Photo: Rest & Relief - Lizard Island Anchorage
The relentless head wind gave us nothing and we worked hard for every mile by tacking endlessly between the reefs. We'd made only fifteen miles progress since leaving the Mount Adolphus Island anchorage at daybreak and, fighting the wind and current, we were tiring rapidly. Ahead, tantalisingly, lay the entrance to the remote Escape River where we knew there was a sheltered anchorage among the mangroves. But the entrance was treacherous and shallow. Marie worked the sails and we tacked again in the big sea, heading towards the headland in the failing light. We needed to take a critical bearing from the point to navigate our way into the river, so a night time entry was not feasible. We could just do it.
"When's low tide?" asked Marie. "In about fifteen minutes," I told her. She looked worried as well as tired. I knew what she was thinking. The charted entrance depth over the bar was just over two metres;
Sänna's draft was two metres. It was tight. We needed tide depth for a safety margin but I reasoned it could be done. "This sea is nearly three metres," she said. She was right; we could easily bottom or go aground if we got it wrong. The alternative was to tack our way through the night and the next day to another remote headland anchorage. This was a tough call. I was torn between our two choices... "Let's go for it, we can do it," I shouted above the wind. "No," Marie screamed at me in her way of taking charge, "We'll end up dead."
We tacked back through the wind and headed out into the long black night...
________________________________________________________________________________
Please visit our SV Sänna website for more details of our circumnavigation voyage from the UK. Also at www.facebook.com/SV.Sanna. Like our Facebook page if you'd like to receive more news about our sail adventure. You can contact us here.