l008com
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2007
- Messages
- 730
So for the first 20 years of my boat's life, it lived on a small lake. A real freshwater lake (not what, for example, Florida calls a lake). It had it's own small dock. The water level was very steady. If I wanted to beach my boat (say i was going to move the dock), I'd just beach it on our beach, no worries.
Well these days, nearly all my boating is done on salt water. No longer am I in the sticks in NH, now I'm right in Boston harbor. It's been an easy transition because my boat is so small, it doesn't really matter. My draft is all of 3 feet, if that. And I found all of the NOAA charts too.
But anyway, I always want to land on an island. There's plenty of islands in boston harbor. Some are rocky but most have "beach" type shores. But this whole "tide" thing has me afraid to land. I have power trim so I can easily get right to shore, but I'm always afraid that the tide is either going to go out and completely beach my boat, or it will come in and my boat will come loose and float away. It's also not the cleanest water in the world, so I don't really want to drop anchor a little ways out and swim to shore.
So is there some process I'm unaware of to do safe, dry landings in tidal areas? Dry meaning no swimming, I don't mind getting my feet wet.
The only plan I've been able to come up with was to get two anchors. And only do landings when the tide is coming in. Pull up to shore, drop one anchor right at shore, with plenty of slack. Then take the other anchor with a long line, and bring it way up the beach with me and stick it firmly in the sand. Then when the tide comes in, I can use the dry anchor's line to pull the boat to shore. I gotta be honest though, this doesn't seem like the best plan.
Here's my boat for reference (in it's first life)
Well these days, nearly all my boating is done on salt water. No longer am I in the sticks in NH, now I'm right in Boston harbor. It's been an easy transition because my boat is so small, it doesn't really matter. My draft is all of 3 feet, if that. And I found all of the NOAA charts too.
But anyway, I always want to land on an island. There's plenty of islands in boston harbor. Some are rocky but most have "beach" type shores. But this whole "tide" thing has me afraid to land. I have power trim so I can easily get right to shore, but I'm always afraid that the tide is either going to go out and completely beach my boat, or it will come in and my boat will come loose and float away. It's also not the cleanest water in the world, so I don't really want to drop anchor a little ways out and swim to shore.
So is there some process I'm unaware of to do safe, dry landings in tidal areas? Dry meaning no swimming, I don't mind getting my feet wet.
The only plan I've been able to come up with was to get two anchors. And only do landings when the tide is coming in. Pull up to shore, drop one anchor right at shore, with plenty of slack. Then take the other anchor with a long line, and bring it way up the beach with me and stick it firmly in the sand. Then when the tide comes in, I can use the dry anchor's line to pull the boat to shore. I gotta be honest though, this doesn't seem like the best plan.
Here's my boat for reference (in it's first life)