Sailing Where The Wind Takes You - Prologue

When sailing a small boat on tidal waters, you seem to be subject to an uncertainty principle: you can determine when you sail, and you can determine where you sail to, but you can't determine both simultaneously.
Last weekend was a demonstration of this rule.
One sailing destination in Zeeland still missing from Mekicevica's log is Zierikzee, on the Oosterschelde. This wide, tidal river is a sailing paradise that keeps calling to us every time we pass over it on the Zeeland bridge, on the way to wherever Mekicevica is. To get to the Oosterschelde sailing from the North you have to negotiate the Keeten: narrow, tidal, and busy with shipping.

(click map for enlarged view)

The weather forecast for this weekend announced sunny, warm weather with moderate SE winds. Low water was about 1400, which meant that with an early-ish start from Oude-Tongue we would be able to get to Zierikzee, with the ebbing tide, on a beam reach to broad reach. Perfect.
It was not to be. By Friday the forecast had changed to maybe-not-so-nice-on-Sunday and S wind, even murmurings of SW wind.