The 24th of April, Opening Day! We were all excited, having spent Friday night on board Koosah with our granddaughter Marilyn. The weather was wonderful. Breakfast at the Olympia Yacht Club was delicious and the American Legion Band was superb. The opening ceremonies were crisp and meaningful, punctuated by an eagle soaring overhead as we all pledged allegiance to the Flag.
Our sequence number for the parade was 25. We received instructions on where the parade route was, so we decided to skip the 1100 briefing when John DeMeyer told everyone about the minus .03 tide that afternoon.
The parade went well. We fell in line behind Kelly Coon on Releaf and in front of Dwayne Young in Kalakala. As Koosah passed the reviewing stand near the golf course, we sharply returned the salute to the OYC Commodore and First Mate, then, along with Kelly, headed out towards Island Home outstation.
About the time we were abeam Hunter Point, I noticed that Beth and Bob Connolly on Pandora were taking the short cut between Hope Island and Squaxin Island. They seemed to have scraped the bottom, but kept going. Well, Koosah had been over that area several times this year and we had a good chart, so let’s drive on!
Koosah passed east of the #2 Red Buoy. It was a little shallower than usual, but not a problem. As the boat headed for Hope Island I suddenly noticed the depth gauge! It was now at 10 feet; Koosah draws six! I took the boat out of gear, turned to the west, glanced down at my chart and then could not believe what happened! Aground! No problem, just put it in reverse and get off of that pesky under water peninsula! No dice! We were stuck. Marilyn, seven years old, was in the cabin playing cards with Linda, asked if we were aground again! She was with us when Koosah dredged the channel into Vaughn Bay for a Commodores’ Cruise.
The timing could not have been worse. The tide was still going out and would continue to go out for another two hours! I radioed Keith Grant on Cygnet. He was on the other side of Hope Island tied up to a park buoy. He, along with Steve Meacham from Fat Cat, and Forrest Koponen off Cool Change, charged around the island in their dinghies and came to the rescue. Keith took Marilyn and Linda back to the other boats; were going to stay with them that night after visiting Island Home.
Well, there we were, the current surging out and the water going down! Then all of a sudden we heard a loud crash! It was Boru hard aground at Buoy #2. Kelly Coon circled Boru and informed Roger and Suzie Shaffer that Dark Star had gone aground there years ago and both boat and crew are still alive!
Koosah started listing to the port. Now all the boats behind us were taking the long way around Hope Island. We could hear them laughing under their breath, and thanking Neptune that it was us and not them. Sean Trew even motored close enough to document this embarrassing predicament.
Forrest, Steve, Keith and I settled back and had a cold beer. Koosah was over around 40 degrees of heel, but that did not spoil the taste of the beer. We were discussing how much more freeboard was left when we noticed a Catalina 30 behind us under cruising spinnaker. It was Alex Bromen on Nightwind. We shouted, “Go west, go west!” To which he replied “I have a good depth sounder and have at least six feet under my keel, ah make that five feet, err four feet, Oh oh!” Crunch! Alex joined some good company. He mentioned that he was one of the crew on Liberty when they earned the Order of the Olympia Shoal a couple of weeks ago.
The tide turned around 1600. We could see the current change and the inclinometer start heading back to zero. About 1630 we were able to power off and head around the west end of Hope Island to raft up with Cygnet. About an hour later we noticed Nightwind shooting the gap between Squaxin and Hope heading for Island Home. Boru was not so fortunate; she was at Buoy #2 until around 1830. The current kept her pined to the rocks; she simply returned to port.
Well, that experience just confirmed that one should not be in a hurry in a sailboat. After all, when you step aboard you are at your destination: sailing. And this experience also verifies the saying, “There two types of sailors: Those who have gone aground, and liars!”
Dave Knowlton, Koosah
Keith Grant took a photo,
Sean Trew has more photos of Koosah aground and of the Opening Day Parade on his web site.