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Oops, 48' Sailboat runs aground near Olympia, WA.

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
Oops, 48' Sailboat runs aground near Olympia, WA.

This note came from a friend of mine who sails in Puget Sound.

Ahoy, Crew mates over the years with us.
*
As many of you MAY recall...among Cap'n Carl's Rules of Safe Sailing
is "No*alcohol until after we're tied up or at anchor."* Some folks
just don't get it!* Read on!
*
In one of "our" log books, I quoted an ancient mariner who said:* "You
are uneasy -- you never sailed with ME before, I see."*

Me thinks the guests on this 48 foot sailboat should have been darned
uneasy.* A local acquaintance of ours was aboard this sailboat
Wednesday eve (it was already dark) with several friends; just a short
cruise and cocktail hour.* *
They were motoring in an area WE know to be risky because of a very
"long" sand/gravel spit that extends well into the passage between two
peninsulas north of us (Cooper Point and Hunter Point).* The boat went
hard aground, then began to list severely to*such a*degree that water
rushed in through open portlights, the cockpit, and down the
companionway.
*
One of the guests was at the helm (not the skipper, who we're told was
sufficiently embarrassed that initially he decided to NOT call for
help).* It wasn't until the boat was well "down" on its side and the
water level inside rose (as did the tide -- the range that day was a
nearly zero low and a high of about 15') that he sought help.* By then
our acquaintance and two other guests had crawled forward along the
steeply inclined deck and jumped into the still-shallow water, then
walked in waist deep water along the spit and ashore*to the house
(right at the end of Cooper Point) to get a ride back into town.
*
Even when we had our Boston Whaler we had to go way beyond the Point
to get around this spit – imagine what a deep keel sailboat would have
to do!* Or, in this case, did*NOT do!
*
Cap'n Carl

A Team is pulling to raise MIRACLE
*
OLYMPIA - A salvage team will try to refloat the 48-foot sailboat
MIRACLE today after it ran aground on the Cooper Point spit and sank
during a late evening cruise Wednesday.

The MIRACLE appeared to need one during Thursday's nasty weather, as
it sat beneath 15 feet of water during a rising tide.

"It's underwater now," said Doug Stolz, a spill responder with the
state Department of Ecology. "Just the mast is sticking up."

Stolz, who was among the first to respond to the boat, said the six
people aboard seemed to be in a "festive mood" despite the vessel's
dire straits after running aground about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday.

No one was in any danger, although when it hit ground it was moving
"at a pretty good clip it looks like," Stolz said.

The boat's owner, John Carlson, was on board but not at the helm when
Stolz arrived Wednesday night. Carlson could not be reached for
comment Thursday night.

The boat was only in about 3 feet of water and those aboard could
easily walk to shore, Stolz said. But by Thursday, the rising tide was
at 15 feet, he said.

Mark Osborne of Osborne Marine, who is heading the crew that will try
to refloat the boat, said the area of Cooper Point spit where MIRACLE
ran aground has "claimed a lot of boats."

"One brief lapse of attention and that can happen," Osborne said.

Salvaging the boat will be a tough job, Osborne said, adding that bad
weather could make it more difficult. Osborne said he's unsure whether
there's a hole in the boat.
No diesel spilled from the boat's fuel tank, Stolz said, but a little
bit of lube oil had been seeping into the water. It's the Department
of Ecology's job to keep oil and fuel from being released into the
water.

Officials with Olympia Harbor Patrol could not be reached for comment
Thursday. The Harbor Patrol plucked three people off the boat late
Wednesday, Olympia police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said.* Bjornstad didn't
think the patrol issued any violations to those on the boat.
 

Sean Engle

Your Friendly Administrator
Administrator
Founder
Yeah, that entire area, the 'Nisqually Reach', where the Nisqually River basin meets the sound is pretty well known...basically low tide mud flats, a spit and some hard currents where the bottom portion of the sound is draining out... Most people around here know to go to the other side - toward Anderson Island - to avoid the flats, and to stay well off the point...

I was warned about those areas years before I got my boat... He should have known better than to leave a guest on the helm near there...

That's too bad... :esad:

//sse
 

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