Having been caught on a shoal at high tide with the tide quickly leaving, we found ourselves faced by the inevitable. We were careened!
Careening is the act of beaching your boat in shallow water at high tide so that when the tide goes out, the hull is exposed and dry. This allows repairs and bottom work to take place in locations where dry docking is not viable or available. Pirates were famous for doing this in the Caribbean, and favored beaches for careening were called "careenage", just like you anchor in an anchorage.
Pirates were forced to this method because they were not usually allowed in ports that had dry docks, so they had to resort to this method. In today's modern age, only small boats careen because people with larger boats will pay for dry docking, that being said, there is no reason a large yacht can't careen itself should the captain desire to save some cruising money!
Intent seems to be the deciding factor in declaring a careening, and it is doubious to declare that as our intent when this occurred. We did try to get off the shoal at high tide, but we just missed the peak tide and couldn't kedge our way to our anchor, so we were stuck there until the next high tide would allow us to float off.
