mil1194
Well-known member
We’d left from Swansea to Padstow and we’d left enough time to go to Lundy. For one reason and another we abandoned Lundy and carried on (total 86mn) and Padstow can only have a 2hr timescale IIRC. We we on a Fairline SQ43 and further south from Lundy had some radio Comms from a 30ft saily boat that was in trouble. Nothing from the coastguard and we responded accordingly. They had lost propulsion, and they weren’t using sails and they weren’t far from the rocks. his FO was very ill with seasickness and they were effectively dead in the water. We had no option but to assist - heavy seas, F4 and 3m at a guess and we found them and circled many times to try and get some lines to them. We managed it and brought them 27miles to Padstow. Oddly the minute we got lines on and we were towing them we lost ALL radio contact with them so it was just verbal/waving t 7/8 knots. It could have been a problem as we wanted 22 to get into Padstow. Hey ho. We got into the river towards Padstow and brought the yacht alongside who then told us they has 90ft of water below them, (they never saw the irony) that this was rubbish, we had 10ish and I called the HM at Padstow (who is a great guy btw) to explain the situation and that we needed to come in. He told me he had a 10m gate and we were about 27ftwide with the yacht alongside. We approached slowly and then had all sorts of idiots darting in front of us and along side us etc while it was obvious that we were struggling as whatever power we used we just wiggles with the 10/12ton yacht alongside - even with our two twin CATS 3208’s (800hp) we could only power one side of us and kept turning us. We came around and suddenly saw an opportunity to get though the gate and the captain motioned to me that we were going in- whatever happened - I was on the aft with a few large ball buoys and got us in whilst touching the wall at one point and then we had to raft up alongside a £500k cat. There was only about 1000 people watching and Mark(captain of the Fairline 43 Sq got us in perfectly)
The captain and FO of our stricken vessel miraculously recovered and disappeared only to appear a few hours later with posh bags of cheese and wine from Padstow’s finest shops. If I’d broken down and struggled into a harbour all I would want to do is fix my problems, not go shopping. Next morning I witnessed the captain of the stricken yacht coming back to his yacht with diesel cans….he’d not broken down at all - just run out of diesel and he didn’t want to use his sails. Later that day he came to our skipper and asked if he preferred red/white/rose - and was offered a bottle of £6wine. There were three others on board (I was one) and we did get given a 6pack of fosters for our trouble.
I am glad we helped them, they were seriously in the shit and they’d failed to raise RNLI etc from where they were as their radio gear was useless. Even when we were towing them in we struggled with Comms. We were not skilled in rescue but everyday is a school day and I still have the Navionics to show how many times we went around them to try and get lines safely to us.
A day later their FO told me that they broke down/needed assistance wherever they went. They had been to see their son/daughter in Aberystwyth uni and taken the boat and needed Bala/Aber lifeboats out again for lack of diesel. She seemed proud and I asked her if she had a sticker book from the RNLI and was she hoping for a full house. She walked away then and wouldn’t speak to me for the next few days.
I KNOW we can all need assistance, we have brought in a fair few boats from Oxwich, put ourselves at risk in Port Eynon for a little boat which we won’t do again - we took ourselves into very shallow water which was stupid - we should have insisted that we take then back to Swansea with their crew on board with us - why risk your perfectly functioning 50ft to take a 19ft closer to the shore - but this guys on board with a young son and were very grateful - the 10yo was crapping himself - their little boat was almost full of water
If someone had dragged us 27miles into Padstow, and off the rocks, when they had no further Comms that 5 miles I’d. have been into the nearest restaurant and bought a £200+ voucher for our trouble , to bugger off and shop was a piss-take. An offer the next day of a choice of a bottle was just taking the mick. One of our crew wanted to claim salvage!
Mark, our skipper on the SQ43 was shouting at me to make good a line when we were in the thick of it - I asked him what knot he wanted - he replied one that wouldn’t FU**ing come apart…it was very heavy water and new to us all really.. I tied two long lines together and it wasn’t a knot that anyone would recognise but it didn’t come apart and he cut the line a year later and presented it to me in case which is on my Fairline 50 now and I’ll always remember it.
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. Credit card captains who come out 3times a year.
