[Tiara Mike]

Hi Folks,

I wanted to share an interesting story with you
My Family and I from Ct after 30 Years of cruising the Ct, Long Island,RI, Nantucket Sound Waters we dreamed of Cruising in the Clear Bahamian Waters and so 3 years ago we moved to Fla with our boat and enjoyed a 2 week cruise of the Bahamian Exuma Waters over the past 3 years, if anyone says they have been to the bahamas and have not hit bottom even slightly then they probably never really been there,

2016 we cruised from Stuart Fl straight to Green Turtle Cay and explored the abacos for 2 weeks, lightly grazed the bottom in Marsh Harbour

2017 we Cruised from Stuart to Grand Bahama to Chubb to Compass Cay to Staniel and Back , Entering Compass Cay I followed the Channel Markers and my Garmin Chart warned me of Shoaling and 1 min later at idle my Props hit bottom and Stalled out my Diesels, being only day 4 of our vacation this was not good, feeling the boat slightly bumping and touching the beach bottom what am I to do? #1 I remained calm realizing there was no one out here to help so we are on our own, my wife realizing what happened with me at the helm was not a look I will forget, then I had an idea , I had just installed a Freedom Lift for my inflatable 2 years prior and after putting drain plug back in the Caribe inflatable I had my daughter lower it into the water while it was still strapped to the Freedom lift, Our boat was still getting gently pushed higher up on the sandbar shoal with each gentle passing wave and current, Once my Caribe and Freedom lift were in Full Down position the Stern of our boat raised 6 inches , which does not sound like much but a 30,000 lb boat raising 6 inches is HUGE, I quickly started my 30 Hp Etec out board on my Caribe and with each passing wave we were able to reverse the flow, fight the current and slowly push ourselves off of the Sandbar using our inflatable as a Thruster, I would not have been able to do this without the Freedom Lift, it took 15 min and then I was able to start the Mains and continue on our vacation for the next week and a half with no vibration or issues, we were very lucky 

2018 we Cruised from Stuart to Grand Bahama to Great Harbor Cay to Palm Cay Nassau to Warderick Wells Exumas, Normans cay to Palm Cay Nassau to Chubb to Stuart, did not hit bottom but had some fuel issues but all good and had a great time

Have Fun Out There
Mike

[Sans Peur]

Yea, it can get shallow quick. I had my 4100 in Green Turtle back in May before the hurricane destroyed everything. I have been there numerous times and have not hit bottom (thankfully) but I keep an sharp eye out and watch the tides.