Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/249

 of direction, if considerable, must be taken into account.

Having ascertained our position at F, we decide to keep the vessel on the same tack; not only because the flood is still making, and we can continue to underbow the tide, but also because it will be advisable to get hold of the land before the tide turns; then, in case the wind falls light, we can anchor until the next flood, and not lose the ground we have made. We know that the flood-stream is already slacking; consequently we must not expect to do quite so well as we have so far done; our true course will no longer be north-east, straight for our port, but will be a good deal to the eastward of this.

The wind holds, and at last we sight the opposite coast, sail on until we are a few miles off the shore and recognise a landmark, the tower G, over our starboard bow; so we have made a landfall, as we expected we should do, considerably to the southward of the estuary for which we are bound. Our tide-tables show us that it is now high-water, and that we shall shortly have the ebb-stream setting to the south dead against us. It is important to remember, by the way, that the time of high-water is very rarely the time at which the stream alters its direction. As a rule, the flood-stream runs for a considerable time after high-water, while the ebb-stream likewise often runs long after the tide has commenced to rise. But on this occasion we satisfy ourselves that