Sailboat runs aground in St. Augustine inlet

Man and his dog were on board

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A man and his dog are safe after his 34-foot sailboat ran aground in the St. Augustine inlet early Thursday morning.

Shortly after midnight, Barry Lee's boat ended up on the shore. He said bad weather was to blame.

"This morning the weather started getting bad and I was aiming for St. Augustine to try to duck out of it," Lee said. "It's supposed to get worse tomorrow, get a squall line and a cold front tomorrow or Friday, trying to duck in here to get out of the weather."

Lee said his motor didn't have enough power to turn him around.

"I couldn't turn the motor to get enough RPMs to spin it, just started bouncing off the bottom, waves one right after another, knocked me all the way into shore," Lee said.Boater Jim Wilson happened to be out waking his dog around midnight when the boat was coming in. He said Lee was relieved to have help waiting on him at the shore, but was reasonably distraught.

"It's frightful, terrifying," Wilson said. "And I could see it on him, on his face, just his demeanor, not to mention the weather -- it's cold."

Lee's dog Maggie jumped off the boat as soon as it hit shore. Lee said she is doing OK.

The boat remained on the shore Thursday morning. Lee said he'll try to get the boat back in the water at high tide about 4 p.m. Thursday.