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/253

 angle with our keel if the current is not exactly with or against us, or if we are making leeway.

Having now reached the position H, and having satisfied ourselves, after a glance at the chart, that there are no more rocky patches ahead to pick us up, we sail on as near to the wind as we can without pinning the vessel down too much, and edge in towards the shore, so as to avoid the strength of the ebb stream, which is now running south. At last we enter the estuary, and as current and wind are both unfavourable for the ascent of the river, we are compelled to come to an anchor and wait the turn of the tide.

We should probably have acted thus had the wind been fair, for we are not familiar with the somewhat dangerous mouth of this river, though we know that its channel winds among great shoals which are but badly marked with occasional poles. At this stage of the tide (the ebb, we will suppose, has been running for two hours) all these shoals are still covered and the channel is difficult to find, so that if we endeavour to sail up we shall most probably run ashore before we get far, and be left high and dry amid the mud-banks by the receding tide—always an undignified position. On the other hand, if we remain at anchor until low water, we can easily, without running the risk of getting stuck in the mud for hours, pick our way up the river on the beginning of the flood; for then the shoals are uncovered, and the channels between them are