The aviation business has an old saying about wheels up landing attempts.  “There are two kinds of pilots, those who have and those who will.”  The same can be said of Florida sail boaters.  There are those who have run aground and those who will.  We recently joined the “those who have” club.

The Terra Ceia regatta was tons of fun with enough wind to get the boats moving fast.  And it continued building throughout the day.  With weather conditions sliding down hill, we wisely decided on returning the boat to the marina rather than staying overnight in Terra Ceia.  We began running as fast as we could, down the twisty channel out to Tampa Bay.  That’s when the bump came.  It was a good one.  This one said in no uncertain terms that the keel was intimately connected to the planet Earth.  The queen mother of swear words did escape my lips.  More than once.

Twenty knots of wind continued pinning us against the sand bar.  Ann had some good ideas, like throw out an anchor to prevent further drift.  A good Samaritan made a kind but fruitless attempt to help, no doubt scaring himself and us.  Don’t expect he will ever want to do that again.

Unfortunately, Samaritans tend to be people out for the day with their families, not professional watermen.  A huge gulf in boat handling skills exists between the professional and the well meaning amateur.  Also, a big difference in available rescue equipment.  Pleasure boats are not rigged for towing and lack strong points in the right locations.  The cleats used for tying up in the slip are neither strong enough or in the right location for serious towing;  they are too far from the center of effort and make control of the tow boat difficult or impossible.  Seamanship also comes into play.  Experience maneuvering in close quarters without colliding or tangling tow lines in the prop is an under appreciated skill.

So, feeling true desperation, I got on the radio and began calling Tow Boat U.S.  Never had to call in the professionals before.  “Tow Boat U.S. this is Running Tide,  We’re aground in the Terra Ceia channel, requesting a tow.”  Spoken like a man requesting two root canals.  Followed up with the administrative details about towing insurance.  Yes we had some.  And, no, not enough for this job.

Our powerful looking bright red Tow Boat U.S. tow boat arrived and I felt better once we had the fat yellow large tow line attached.  The first mighty attempt swung the bow, with great force and much rolling around, toward deep water.  And there we sat, pointing in the right direction but unmoved.  Several more attempts followed with similar results.  Until the stout looking tow rope broke.  That was interesting and unexpected.  I thoughts the cleats would pull out before that line failed.

After half an hour of unproductive grunting our tow boat captain pulled out his last ditch sailboat un-grounding remedy.  Requesting a halyard, he attached the tow line to the top of the mast and made ready to heel us over for all he was worth.  After instructing us to power ahead into the channel as soon as the keel came up and we became free, he hauled away.  And it worked just as planned.  I could feel the hull float free and the engine become effective.  We were off.

The tow captain had a bunch of paperwork for us and needed a good sized check before letting us go.  Needless to say, we were so happy to be off the bottom that writing the check didn’t seem bad at all.  That reminds me:  Memo to self, call Boat U.S. about that unlimited towing insurance package.