Aground

Brenda got up at 7.15 this morning and soon came back from the galley to tell me that the boat seemed to be listing and she thought that we might be aground.  We were aground alright, the first time that Pachuca had touched bottom since we made the night entry into American River at Kangaroo Island, South Australia in 2008.  Brenda and I were treated to breakfast on a starboard tack right in the slip.  I turned on the instruments and the depth sounder was reporting 1.7 meters of water.  (Pachuca requires at least 2.3 meters.)  There was a strong offshore wind blowing which undoubtedly augmented the effect of a normal low tide.  (I've been told that in the River Plate estuary the wind can affect the water depth by up to 5 ft either way.)

Note distortion on the jetty

Pachuca showing her dirty bottom

Pachuca was straining on her starboard lines but otherwise seemed OK.  Fortunately there is insignificant surge in the inner harbor so there was no bumping on the bottom.  Four or 5 other boats were touching bottom.  I've included the photo of one whose entire hull seems to be above the surface of the water.

Dry dock for the bigger boats and very little for the smaller ones

Challenging project boats

Live music at the fishing boat harbor

Part of the all-male seal colony

I am also including some photographs that we took when we walked along the outer mole to visit the seal colony.  Unfortunately the lighting was not the best because we were photographing toward the setting sun on a cloudy day.

NOTE: When I reviewed this entry I had trouble enlarging the photos.  I finally did it by (1) Right clicking on a photo and selecting "view image" (2) using ctrl/+ and ctrl/- to enlarge and diminish the photo.