Hard Aground Chapter 2

PM's Perspective

The next day was Monday, June 29 which gave us two days to cruise to Peterborough in time for Canada Day.  Peterborough Marina is located between locks 19 and 20, a mere 55 miles and seven locks from Campbellford municipal docking, so two days left ample time to make our destination in a timely manner, or so I thought.  We left the dock shortly after 8:30 AM heading toward lock 13 just up the canal apiece.  The lock was open when we arrived and entered smoothly pulling up to the front of the port side of the lock and securing lines to the lock's vertical cables.  Several other boats were cruising toward the lock so we waited for them to enter and get secured.  We were joined by Chimera (a 36' Monk with Jim, Gwen and Blaine aboard), September (with Ben and Nancy aboard) and Chinook (with Klaus and Elizabeth aboard) as well as two others.  Our locking through was a pleasant, social affair with lots of chatter about adventures in Campbellford, plans for Canada Day and the like.  As the boats exited the lock, Velomer was the first out and headed toward lock 14, 1.5 miles away.

The canal between locks 13 and 14 takes a 90 degree turn to the port and has several islands and a small peninsula jutting out from the port side shore.  The charts clearly state to stay within the channel as outside the channel is unforgiving.  The capital R in the waterway on the chart indicates the bottom consists of rock versus G for gravel, M for mud or S for sand.  As Velomer approached the 90 degree turn with Bob at the helm he said, "PM, take the helm.  I need to go below for a moment."  Not a problem.  We often make this switch.  As I got behind the helm, I quickly pressed the auto pilot 10 degree to the port three times for a 30 degree correction in course.  Nada.  Velomer kept right on going in the same direction.  Not to panic, I quickly looked down at the auto pilot and realized that the auto pilot was not engaged.  Again, not a problem.  It's happened before.  I quickly engaged the auto pilot and got us back on track with a few more presses and negotiated the turn.  Velomer rounded the bend with ease smoothly gliding passed red channel marker T248 to starboard.  As Velomer approached the port shore more closely I again pressed the 10 degree starboard button to correct course.  Again, nada!  What is going on here?  As I was looking down at the auto pilot trying to figure out why the auto pilot was not responding, Velomer slide passed green marker T249.  I looked up and saw the entrance to lock 14 looming ahead.

"Where the heck is Bob?" I said to myself. "He should be back by now. Well, if he doesn't make it back in a timely manner, I'll just have to helm Velomer into the lock."  This is a maneuver I have yet to do, but no time like the present.  Without warning, I felt a strong thrust upward and sideways and heard a continuous deafening sound.  "What the f...?" I said to myself.  I saw green marker T251 on the right and thought I'm clearly in the channel so we can't be aground.  Then, "Oh shit, the green marker is supposed to be to port."  At this point, Bob comes scrambling to the flybridge as best he can while the boat is at a 45 degree angle to horizon, "What the hell...?"  The situation became obvious.  We were clearly aground.  Hard aground.  Very hard aground.

Bob jumped into action turning on the bow thruster and moving the joystick to starboard and the bow into the current.  Velomer groaned as she teetered.  "Are we going to tip over?" I wondered.  It sure felt like it.  We both tightly held on to available railing.  Slowly, ever so slowly, Velomer's keel turned and slide off whatever it was that hung us up while she still screamed in pain.  As Velomer slid, Marker T251 appeared to port and with a final splash, Velomer was free at last!  "Oh, thank God," I said to myself as I suddenly decided to get religious.  I sighed a bit of relief but deeply stressed by whatever damage may have been done.  Bob assessed immediate damage and realized Velomer still possessed maneuverability.  Gwen's voice came over Channel 16, "Are you both all right?"  After an affirmative reply, she continued, "That was spectacular.  Your hull was out of the water! Damn, I should have taken a picture."  Bob slowly helmed Velomer into the lock where we secured the lines to the lock cables. He then went down into the engine room to see if Velomer was taking on water and see if there was any visible damage on the inside of the hull.  The other boats followed with all aboard asking how we were and offering any support we needed.

The downstream lock gates closed and the lock began to fill.  The lock master came to the side of the lock where Velomer rested.  He bent his knees to be at eye level with us and gently asked if we were okay.  I was still shaking from the experience, still trying to figure out exactly what happened and why.  "A bit shaken but okay," I replied.  Bob, who was back on deck by this time, entered into a litany of how there was no visible damage on the inside of the hull, how he could still operate the boat but needed to tie up somewhere safe to snorkel and assess damage to the outside.  The lock master replied that we needed to tie up on the port side directly at the top of the lock so that we could give a police report.  He witnessed our grounding, saw our hull out of the water, our sharp angle and immediately called 911 as he thought for sure we must have been ejected from the boat.  He also said that due to the current as the top of the lock, that this location was not safe to check for damage.

After the upstream lock gates opened, Velomer limbed out of the lock and we tied her up to port side. The OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) who responded to the 911 call came over and took our report. P.C. Summerfeldt took down our names, birth dates, addresses, telephone numbers and details of the grounding including time, date, who was at the helm, etc.  The event was even assigned an incident number.  After this interview and taking a few deep breaths, we made our way to lock 15 where the lock mistress directed us to a small embayment to the port of the top of the lock where the current is almost non-existent and we could dock Velomer to check for damages.  She also told us that we probably wouldn't find dock space at lock 17 as it is a very popular place for overnighting and typically fills up very early in the day.  We were a bit discouraged by this news but decided that if needed we could anchor for the night.  I also felt our getting to Peterborough in time for Canada Day slip away.  Once tied up, Bob donned snorkel gear and dove down.  The only damages he could find were three curled prop blades and a scraped keel over its entire length.  Bob also discovered that due to the curvature of the blades, Velomer had no reverse gear which is a problem when trying to stop forward momentum.  He also realized that Velomer could not exceed 5.0 kph (6 mph) without getting vibration.

Velomer in the flight lock with
Chimera to our port

Just about his time I began to feel like an embraced member of the boating community. New travels fast among these circles and sympathy abounds when it comes to incidences involving groundings and other problematic events for boaters. As we pulled away from lock 15 towards the flight locks of 16 and 17, Ben from the vessel September called on the radio to say that there was dock space waiting for us at the top of lock 17 and to come on up.  Ben had directed the other boats to move a bit tighter together to make room for Velomer.  As we left lock 17, Nancy was on the bow of September with a boat hook ready to take lines from Velomer, pass them onto folks on shore so they could gently pull us into the tight dock space along the wall.  I felt we were in tender hands.  Once docked and on terra firma, all sorts of folks came up to me to relay their grounding story!  To continue with the religious theme, I felt baptized!

Still hopeful that we may be able to get to Peterborough this day, we left early the next morning. The route through the Trent Severn for the day would bring us across Rice Lake and through two locks over a distance of 49 miles.  Because we could only cruise at 6 mph to avoid vibration, the trip would take us a minimum of seven hours.  Add two locks into the mixture and the time increases by at least another hour.  And with no reverse gear, lock maneuvering would be challenging.  Surprisingly enough, our day went fairly smoothly making Peterborough without major incidence.

We informed Peterborough Marina that we were a handicapped boat with no reverse and needed a slip with no current so Bob could dive down and remove the prop to get it repaired.  We were given slip B28 which happens to be on the main pedestrian thoroughfare of the downtown public park where all the Canada Day festivities were to take place.  Once securely tied up, Bob went about putting on his scuba gear, setting out tools and preparing to remove the prop.  The marina staff helped put him in touch with Kawartha Prop Repair from Buckhorn Yacht Harbor who was willing to come to Peterborough, pick up the prop and return it after repairing it.  Life couldn't get any better than this, but it actually did!  To be continued in Chapter 3!