The plan was simple. We move early. Move to NYC, spend the night then head down to Ocean City MD. But no. Looks like I’ve broken the boat once again. This time badly.

Wednesday we hit the grocery store and then headed out after work and school. . But I didn’t check the tide tables so we were fighting against the current of the East River the whole way which is not something I recommend.

Then a FANTASTIC day under the Statue of Liberty and it was so very pretty. Thursday night we decided to leave in the evening. 

Heading out as the sun set was pretty. But almost getting run over by a gigantic barge the likes of which I’ve never seen was not so fun. Then the outer harbor was crazy traffic wise. I almost ran into an unlit piling in the middle of the harbor on the way to Sandy Hook.

But then we rounded Sandy Hook NJ and were out of the traffic and I put out the jib and we motor sailed for hours. It was quite pleasant.

The sun came up and we continued our journey south. Listening to random stations on the radio and just watching the water flow by.

The weather picked up and the sun went down and we ended up at the Ocean City MD entrance near midnight. That is not an entrance to do sleep deprived and with 5 foot seas. The entrance is narrow, shoal filled, and with a break water on each side that will grind your boat up and spit you out.

So we had a decision to make. With limited fuel and sails that were tangled up (thanks to a Ryan who made a slight mistake putting them away that he’ll certainly never make again) we decided to go with the wind down to Chincoteague which was the next anchorage down.

With even more limited fuel and even more sleep deprivation we arrived at about 5 am and tried to make the entrance. It was clearly a no go. So we anchored close to shore and slept.

I slept on deck just in case anything happened while we were sleeping anchored in 20~ish feet of water in the Atlantic exposed from every direction while a storm raced towards us.

Waking the next morning the jib had given way to the wind and was partially unfurled and tangled around itself. I was able to untie the jib lines and unwrap then and finally get the whole thing unfurled just to furl it back up again but no longer likely to tear itself apart.

Going down below for a cup of tea and to wake the rest of the way up I discovered the carnage below. Those 5 ft waves had taken their toll. Everything was everywhere and at one point I had gone below and was thrown across the room to land on some of our eggs and partially on the table. What I hadn’t realized at the time was that I had ripped the table right off it’s pedestal.

Another thing we hadn’t realized is that the water pump was left on so when something shifted and knocked the faucet in the head the 50 or so gallons of water we had in our aft tank emptied out over our journey. Luckily this time we had remembered to also fill our forward tank so we still have water.

Slightly better rested and with the benefit of sunlight we moved through the shoal filled maze that is Chincoteague and found our way to the anchorage. I found us a good spot and decided to do a final circle around the spot before dropping the hook.

And that’s when we ran aground. Hard. Well softly it’s all just shifting sand.

But it was also a big “moon tide” and a high tide. If we didn’t get off we would really be in trouble since this was the highest tide of the month.

I called SeaTow but they’re not active in this area, so I called for the harbormaster on 16 (no answer), called city hall to verify the pronunciation of the town and tried again (no answer). Then I called the town hall again and discovered a number for “Water Emergencies” and called that. Got the police dispatch lady who was super nice and said she’d call the harbor master and have him give me a call.

The harbormaster here doesn’t have a boat that could pull us off but that Boat Tow US was active in the harbor and he’d give them a call and have them call us back.

Well. As far as lessons go one important lesson is that everyone should have BOTH a Boat Tow US and a Sea Tow membership unless you are limiting yourself to just one local spot. The bill to have us pulled out came to over $700, enough to keep us in Boat Tow US membership for almost a decade.

Once free of the sand I tried to turn the wheel to keep us behind the tow boat. And … And .. It wouldn’t move. Apparently being dragged through the sand was bad for the rudder. The Tow Boat folks decided to pull us through the sand and not backwards out of the sand. It is of course their home port so I figured they’d know best. Now I have a bent rudder.

But the storm rages outside and we’re basically in flat water. The dock is 0.9 Nautical Miles from where we are and rumor has it there is a 24/7 self serve diesel pump there so we can run back and forth a few times on the dinghy with our jerry cans to fill our tank and eventually wonder the island in search of food.

I’ve shared our troubles with the folks on the Catalina 34 facebook group and there seems to be universal agreement. The rudder is bent, it can happen to anyone, it will be a month or more to have a new rudder arrive, it should be $5,000 for the rudder maybe more, and it should be an insurance claim.

I’ve never actually had an insurance claim other than the regular use of my health insurance. So I emailed the insurance lady we use and will wait to hear back from her.

Then of course just to be extra dramatic someone (that would be me) forgot to set the anchor “sentinal” which keeps the anchor line UNDER that boat when the current changes. Well this shoal filled harbor is also a wild current ride. and so we ended up leaning against the anchor line and “Poping” the anchor and being adrift for a bit. It was so dramatic that I thought the line had snapped. I’ve deployed the secondary anchor which grabbed quickly and it makes me wonder who should get the sentinal at slack tide.

Looks like instead of being in Florida visiting Disney and watching rockets go up from Titusville we will be in a random boat yard up on land having our rudder replaced and stressing over money.