The next morning we woke to a windy day. The wind was forecast to rise to gale force blowing right down Johnstone straight; naturally the direction we wanted to head and so our plans for the day were limited to pushing up from Discovery channel to the head of Johnstone straight. We spoted that we could tuck in behind Turn island and hopefully get some shelter so we set of north. As we got to the turn into Johnstone straight the wind freshened considerably blowing due east. We scampered across the straight and shot in behind Turn Island. there was nowhere to anchor in the lee of the island though and so we poked around looking for somewhere that might at least hold us. We finally settled to the north of Turn island in a small bay. The wind was blowing into it but we could see the bottom was sandy and when we dropped the anchor we got a good bite so we thought this was as good a place to stop as any. As the afternoon wore on the wind picked up more blowing strong to gale force. There was nothing stopping it hitting us but the anchor was holding and so we decided to stay. As darkness fell the wind howled in our rigging and we bedded down together wondering if the anchor would hold or we would be blown onto the lee shore!

The wind kept howling all night long and we took it in turns to anxiously get up and check that we weren't dragging.  We didn't move an inch. Unfortunately, that wasn't what we should have been worried about.

At 5:30 I woke up to realize the boat was not dragging but was however, not moving at all and starting to list to starboard.  We had grounded.  We both quickly got up and started on our plan for if this was going to happen; Heidi starting the engine and trying to work the stern from side to side while I tried to pull on the anchor to drag us off but she was stuck fast.  The tide was also falling fast and by 6:00 we had given up the fight and resigned ourselves to having to wait for the tide to turn.  We put the kettle on and sat down to contemplate life.  Low water was at 08:30 and it was a long and agonizing wait as the boat leant over more and more.  We ended up in barely three feet of water with the Starboard rail well underwater.  On the bright side our packing had worked and nothing had broken loose though!!

By 09:00 the tide had turned but we still had a long wait ahead of us.  More tea and anxious hours later Doubletime started to finally get to level again.  At the moment that we lifted off the bottom we took the opportunity to recalibrate our depth finder which we had set up wrong.  When it said we had 13 feet under the keel what it was really telling us was that we were barely clearing the bottom by a foot!

Once we were free, around midday, it then only remained for us to pull up the two anchors (I had set our spare anchor as well to make sure we would not be blown back and both had been holding us against the still strong winds) This alone was totally knackering, but then we were free and running again. Are target was not to try to reach Blind channel resort for a bit of respite after our ordeal.  But no, the weather had other ideas.  By now we were against the current and battling hard into those strong winds again.  As we left the lea of the cove we put up the genoa, and then the mainsail to try and help us make progress, still with the engine going.  We tacked three times and made precisely zero ground so we turned and tried to go in behind Walkem Island.  Turning away from the current and wind with full sail also gave us an exciting moment as we shot across the straight at over 8.5 knots!  Even this didn't work though as although we made some headway as soon as we headed back towards the main channel we were stopped dead, so we gave it up and headed to a small bay that might give us some shelter.  This bay wasn't actually too bad as somewhere to hide for a while as we watched another yacht trying valiantly to move up the straight... until she also gave up the battle and shot off back down the straight with wind and current. 

We sat in our new bay very dejected, having had little sleep the night before and wondering where this 'adventure' (nightmare) would really lead now.  Around 3:30pm we thought we would give it one more shot.  This time the current had slacked off a bit but the wind had got up!  We crept out of our bay and as we hit the current, punched the throttle hard and both Heidi and I started silent prayers for DT to be able to get us round Edith Point.  We battled hard for about 30 minutes and then inched forward at less than a knot to clear the point. Once round we put up a scrap of jib (the winds were strong to gale force again) and shot thankfully into Mayne passage.  Doing 5.5 knots with almost no foresail out we quickly got to Blind channel and a haven of tranquility.  There was no wind as we turned the corner and the sun was out.  As we pulled into the dock we were welcomed by dockhands in shorts and T shirts (we on the other hand looked like we had just rounded the cape!).  I almost hugged the dockhand and Heidi was on the verge of tears, going from a total nightmare to what appeared to be Shangri-La in the space of a few short minutes. We had gone from desperation and some of the worst weather we had sailed in to a resort in the sun with all facilities and it's own restaurant!

We were home for the next day or so. We settled down and had the best nights sleep for a little while!!!!