well it hit the sea wall...well the rocks before the sea wall...

news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=20942

Boat hits Opera House sea wall 13:00 AEST Tue Oct 26 2004 A former America's Cup yacht has hit rocks surrounding the Sydney Opera House, throwing sailors into the harbour and losing its keel. Luckily no-one was injured when the 22-metre yacht, the FT Spirit, hit rocks near the seawall in Farm Cove at 12.30pm, while on a charter sail for the Financial Times newspaper. A company spokesman says only 12 people were on board the yacht at the time, most of them experienced yachtsmen. Deckhand Benny Mawson says the impact ripped the keel and ballast off the yacht, after it came in too close to shore and hit the bottom. A spokeswoman for the newspaper, which launched in Australia just five weeks ago, says a number of people fell into the water. Witness Graham Ellis was walking along the back of the Opera House at the time of the incident. "The boat was sailing up and down about three or four times," Mr Ellis said. advertisement "Then I heard a huge expansive crash which lasted for about two or three seconds. "It seems to me they just went too close (to the edge)." Two water police crews and some detectives were on the way to the scene. Spirit is an international America's Cup Class yacht from the San Diego Challenge in 1992. The yacht is being moved away from the seawall under an escort from about 10 boats.

Didnt they know that going too close to the Opera House is a trap?

Oh boy, that must've been embarrassing. They are supposed to world-class yachtsman, but I guess it can happen to the best of us, when you just get a bit too close.

ok--i can't believe i'm admitting this, but i grounded my boat 2 weeks ago.  depressed about events which have recently transpired in my personal life, i made the worst mistake a sailor can make--i got careless during landfall.

coming back in to grandpappy point on texoma, i'm about 30 yards offshore on a no-moon night.  the lake was down (this was before all the recent rain), but i wasn't overly concerned, as texoma is a corps lake, and the banks drop off pretty sharply.  plus, i was less than 20 yards east of my outbound track, with a 12' position error on GPS.  (WAAS active)  so i thought i was OK.

well, 'thought' may be the wrong word.  i didn't have my brain engaged at all.

anyway, i have half an eye on my depth, and it reads 10...10...10...5!

this is a problem, as my boat draws 4'10"

here's a physics problem--if 4 tons of sailboat is going 6mph, how long does it take to stop?

answer:  about 3 yards of mud.

can't power off, can't use my anchors.

now, i've always had a fear of black water.  irrational--yes.  but rationality is immaterial.  and this water was BLACK!  did i forget to mention that it was a new moon?  we're talking creature from the black lagoon black.  black like squid ink.  black so black that you start to wonder if there are such things as freshwater giant squid, which of course have ten insidious tenticles, each of which is actually an alligator.  and the alligators are hungry.  let me put it another way:  cthulhu has just this color of water in his bathtub.

and i had to get in it.

anyway, after about an hour of cussing, my brother and i were finally underway again, and i learned an incredibly valuable lesson that just might save my life this spring:

if you get careless at landfall, you might have to swim in black water.



here endeth the lesson.

That damned murphy guy again!