I had an interesting experience on Sunday last as we were embarking for a few days in Broken Bay. A 40ft ish ketch was on a sand bar next to our mooring over about 45 degrees with her gunwales awash. The tide had another foot or so to fall. She was a ferro boat with excessive growth on her hull and what appeared to be very little used rigging in a parlous state of repair.
The owner, a new owner I think, told me he had spent 3 days getting the engine going. He had been on the wharf loading and, as someone wanted to use the wharf, he left in a rush. He was aground about 300 metres from the wharf in full visibility of a port hand channel mark for the sand bar.
The interesting thing was he was apparently heading for Adelaide (maybe he was taking the direct route as he was heading in that direction). The other people down at the wharf were shaking their heads and muttering to themselves.
However, we had a couple of days on the boat and a brilliant sail yesterday in a fresh breeze. The new Far East main is excellent, as is the 18 month old Rolly Tasker heady.
You're right. I didn't think of it in getting away to avoid some bad weather.
The depth was such I couldn't have got closer than about 100 metres. This is a seriously shallow sand bar that is well marked and visible. The locals couldn't stop talking about the Adelaide destination.
