Running Aground

We booked a sailing trip for New Year's Day. As it turned out, this was the inaugural trip of the Island Dreamer Biscayne National Park Tour. (Which explains why my confirmation email confused me. - I thought I'd made a mistake and booked a sailing school. It also explains why the confirmation email didn't mention food and water.) And it might explain why no one calculated tides into the departure time.

Departure time was 10 AM. We hit bottom while making the turn out of the slip. I think the technical term is "running aground". Captain Harold ordered everyone to the front of the boat but it didn't help. A man on the dock tried to help using some ropes but that didn't work either. One of the park rangers came out and offered suggestions. When none of them helped, she advised us to "wait here for a minute". "Wait here" wasn't really necessary. We were stuck.

The next thing we knew, a different park ranger turned up asking for "license and registration please". This guy was serious. Not smiling at all. Captain Harold quietly produced the requested documents and was then asked to accompany the ranger. The ranger advised us that it would be about an hour and a half before Captain Harold returned. Wow! Are we having fun yet? It looked like we would have ample time to get to know the other four passengers. But Captain Terry didn't seem to think that Captain Harold would really be gone an hour and a half.

The ranger came back about 45 minutes later without Captain Harold. I had visions of poor Captain Harold in the stockade. Running aground in a National Park appears to be serious business. The ranger wanted a word with us.

"I think I know the answer to this, but I have to ask: Was anyone injured when the boat ran aground?"

Nope. We were all fine. Apparently anytime you run aground, a detailed incident report must be prepared. And when you haven't actually left the dock it's pretty easy to identify the "incident".

It wasn't long before Captain Harold was returned to his ship and we were instructed to stay put for another 15 or 20 minutes until the tide came in enough to lift the boat.

Once we got moving (about 11:15) the sailing was good. We saw lots of birds - ospreys, cormorants, and frigates as well as some dolphins. Captain Harold was very good about slowing down so we could get a better view of baby birds in nests and other items of interest.

On the way back the wind died down and we were traveling at a speed of about two knots. You don't actually think you're moving at that speed but he wanted to avoid using the motor if he could.

Anyway, it's a beautiful park. If I go back, I want to go to Boca Chita Key instead of Adams Key, mainly because there's a lighthouse there and lighthouses are so photogenic. Here are some photos we took on this excursion.