I have another crazy shortcut story ... two years ago, in Denmark, between the islands of Møn and Falster. It was sandy terrain and shallow outside the shipping lane. I didn't have updated sea maps, the shipping lane went south towards Germany, the safe route would be to follow the shipping lane for a while and then turn sharp port as soon as the water was deep enough and continue northeast.

Not only that it would be a big detour, but I would also face lots of work/problems with the sails due to change of wind direction (probably - don't remember the details) - and I was alone (with my two youngest children) on board. According to the map, it should be possible to do a direct shortcut through a smaller "channel" (I think it even had a name ending with "renne" on the sea map). It was like 5-6 metres deep, more than sufficient.

Indeed, there was a written warning on the sea map that the sand banks was shifting and that the depths could not be relied on, but I took the chance. I had quite much wind, and it was coming more from behind than from front. I had around 7 knots of speed.

The water become more and more shallow, and I got quite of a panic when I realized I could see the sandy bottom! Well, the sand is at least much softer than rocks - but still, I didn't want to experience going aground in seven knots speed! I rolled in the genoa as quick as I could, but there was no time for me to even attempt doing something with the main sail. I started the engine and put it in full reverse ... but it didn't seem to do any significant breaking, at the other hand it did make it impossible to steer the boat, so I had to give up on that. I still had something like 6 knots.

It went OK in the end, I got over ... but I believe there were only some few cm with water between the keel and the sandy bottom at the "worst".