I had planned on going in New Pass, which was my first mistake, actually one of many. First of all, New Pass doesn't match the charts. As we have subsequently learned, most of the passes do not match the charts. Very few of the passes are actually appropriate without local knowledge which is very up to date, because they are constantly changing. I had not checked more than one source for info on the pass, and other guides were clear that it was inappropriate for us. Second, I hadn't called the bridge on the other side of the pass, or checked its status in some other manner. It was being repaired, and only opening on six hours notice. Even if we had gotten thru New Pass we would have been stuck behind the bridge. Since it was so pleasant and quiet while we were sailing, Heather had gone below to lie down while we cruised down the coast. I waited too long to get her up, and she didn't have enough time to get oriented since we were already outside the pass.
We headed to the pass, in retrospect going way to fast. We didn't know what we didn't know. Only at the last minute when the depth sounder jumped up did we try to slow down, and then it was too late. We were aground, hard.
We tried to power our way off, which was fortunately sand. After 20-30 minutes of that, and checking the tide tables, we realized we were on a falling tide (next mistake), so things were going to get worse before they got better. We called our tow company. By the time they got there it was less than an hour before dark, and we were really stuck.
The tow boat operator made a valiant effort. He pulled us at full power to little effect. Next we hooked up the main halyard and he pulled us over to maybe a 45 degree angle to reduce our draft. Still not enough. Finally he was getting low on fuel. Our choices were to get on board with him and go to Sarasota, or to stay on the boat. We decided to stay.
It was a long night, even with benign weather we were so fortunate to have. At low tide we were bouncing off the bottom and could hear waves breaking on the beach. Sand or not, it didn't sound good. The next high tide was at 3am, and we tried again to motor off. We seemed to be stuck in a hole about 20 by 40 feet, some of which we probably dug in the sand trying to get out. The next (slightly higher) high tide was that afternoon. Since I had nothing else to do, in the morning I took the anchor in the dinghy out to deep water. I spent the entire day kedging towards deep water. Every time a wave or something created a little slack in the chain I pulled it in. By high tide that afternoon we had plowed about 60 feet thru the sand, but deep water was still 20-30 feet away.
A second tow boat arrived just before the afternoon high tide. His approach was to use the massive props to push the sand around us, while pulling like hell. It took a while, but then we were free!
We immediately headed down the coast to Big Sarasota Pass, which despite the name, wasn't much better. Once thru the pass we lost the left channel, so we took the right channel towards the lift bridge. It got very skinny, but it was just after high tide and we made it to the ditch. We followed it back north to the Marina Jack mooring field in downtown Sarasota, grabbed mooring ball 8, then collapsed, exhausted but no apparent harm done. A little too much adventure for two retirees new to this living on a boat thing.
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