The End of the Krabbenkreek. 1 - Aground Chasing a Seal

The trip from our base in Bruinisse to the end of the Krabbenkreek is rather short, less than 8 NM. So to get  a bit more sailing we start Saturday by doing a trip up the Hals, is a narrow channel on the N of the Grevelingen. The bit we intend to do, up to the public moorings, runs almost exactly S-N, so in the east wind we are getting, we should not have to beat either on the way out or on the return.
Normally this channel is as quiet as you can get on the Grevelingen, but today it seems a lot of people figured that East wind presents a good opportunity to sail here, so it was a bit busy. Even the mooring was packed full. When we were here early this season (see previous blog) we found the place infested by noisy boy-racers making stupid stunts with their cars. It seems that in the meanwhile the boy-racers took to the water. They fitted their over-powered engines to rubber-dinghies to do the same stupid tricks afloat, so they can annoy sailors even more.
We didn't stay long, as it was also getting a bit late for the short hop to the Krabbenkreek. As anticipated, the return was also on a comfortable sailing point. Only at one point we had to decide whether to tack or take a short-cut outside of the marked channel. The chart showed that it got very shallow (even for Mekicevica) immediately outside of the buoys. It was at this moment that we spotted a seal really close to us. This needs watching and taking a picture. I quickly tried to heave-to, botched-it and bong! We are stuck in the sand. Quickly raised the centre-plate, but the wind immediately blew us to even shallower water. Sails down and it seemed I was going to have to get out and push. But the brave Yo-yo Ma saved me from getting wet feet by bravely dragging his own tip and Mekicevica's keels along the sand bottom back to deeper waters. We never got a picture of the seal, who must have had a good laugh at our clumsy antics.
This episode made us arrive later than expected to the Grevelingen lock. We still had favourable tide and wind to ride down the Keteen, but once on the Krabbenkreek we would have both the tide and the freshening wind against us. So we decided to leave the rest of the Krabbenkreek for Sunday and headed for Sint-Annaland yacht harbour.

The best way to enjoy the Krabbenkreek.

The sailing both down the Keteen on a broad reach and close-hauled up the Krabbenkreek was delightful.

Sailing up the Krabbenkreek with a flat-bottom in hot pursuit. These boats are really at home here.

The harbour was really crowded but the friendly harbour-master found a place for Mekicevica right in front of the clubhouse, squeezed between a gin-palace and a huge Dutch barge. At least we were well sheltered from the wind.
Good think we prepared for dinner aboard, because there was no way we could have found a table at the club-house.
In the evening we went to check the fun-fair in the town, but we were not match for the many youngsters around and soon we were asleep in our berth.