Coral- you're pretty, but you're bringing me down....

The first time we ran aground seemed like a rite of passage and was somewhat comical.  The second time was anything but.  As we made our way from Great Harbour Cay to Hoffman's key, we admired how clear the water was.  Even though there was thirty feet below us, we could see the ocean floor.  It was beautiful and eerie at the same time. We alternated between looking out over the bow and checking the gps for dangerous rocks that lay ahead.  Matt and I took a moment to look at the chart and decipher where to anchor when CRUNCH! Our depth went from 30 feet to 3 in a mere moment.  Our boat elevated out of the water and we felt like we were on a ride at Disneyland.  We realized we had hit our keel on a massive coral head, and immediately knew that this would cause considerably more damage than the last grounding, to us and the coral - sorry coral :(  The alarming thing is, if this was the Coral that we were navigating around on the gps, it was three or four hundred feet from where it was supposed to be.  An alarming notion when we rely on gps for a huge part of our navigation. Fine Berry Islands, visual piloting it is.  Although we aren't taking on water and our keel hasn't fallen off yet (knock on wood) the repairs for next season are going to be more extensive than we had hoped. Bring on the epoxy.

Sailboat or Submarine?