A day on the beach

Today’s adventure was to negotiate the route out of the Somme estuary and then a shortish hop down the coast to Fe Camp in time for a meal ashore. 0500 and we were up and about. The plan was for an 0530 depart with me on the helm supported by Andy and Steve with powerful torches to spot the buoys as we went out. The tide had one hour to rise and the girls were blissfully asleep below full of confidence in the ancient mariners on deck. “what could possibly go wrong with such a cunning plan I ask you? Especially, as we had not one, but three Yacht masters on deck, two of them Instructors to boot”? 30 minutes later directly in between a red and green channel buoy Spectra ran hard aground. No amount of reversing, tweaking the bow thruster or leaning the boat over could get her off. As I tried to move her into the middle of the channel in the hope of finding some deep water the tide turned against us and it became pretty apparent that we were stuck for the day.

About this time Norma and Sarah came on deck and it was all hands to the pumps if you will excuse the pun. After plumbing the depth all round I decided to lean the boat on her port side if possible. Initially we hung Andy out on the end of the main boom and later a flare box full of chain plus our stern anchor out on the mizzen boom to get Spectra leaning in the desired direction. As the water dropped at an alarming rate Andy jumped in and stuffed all of our fenders as far under the hull as we could and we dragged all of the spare chain out of the anchor locker and laid it along the side deck. Norma and Sarah pumped the boats fresh water out which reduced out weight by about 1 tonne for the refloat later and shut all of the sea cocks as a precaution for later. So all very active for half an hour or so and then it was the big wait. Spectra was completely high and dry within 1:30 hrs and we were playing beach tennis within two.

Things to do when stranded on a sand bank,

1. Double check your navigation to see what went wrong. (Nothing, rising tide and smack bang in the middle of the channel)

2. Look at the green buoy to one side and the red one to the other and convince yourself that you are indeed high and dry in the main channel.

3. Play beach Tennis.

4. Write messages in the sand.

5. Phone family and friends.

6. Sleep

7. Collect Samphire for dinner later.

8. Sleep some more.

9. Wade out into what water is left and drop the anchor for use later. The channel by the way consisted of a 20 meter drain right up against the port hand mark leaving the remaining 100 meters over to the green buoy as a desert

10. Sleep even more.

Finally after many hours, and many curious stares from passing Kayakers, the tide started to come back in. We did not lift completely at any stage. But continued to use a combination of forcing the boat to lean right over, Steve working the windlass while Norma reset the circuit breaker as it popped repeatedly, Andy swinging the booms from one side to the other and Sarah backing the staysail to keep the lean on while I worked the wheel and accelerator. We kept this up for nearly an hour before I made the management decision that foul language was required. “Will this @”$%&** boat never !”£$%^& move I was heard to exclaim (in a calm and measured manner of course), at which point Spectra, good old girl that she is, took the hint and oh so very slowly bumped and dragged herself over the sand and into the deeper water.

Back to St Valery Sur Somme it was, and onto the berth we had left all bright eyed and hopeful 14 hours before.

The marina staff were as always, very polite and helpful and assured us that we had enough water to get out “BUT YOU MUST STAY IN THE CHANNEL THEY SAID”. “We ran aground smack bang in between the channel buoys at near on high water”, Norma said. “OH YOU MUST ALSO STAY IN THE DEEP WATER IN THE CHANNEL”, they said. I am off to the shops tomorrow to purchase some Gallic flair for the next attempt on Saturday morning.  

As a foot note we gave the decks a quick scrub down in an attempt to remove the thick layer of sand that had accumulated and went to the yacht club for a beer or three.

As soon as we had all sat down with a cool beer on the yacht club balcony a Seagull did what Seagulls do best all over us.

Some days you should just stay in bed!!!