I see the bottom....

[Seaboo2]

My family (3 sisters, 1 bro-in-law,2 young neices) went out jet-skiing (don't cuss me....) at Hilton Head (flats)...(We were actually dolphin watching). I neglected to look at a tide chart (heck....it's the ocean...it ALWAYS has water). We are enjoying the dolphins and wild life, we come out of the "cove", around a bend and here is a boat that is bottomed (hard) on a sandbar with another boat assisting...whoops....make that 2 stuck boats now. I go help them out and get 1 of the 2 boats off (the first one wound up having to wait for high tide). <br /><br />OK... Time to head back. We are going along and the skis start bumping the bottom... (I'm thinking..."what the he11... a jet ski drafts in a foot of water or so".....) So we get off the skis and wind up having to walk them to the ramp (about a mile away in ankle deep water) and these "things" keep jumping at us (I mean millions of them). Well we come to find out these "things" were shrimp (great....now I'm mad, tired, and have 2 scared neices to deal with). We dodge 3 more stuck boats (at least I wasn't the only idiot that forgot to check a chart.) and make it to the ramp only to find there is a boat stuck at the base of the ramp ( dirt path to the water actually). The group freaks out till I explain to them that I'm driving a 4 wheel drive and the trailer has 25' winch straps on it (this actually confused them more, until I explained that I was not waiting till high tide, and we would be out of there soon). I worked like a frantic dog backing beside a grounded boat but still couldn't get the bunks in the water, but a little cussing (ok.. alot), a little praying, and ALOT of work we were loaded and on our way home.

 

[SoulWinner]

Re: I see the bottom....

Dang! I didn't know the tide moved THAT much?!?! Down here in Mobile Bay and Pensacola Bay there are shallows all around that make boating scetchy. Heck, you can almost walk from Spanish Fort to Mobile. It's like the bay is just one big mud flat.

 

[gss036]

Re: I see the bottom....

Hey! come on up North, Washington, B.C. and Alaska, in the winter when we have the big tides, a minus tide might drop as much as 12-18 feet. Makes for a lot of sand/mud & rocks. We see sail boats stuck quite often, gotta watch the Tides.<br /> I was on my buddies boat(21 Bayliner) last fall coming into Blaine Harbor by the Seminamihoo Resort, I was not watching what he was doing, but playing with a new hand held GPS and WHAM! I looked over the bow and he is in 12-14 inches of water. We put down the kicker motor and managed to get out, but he ended up with about $1300 in damages to the out drive. On high tide it would have been ok, but not the low end. Hopefully we all learn by our experiences, when we survive our mistakes.

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: I see the bottom....

Kind of reminds me of the guy on the brand new jet ski that took off through the stump field. I realy don't know how he missed them but he did. everyone on the water was watching him waiting to see him fly through the air but what we got was the suprise of seeing what must be the luckiest man alive.<br />BTW we have many S/W ramps that can only be used certian times during the day unless you have a realy shallow draft boat and even then during low tide you can't put it on or off the trailer because the water level is lower that the trailer is high.