title: Hard Aground . . . Again: Another Incomplete Idiot's Guide to Doing Stupid Stuff With Boats
author:  Eddie Jones 
description: Eddie Jones is the author of the popular boating column Hard Aground and has written for Living Aboard Magazine, TownDock and the Ocracoke Observer, Latitudes & Attitudes, Cruising Coast and Islands, Boating News, and other maritime publications, and was winner of the 2006 Delaware Christian Writers Conference comeptition. Eddie and his family sail out of Oriental, North Carolina, when they can get their sailboat off the mud in its slip.
zlib_text: Table of Contents
  Chapter One
  Chapter Two
  Chapter Three
  Chapter Four
  Chapter Five
  Chapter Six
  Chapter Seven
  Chapter Seven
  Chapter Eight
  Chapter Nine
  
  SUBMISSION
  John Argus
  
  Chapter One
  "Damn!"
  I chewed at my lip as I looked at the control panel again, scanning the meters and
  dials. Something was wrong. The engine was running hot (the little needle was in
  the red section of the meter), and sounded strange. I wished for the hundredth time I
  hadn't been so reluctant to admit my ignorance of boats to that obnoxious bearded
  hick. It had sounded so simple when he'd explained the instructions the other day.
  Since I'd first gotten my hands on the controls the other day I'd actually come to
  enjoy speeding over the water, zipping in and out among the islands, the twin
  engines roaring behind me. Sometimes I didn't know quite what I was doing, of
  course, but I always managed to muddle through whatever problem arose.
  Though not without some effort.
  I cursed and slapped my hand against the control p