Ashful
Minister of Fire
Hey, at least it's sand! Growing up, we did half our boating at the Jersey shore (LBI) and the other half in the Delaware river from Philly up thru Bristol. Running aground at any reasonable low speed at the shore was pretty much a non-event, other than getting yourself un-stuck. But run aground in the Delaware, and you're replacing a prop or even an outdrive lower unit housing. The former is sand, and the latter is rock.
We did a lot of water skiing, it was easily half our usage of that boat, and dad never liked pulling skiers in the channel. That meant a lot of off-channel boating, and discovering on our own where the water was shallow or deep enough for skiing. It must be worse now, with all the idiots running chart plotters and autopilot, at least back then you could count on someone being at the wheel of the fishing boats returning from sea... even if they had a few drinks in them.
The biggest challenge between the two bottom types was finding an anchor that would work well enough on both, so you didn't have to change out all of your anchors each time you'd go from one launch to the other. Anchor shackles used in salt water didn't always want to come apart, for changing your rode and line.
