Today was intended to be a simple cruise from Sidney spit to the haul out location for Sidney spit. As we woke it was a grey morning but we could see Sidney through the mist and heh! - what could go wrong. We slipped our mooring buoy and slowly made our way out of the narrow channel from Sidney spit... until there was a gentle lurch and we stopped moving forward. Having not bothered to check the tide, we didn't realize we were leaving at low tide and Sidney spit has a shallow bar over its entrance and we had found it (or more precisely I had been a bit too relaxed in my steering!). Panic stations ensued; we tried to reverse off - nothing doing, and with the tide still falling it looked like we might be there for some time. A couple of boats managed to find the channel and successfully exited (no doubt with their crew smirking mightily at our situation) but all we could do we thought was sit and watch the birds

...or so Heidi and Lottie thought, but I had a cunning plan! We dug the spare anchor and chain out of the stern locker and manhandled it into the dinghy, I rowed out a ways and dropped it and then Lottie started cranking in the rode (line attached to the anchor) on the winch. The stern settled, and then move a bit. We cranked again... and again the stern moved! Eventually we were bobbing free again :) After this adventure we left Sidney spit but, having learned our lesson, and knowing the approach to the dock we were aiming for was shallow, we anchored off Kerr Island until the tide rose a bit.

The route into the next moorage spot was very tricky and it took us a couple of times to get settled but we were finally, after a lot longer than we expected, tied up alongside the dock where in the morning, DT was going to be lifted out.