A Fun Sail

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Thu 13 Apr 2023 07:44

Position: At anchor off Cowes, Phillip Island
Wind: SE F3
Sea: slight Swell: nil
Weather: mostly sunny, mild
Day's run: 17 nm

I enjoyed a pleasant evening with Mark, Issy and Arch last night in a famous Cowes Italian restaurant. This morning, after a bit of a sleep in, I weighed anchor and motored Sylph to Rhyll inlet to pick up Mark and Co. for a sail out on Westernport.

It turned out to be a fantastic day. Initially we sailed back towards Cowes on a sedate broad reach then, once abeam the Cowes jetty, we tacked and worked our way back up the East Arm, close hauled on the starboard tack with the tide behinds us. Sylph showed her guests what she was capable off, well heeled, water streaming over the port gunwale, making good seven knots through the water and some eight over the ground. Issy and Archer loved the ride and I was pleased to share the experience with my young niece and nephew.

We tacked on the northern side of the channel before the extensive shallows that extend a mile and a half to the south of French Island, and headed back toward Rhyll Inlet. Unfortunately, on our approach I let my guard down, not appreciating that a shallow sand spit extended to the east of Observation Point. I noticed some discoloured water but before I could tack we were hard aground. Sylph heeled further over with the easterly wind pushing her onto the sand bank. I promptly handed all sail to prevent the situation getting worse. In such situations I always try the simplest response first, in this case start the engine and try to motor off. Looking at the chart, it looked like we had sailed over the worst of the shallow spit and should have been getting back into deeper water so I initially tried motoring ahead. Sylph gave some promising bumps on the bottom but after several minutes it became clear that we were not budging. So I then tried the next obvious measure, going hard astern; and I was very relieved to find that this second strategy worked. After a few minutes we had backed off into deeper water. Thank you Mark, Issy and Arch for staying calm and very helpful during what was for me a slightly stressful situation.

Back where Sylph belonged, with water under her keel, we motored the remaining mile up into Rhyll inlet where I dropped the day's crew off and Oli and I made our way back to anchor off Cowes, where we are now anchored again.

Tonight I am looking forward to a relaxing barbecue at Mark's holiday resort.

All is well.