Time to revise tidal calculations

As the photo shows, it's not all been fabulous sun and peaceful skies, and today was one of those days that the weather decided to give us something to whinge about. Well me, as I'm the only Brit and let's face it, it is our national sport. The Italians might be whinging about it as well but I wouldn't have a clue as I don't understand a word of their jibber-jabber.

Anyway, the owner and his friend decided they were going to go bonefishing as they had done every day since being here. They went about 7 in the morning for high tide, and said they would return on the next high tide. It sounded as though they had a vague idea of what was going on, so we were happy for them to go as we wanted to all enjoy the last day of not being cramped on a boat together. Word to the wise - when you have land at your disposal, spread out and space out. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, even if it's for a short time.

Too much of something can be a bad thing and we started to think it was a bit too long since we had last seen them. It was coming to the next high tide, and as we still didn't hear from them or see them, we were starting to get a little worried. We called them on the VHF and they explained that they were a tad stuck, having beached the tender in the morning in a little of water, they thought that when the tide rises again they would be able to just get out the way they came in. But as the tide dropped further, they soon realised that they had put the boat on a big sand bank, and they couldn't get off. It was getting dark. And the sea state wasn't the nicest of days, being 35-40kts of wind at our anchorage.

Franco and I were progressively getting more worried, as they took the only tender that would actually get that far. Yachts are generally a very safe place to be and most casualties are as a result of being in tenders moving between boats. Calling and calling them, with no response we had to come up with a plan. Deciding to wait another 40 mins before we called the police if we heard nothing, we finally received a call on the VHF and they said they were off (by dragging our 5m tender off the sand) and slowly making their way back. It took them another good hour, they were cold, wet, tired and very hungry as I had only made them a sandwich for the day and they were gone for a good 13 hours.

A little lesson on tides is going to be given today.