Good deed for the day but I feel a bit guilty about it

[Lucky Duck]

On Sunday I was sailing back from the Blackwater when I passed a small Etap apparantly aground just downstream from the tide guage opposite Suffolk Yacht Harbour.

It was getting near low water and the boat looked liked it had just gone aground and would float off with the rising tide in an hour or so. 'Volunteer' passed by at that time and I called them up on the VHF suggesting they might like to see if they could tow the boat off and in no time at all they had the boat back in deep water and all was well.

However they then seemed intend on taking thier details before letting them go on thier way which seemed to take longer than the 'rescue' itself, so I feel rather guilty that I might have imposed on them rather than helping out.

Did I do the right thing?

 

[MoodySabre]

The Etap could always of refused a tow. You saw someone possibly in trouble and acted on it - better that than ignoring them and then reading about peeps drowned in the Orwell. No guilt required.

 

[PeterGibbs]

It is always right to come to the rescue of someone in trouble. I hope this case confirms your good intentions and responses.

Taking details is an annoying British habit. "just in case itis" - pointless amateurism, unless of course, it precedes a nice "thank you" gift in the post..... !

PWG

 

[flipper]

My 2p is you did the right thing. Guess the guys on Volunteer need to write up an incident log at the end of the day.

We just usually take pictures of the unfortunates and post them on here

Top tip is to follow Pyrojames around until he grinds to a halt then turn into deeper water...

Dont follow Full Circle, I've seen what he's done to smaller boats who think he must be drawing more than them...

Patrick

 

[benw]

Agree you did the right thing - first rule of the sea going to the aid of another. As has been said they could have refused the tow. They may well have been unaware of Volunteer particularly if they were new to the area (given they were aground quite likely unless they were taking a racing line).
Far too often today do "we" turn a blind eye and ignore others in tricky situations. Good on ya!
Ben

 

[CPD]

Of course you did the right thing. No question.

 

[FullCircle]

As Ransome said:

BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON'T DROWN.


You did good.

 

[Leighb]

I am sure you did the right thing.

As you mentioned they were just downstream of the tide gauge it is worth noting for those not local that if coming down river there is fairly deep water approaching the tide gauge and just below it, there is then a shoal patch which extends quite a long way out towards the No2 buoy. It is quite easy if concentrating on something other than your sounder to run on to this. Guess how I know

Excuse is if you don't go aground quite often when racing you are not trying hard enough

 

[lenseman]

Yachtsman recovered by windfarm safety boat

At eight oclock yesterday evening, Yarmouth Coastguard received a call from Lincolnshire Police reporting a man in his 60s at Gibraltar Point who had apparently ran out of fuel and needed charts to return to his home port of Wells-Next-The-Sea.

After spending the night onboard his boat at Gibraltar Point, he left this morning to return home.
At approximately 1130 this morning, the MPI Rucio, a safety boat working on the Lynn windfarm, called Yarmouth Coastguard stating that they had found a boat drifting without fuel within the windfarm.
This turned out to be the same boat from the previous day.
They towed the boat to a safe point off Skegness to anchor until the RNLI lifeboat from Wells was able take the vessel under tow back into Wells Harbour.
Christina Martyn, Watch Manager at Yarmouth said
This incident is another example of a person going to sea without ensuring that they had made adequate preparation. When preparing for a trip of this nature, ensuring you have adequate fuel and charts of the area is a basic requirement.
Luckily the intervention of the MPI Rucio, made sure this incident was resolved safely instead of developing into a much more serious situation.

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07...s-releases.htm?id=3910AED44AD4B433&m=9&y=2010