Log Entry 2nd August 2008

A Sunday forecast of falling seas and 10-15 knot winds promised a pleasant day's sailing, which we decided to take advantage of after a break due to an overseas holiday. Arriving at the harbour around 10:15am, it took the marina guys only minutes to launch Lara after which we loaded her with all the usual paraphernalia for a day on the water.

Today we also had the pleasure of the company of two of our nieces Lauren and Jacklyn, who were free for the day and keen to experience sailing. Motoring out of the harbour, surprise, surprise, the wind was no where near the anticipated strength as we raised the sails and bobbed almost motionless in the water. Restarting the outboard we set a course toward the greater part of the Bay passing between Green and King Islands, before heading north to St Helena for a roam around the island. Anchoring at our favourite spot just to the east of the St Helena jetty, the older girls went for a walk whilst the younger two splashed, paddled and generally messed about on the beach.

Knowing that we had anchored on a falling tide, I was a little anxious about Lara grounding, so every five minutes or so I waded out and pushed her another meter or two further from the beach. Unfortunately, I think at some stage the bottom plateaued and there was no further scope to push Lara into deeper water. Consequently within a very short space of time she became firmly stuck! Well, no amount of grunting, pushing or dragging would shift her, luckily however a group of jet skiers who saw our plight immediately rushed over to assist. After a solid ten minutes and with the combined effort of at least five others, we finally dragged and pushed Lara into deeper water. The relief I felt was absolutely palpable.

We collected Yolande and Lauren from the end of the jetty as they hadn't managed to scramble aboard as Lara slipped into deeper water. The jet skiers by now had taken off and were exploring the island, waving as they passed us. I was certainly very grateful for their unsolicited help and the mighty effort they provided, without any hint of humour or bagging at our predicament. I haven't generally had a lot of nice things to say about jet skis (or their riders) but after the unstinting help provided by these fellow mariners, I made a promise henceforth to change my poor opinion of them and refrain from any future disparaging comments.

Usual lunch of fried sausages on bread rolls followed, after which the wind picked up sufficiently for us to sail home to the harbour under Jacklyn's expert helmsmanship.

(Pity about the photographs, I mistakenly had the Leica set at 400 ISO which really makes for horribly noisy images.)