Well I did it again and Lesson Plan made me pay for it, she gave me some remedial education. I really blame Otto for this one, but you can be the judge.
I got the AIS alarms filtered so that it is not sounding all the time. So when the shallow alarm went off this time, I didn't completely ignore it but either I or Otto DePilot didn't react quite quick enough and the keel touched the bottom again. Well it may have been a little more than a touch, it stopped the boat. Anyway, we were rounding a bend in the ICW. I figured it was about a 30 degree bend, so I hit the +10 on Otto three times. I noticed on the chart that we didn't turn quite as fast as the bend showed on the chart, but we were just a little out of the channel. And then I heard the alarm and I immediately started pushing the +10 button a couple of more times. That should do it and then all of the sudden the boat came to a stop, a rather abrupt stop. Fortunately, I was able to back right off turn 90 degrees and get back into the channel. Sometimes the sandbars are so close to the channel. I have been really careful since this incident, I think the remedial education worked.
Lessons Learned:
1. OK maybe it was my fault. When the shallow alarm sounds, pull back on the throttle and take off the autopilot to manually steer your way back to safe water.
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