them know we’d be trying one more time. Josh thought it was funny to say, “Is it third time’s the charm or three strikes your out.” Allison did not think that was funny, but it turns out third time is indeed the charm. We made it through!

Before we knew it we were in a beautiful open sound! We both kept saying it was all worth it. We got the the north side of Hilton Head island and were following the buoys well, until Josh decided not to listen to Allison’s awesome navigational skills. We ran aground…like barely…but couldn’t get off and didn’t feel like waiting. Luckily we had just purchased our Boat US membership with unlimited towing and Allison sort of wanted to get our money’s worth anyway so we went ahead and called them. A really nice guy came from Boat US, hauled us off in 5 minutes, and then showed us the best place to anchor for the night.

Anchoring went well although you wouldn’t know that from the way Allison acted. She was so nervous, she barely slept (and kept josh awake all night as well) and checked our coordinates constantly.

Guess what, we didn’t move!

Now we are sitting here plotting our next course of action. Hopefully we’ll make it most of the way to Savannah.

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Running aground! By:Josh

Last weekend a friend and I went down to the boat to hang out, work on a few things and go sailing.  That morning we were heading out of the channel and I handed my friend the wheel.  Well I didn’t exactly tell him that we needed to stay inside the last set of buoys.  Next thing you know we are in about 4 feet of water and not moving.

 

This was (I’m proud to say) my first time running aground, however, I would have much rather known what to do in this situation so I could have saved 3 hours and my pride.  We tried reversing our way out.  We tried rowing the anchor out in the dinghy, wrapping it around the winch and cranking it free.  We tried everything we could think of.  So in hopes that someday this post will find its way to someone who is stuck on a sand bar trying to google his way out of a bad situation, this is how we ended up getting free.

 

 

 

First get line to attach to the anchor.  200 Ft would be a good amount if you have it.

Attach the anchor to a topping rope.  In the dinghy take the anchor as far as the line will allow and make sure it sets well before cranking it in.

Hooray!!!

 

Last weekend we were not actually able to make it heel enough with the anchor so we actually had to get a friend to tie our mast to his boat and heel us over.  The idea is the same either way.

Be prepared for quite an adrenaline rush (that is why you got into sailing right).  In the words of Shawn (the guy who helped us) “If your not at least a little scared then your not doing it right!”  Have fun!