Having turned the yacht around at last when we left today there was very little drama on leaving the dock (Phew!)  As we pottered out of the harbour we passed Adam in his new yacht just heading back in.  It had been the first time he and his girlfriend had gone out together and she looked a bit shell shocked!  When we saw him coming back in we were a little concerned though as it was still only 11:00am and it looked like it was starting to blow a little hard outside the harbour limits.  As we rounded ogden point though the weather seemed very manageable and we set the main and Genoa and progressed on glorious broad reach, romping along at over 8 knots.  We rounded trial island giving plenty of room to the tide rips that we could see swirling a little inland and then  fell off the wind a little further to aim at Discovery Island. 

We could easily have rounded discovery island but thought we should go inshore a little more and play  around so jibbed for the first time (A remarkably relaxing experience in the end!) and headed north towards Oak bay.  As we headed north we saw a procession of yachts heading out and round Trial Island to the north through enterprise channel.  There was clearly a race on so instead of tangling with the race we decided to head back out to the south of Trial Island.  After crossing the rips (which was an eerie piece of water - the surface was oily calm but the boat was tugged around by the currents) we kept heading out close hauled cutting across the line of yachts that were still racing, having rounded Trial island and heading for Discovery. 

After getting to a point where we figured we would clear the Southern tip of trial island we tacked and started heading home, or so we thought.  After some minutes, I had a quick look at the navionics and it was showing we were heading east, although the yacht was pointing west.  On looking around I realized that we were actually going backwards with the current.  We therefore thought it wise to cut back north and go through enterprise channel that we thought would be more sheltered than the current in the open ocean which the chart said could run at up to 6 knots. 

Heading back in was a pleasant sail but it took us a little time to find the narrow channel that was enterprise channel.  As we approached we could see the water was quite turbulent but Heidi did an admirable job of threading us through.  As we rounded the island though we came very close to the wind and started losing what little headway we were making.  Soon we were drifting back onto the rocks and I panicked!.  We put the engine on and with the combined power of wind and sail we managed to claw our way out of McNeil bay and into slightly more open water!

The wind was right on our nose on the way home and we spent a couple of steady hours close hauled on the way back into port.  On the way though we passed a couple of other yachts struggling with the wind and current

which was a good feeling!. 

We rounded Ogden point and motored into our mooring, this time with a couple of 'wharf mates' as willing hands to catch our ropes on the way in, turned the yacht around and put her to bed.

The big learning was today was to realize how important understanding the current and tides was around here.  We won't go out again without having a thorough grasp of the impact the currents will have on our journey!