Against current & wind - could we have done anything else?

Dennis B

New Member
Hi all,

First post.

We sail a Seaward Slipper 17 on Lake Champlain (Vermont), with a slip at Shelburne Shipyard inside Shelburne Bay. We're okay amateurs, sailing now for three years. The Slipper is 17 feet with an 8-foot beam, drawing 19 inches (keel, not centerboard), and is a little susceptible to currents.

On Sunday, we got into trouble. We had sailed down the Bay into the south wind to get a good feel for the wind and the choppy waters, both tacking and jibing, and then north into the lake. Winds were steady 10-15 kts, and we've sailed that easily before. The NOAA forecast had winds diminishing for the afternoon. On our way back in, about one mile from the Bay, a radio report issued a small craft warning. We hustled.

When we got to the mouth of Shelburne Bay, the current was flowing from the south and the winds were coming from the same direction at 20 kts. We kept tacking but couldn't make any headway at all; even when we engaged our motor (an 80" Minn-Kota trolling motor) we could go nowhere toward the Bay. We were in fact being pushed further north.

After a half-hour and rising winds (toward 25 kts) we called for assistance. The Coast Guard brought us in. Attached is our GPS track beginning when we arrived north of the mouth of the Bay; the yellow dot is the point of our first tack. You can see the rest, including where the Coast Guard caught up with us and dragged us straight south.

They said we had done everything right and this happens there regularly. Were they being polite, or could we have done something else?

Thanks,
Dennis
 

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