We have had a couple of visits to Maldon by water so far this summer, but on our last, we berthed at the mud marina and yard which is part of the Marine Store empire.

There is a relatively decent loo and shower facility available and a very friendly and helpful team ashore..

I soon spotted an abundance of wooden craft here and quickly introduced myself to a neighbour who had taken the stern line. But it was Whimbrel that ‘trembled’for she was in seventh heaven among so much wood…

Berthed beside us was a rare little pocket cruiser from the past. A Johnson & Jago 4 1/2-tonner (Thames measure) dating, the owner told me, from around 1934. She was found propped up at the back of the yard in a forlorn state. The chap has owned wooden boats going back down the decades and he decided, like himself, there was a life to live…

The hull, he said, was in good condition being of pitch pine and with a couple of years work, she was back afloat… Toe rails and rubbing bands were renewed.

On one of the tides, I spotted a very similar boat from the same era – this though was built in large numbers up in Suffolk. The Deben 4-tonner.

These designs were produced in a couple of sizes to suit the pocket of the ‘average man’ giving opportunity to get afloat for around the same price as a little car. They were nicknamed ‘pocket cruisers’ and served well.

The Blackwater Sloop was another of the pocket cruisers, built up river from this yard by Dan Webb & Feasey whose old yard buildings are now offices. The tiny docks still sit along the water’s edge…

I ambled around the yard and its pontoons looking at well kept boats and some not so well preserved.

Most I just haven’t a clue as to their class or build. They were all different and caught the eye – something plastic hardly ever does.

This one below particularly caught the eye for she has a grandeur of a much larger yacht. The reverse shear is sweet and aligned with the small cabin structure – almost dog-house-like – she is uncluttered.

I then back tracked to look under the covers of a few and at this one below. She has the look of a Hilyard ketch, however, her bright work has all but disintegrated to bare wood.

At the outer end of one pontoon was an old naval dockyard TSD. These vessels have all but disappeared. They were resident at every dockyard or naval base used by the Royal Navy and probably predate the second world war. They were diagonal planked – in teak, I believe, and had substantial scantlings and outer protective ribbands.

They were used for ferry purpose in the main but could be utilised a storing vessels too. Years ago, when on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel berthed in Mombasa, there were examples of these craft still in use.

The one seen above seemed to be sound, but is in dire need of a ‘paint job’ soon…

Then I alighted on this little ‘model’ barge, built once heard, of plywood. I saw her out many years ago with two chaps aboard going down past the Hythe. It looked odd for she is little bigger than a large day boat.

So, yes, our Whimbrel has been in cahoots with many wooden sisters…

Of course, Leigh Ray a pen name and it is widely thought to be the lead author of ‘Swin, Swale & Swatchway’, Herbert Lewis Jones, actually co-written with Charles Barrett Lockwood.

Ray Leigh, as many old sailing hands will know, often wrote articles for early issues of Yachting Monthly magazine.

Interestingly if one does a search of the two men, their medical biographies pop up but little else. In Jones’s case, sailing is mentioned as a hobby having been brought u o the banks of the River Medway. Lockwood’s biog n the other hand contains absolutely no mention of sailing… Both were doctors of some repute and died during the early years of the 1st World War.

The book was recommended by a sailing friend and I added it to a list which the mate uses for those yearly special days, and yes, it was in my birthday bag during June!

The book begins in a normal enough sort of way. The Teal’s owner gathers together a friend who often sailed aboard and his younger brother. The owner has just completed his finals to become a doctor.

Embarking aboard the Teal they set off on an east coast cruise taking in the River Medway, Havengore, Burnham, The Rays’n to Maldon then up to Harwich.

On the River Medway they cut through ‘marsh islands from ‘Sharpfleet’ Creek to investigate the oyster fishery in Sharpness Creek – now just an inlet.

From Harwich, the Teal then sets off, ostensibly to go either to the Deben or the Ore.

I went back several times to try and find the reason for their’ change of plan, to no avail – I clearly missed something!

The wind gets up and they are well clear of land.

A burning sailng ship is spotted> they sail closer, close enough to see that she is unmanned. Two masts are down and they see the foremast tumble, sails ablaze…

The wind increases. The compass is broken. A full gale rages … an old sail is cut up to make a cockpit well screen and sea anchor. The story has apparently gone past he ‘informative narrative’ to pure hokum…

They are driven before the gale. The skipper was using his watch to get a kind of directional drift – it gets broken…

This goes on for what seems like days. They realise that their drift has not been as expected: they would have been cast p on an east coast shore long before!

Surf is heard. The lead is cast. Nothing. Fifteen fathom. Less. Then less again. Then more, but calmer, until an unseen sheer cliff gives protection.

The anchor is pitched over…

There seems to be around 25% of book exploring the cove they find themselves trapped within. A huge sailing ship wreck dominates one shore. The cove disappears into the cliff, literally, in a stream in a cave.

Making an attempt to get out of the cove, they lose anchors and are swept back, into the cave and find themselves hurtling on the ‘flood tide’ deeper inside the rock. The rock they had already discovered to be salt rock…

An amazing ‘slalom ride’ ensues, the water turning from salt to ‘fresh’. Masts are cut away … the Teal is all but wrecked and finally they beach. Their dinghy takes them out, eventually, into fresh air.

Finally, the dinghy could float no more. They set off walking living off the land and find a village. The tongue is alien to all three educated young men.

I’ve had enough …

From the village they are sent by various means of transport to Trieste and a ship home!!!

Now, anyone with a modicum of geography knows that for them to have ‘come ashore’ with Trieste as a port of releases must wonder how they got into the Baltic: that is what I perceive.I finished the book, but blimey, it was gung ho ‘boys own’ stuff.

There are some superb black and white illustrations in the first half, but after ‘the ship’ there are none. The story line says there weren’t anymore for equipment was damaged. A batch of plates were boxed and sent ashore at Harwich, apparently…

Did I enjoy it?

Well, yes. It wasn’t as expected and would make a good read for most people…

Thank you for the recommendation, John, and to my mate for its ‘expensive’ purchase…

During last autumn, I came across a book about the ‘lost’ route to Portsmouth from the R. Thames.

The Wey and Arun navigations formed the backbone of this route from the ‘east and west’ respectively (although it was almost north-south). The route was effectively closed around the time of the trip made and problems were encountered. Sections remain navigable today, but the central link has been lost.

I then alighted on a short tale by J B Dashwood in which the chap describes a holiday cruise from the River Thames along the ‘lost’ route to the sea via the River Arun, then a coast passage to home on the Solent shores…

The book is a reprint edition.

The book was first published in 1865, at the insistence of Dashwood’s friends!

It is striking for one major reason: his mate for the trip is his wife who seems to have been of hardy stuff.

Their craft is a Una-rigged sailing canoe. It was built for sailing the upper reaches of the Thames and for sheltered coastal hops.

Towards the end of the book, Dashwood describes the trip round Selsey Bill and another covers her suitability for coastal waters and alterations made.

The Dashwood’s hired a pony to tow the boat and a canal man to manage the towing. That did not mean the holiday couple sat back. No, they played their parts fully.

The nights were spent at wayside inns along the route.

For me, I just loved the way the journey is described. The wild-life, fauna and his little injections of local history. Diversions, on foot, to ruins or the many large houses. It was so reminiscent of many of my own books.

Completing the journey with the Dashwood’s, I dearly wanted to stop and chat to them…

A lovely read. If you can find a copy, I thoroughly recommend it.

Some weeks before the early days of August 1983 we had cycled from Canvey Island, up Benfleet Hill and along a leafy lane cutting through extensive woodland to the yard of A F Platt Ltd, based in its own woodland paradise on the Daws Heath/Hadleigh border.

Our son did the trip too, at a little over a year old he was snuggled up to mum in a baby carrier!

The story is told about at the beginning of a large chapter in my book, The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-crawler which is available from bookshops on line, where I detail the Alan Platt boat yard story.

Our visit was to cast a serious look at several boats that were currently in the Platt’s yard. There were three Finesse 24s in for various reasons among a couple of 21s too. It was only the ‘24’ we were interested in.

Our first boat, a Yachting World People’s Boat, was on the market and we felt she was about to be sold away to the Burnham river. The signs were very promising…

Although we had viewed these lovely twenty-four footers afloat while sailing, it all depended on whether the mate was happy with what she saw…

There were just three tick boxes!

1. Standing head room.
2. A flushing loo.
3. Decent auxiliary engine.

We also studied the sales sheets and discussed our possible requirements with both Alan and Shirley Platt.

We went away with a plethora of details a whirl in our heads. Back home we made plans, we couldn’t avoid it: we were truly smitten.

We even had the un-ordered boat’s name ready…

So we did it!

We had a whole list of ‘extras’ as they are known in the ship and boat building world. The major of these was upgrading to a two-cylinder engine, a Yanmar 2GM, from the basic one-cylinder model. The unit lasted us until 2011 when we again upgraded to a fresh water cooled Yanmar 2YM.

More letters were to follow…

Clinching a marine mortgage, laying of the keel – a major, planking up etc…

Sadly, I was soon back at sea on a ship pootling around Caribbean waters working with an EU and USA fleet of warships on drug patrols, so consequently, I did not see any of the build processes – this was all left to co-owner, Christobel, the mate who wrote enthusiastically about her visits to view ‘chunks’ of wood…

My first view was of the completed boat at the end of March 1984, sitting ready for launching. One of our requirements discussed prior to my return to sea…

The ship’s good mate insists on there being another person in our long marriage – yes, she alludes to a mistress – but as I always point out, it is Christobel’s name on the ship’s papers!

However, more of that as the ‘build’progresses…

So, if ‘Ownership’ can be dated to the date of our order, yes, it is a day to celebrate with a huge dose of pride in a little ship that has served us well.

Thank you Alan, Shirley and all who worked on her.

After much thought we have at last made the break with the Island Yacht Club, Canvey Island.

An incident over the Bank Holiday weekend in August 2019 is at the root of this decision, which I will publicly discuss further down, but has been further driven by other more recent events.

The final straw came after we submitted a complaint about the way club members/visitors treated ‘us’ whilst Whimbrel was under going her fortieth anniversary refit.

Vehicles were being driven fast past boat by around 25% of drivers with no regard for the dust and debris being showered over varnish or paint being applied. Cones and a sign were routinely ignored…

See recent blog:

Ditch-crawler & mate give Whimbrel a Fortieth anniversary refit…

We jointly made a complaint about this with a few specific cases and the club’s response was to call just me in to a session in front of the flag officers to explain ourselves.

Just what needed to be explained?

No where was there an apology and let’s talk about this. Just a straight in and be whipped demand.

Now, the leaders of this club are the very same people who assaulted’ us back in 2019 and since the end of that affair, they have been looking for a way to get revenge.

So, we decided enough was enough and have departed.

Some while ago I wrote about life in a marsh-land yacht club and how ‘we’ looked after our moorings and club infra-structure.

There pervades at the club I have departed from, like many organisations oft heard in the news media, a problem with institutional bullying. It is led by people who still ‘live in the school playground’ and if one is not ‘in the set’ life can be precarious. These people have broken the club and made it a toxic and an uncomfortable place to be part of.

In that respect, both Christobel and I have, since the infamous RIB incident, been circumspect with lodging any official complaint about anything, which in itself has been a travesty: the bully won.

The RIB incident if 30 August 2019 will be documented in the files of the Port of London Authority. These are probably available if one wanted access – freedom of information.

It was over the bank holiday and an open cat event was being hosted by the Island YC.

So, the incident which has lived with me, in particular:

Christobel and I were making Whimbrel ready to depart our mooring to represent the Finesse class and club at Queenborough’s classic festival.

A club RIB (Furtherwick) came up the creek leaving a giant wash crashing through the moorings. I was on our fore deck clearing mooring lines. Although still aground, the boat lifted and surfed against her springs.

Meanwhile Christobel had called out, ‘Slow down.’
She was responded to with a single finger salute, which as most know, means: tickle your c—t or up your c—t. She was extremely upset.

We called the club’s commodore who said he was on way to club and would deal with.

We departed.

Nearing the outer creek, we rounded into the breeze (sw3) clear of the buoyed channel to hoist the mainsail. The boom was loosened ready. I was about to hoist when I spotted the same RIB exiting the club’s moorings.

It left the buoyed channel and came straight at us across the shallows increasing to a ‘displacement speed’ resulting in a huge wash. Christobel held her course with engine on tick-over.

I shouted ‘watch out’ and flung my arms around the slating boom as the RIB roared down our port side done 2-4 m off.

The boat dropped and then went ballistic with violent rolls back and forth. I felt the boat hit bottom.

I held on. I do not remember how I stayed aboard, but wished afterwards I’d gone overboard: it would have made what followed, easier…

Christobel was thrown across the cockpit, all but incapacitated in the corner. She eventually picked herself up and got the boat back under control.

I received wrenched leg and arm joints and Christobel a raft of bruises.

The RIB sped away rounding Canvey Point where a few cats were tuning up, then off east where others were doing the same… no one seemed to be in trouble.

Once under sail we made a further call to the club’s commodore – he fully understood the situation for I was shaking badly as I talked. Again, we got, I’ll sort it. That was the last I heard from him.

In the end after around two weeks, I filled in a Port of London incident report.

The proverbial hit the fan.

The upshot was that the perpetrators manufactured a defence (they got times wrong) and forced all discussion out of club minutes.

The outcome from the Port of London was that the club was reprimanded and reminded of how they operated etc, etc, and the driver was given a written warning. (All of this is held on file)

Whilst this sage was ongoing, I was coping with a huge lack of energy after completing radio therapy a couple months earlier and was on a programme of tablet chemo medication for prostate cancer.

The ‘three’ and cohorts didn’t give a stuff about that…

Early in the saga’s follow up, I had a call on my mobile from the chief perpetrator at around 2000 one evening. I asked where number had been obtained – commodore was the reply. I terminated the call.

On file with all paperwork of case, is an email from club’s vice commodore of time, stating that the phone incident broke club rules and national law regarding passing information.

I said it would be reported to authorities unless an apology was received. Time went by – nil response.

Towards the end of the year, a committee meeting was due and I had a call from our son relaying a message from a fellow committee member that ‘the three’ were engineering an ‘instant dismissal’ from club action against us both … unless we withdrew … because we were threatening a member…

After some thought, and with my energy problems, we wrote, saying due to my lack of energy and my mental ability coping with cancer that we weren’t able to continue … it was apparently accepted.

But, as we later found out, blood was wanting to be spilled.

For us though it wasn’t the end: whenever anything untoward occurred, I suffered from night-time ‘reliving’ of events returned with them cycling round and round with growing anxiety.

So, as said, over last few years we kept our heads low…

The pictures within the blog show a flash of our forty-years as Island YC members.

We raced with success for a decade or so. I was a work party member for thirty-three years and Christobel for a decade since retiring from teaching.

The projects, personal and joint/team, have been numerous. I looked after the creek buoys for twelve years or so. There was walling and concreting the edges of slipway, doubling its width.

During Covid, as we were a ‘bubble couple’ we replaced hundreds of walkway boards.

During the early 1990s the club’s compound was extended over rough infilled land, with layers of crushed building refuse and street asphalt scrapings. We were both part of a small team doing this midweek.

Laying of water and electricity around the extended yard…

Water services round the walkways was laid on…

Not forgetting, years and years of mooring and walkway repairs/renewals.

Sometimes it was very a very muddy experience enjoying ourselves in this marsh-land yacht club…

There were good moments afloat too. Early morning winter sails. Later winter afternoon arrivals back after a gentle potter.

Taking a cue from an ‘old boy’ now long departed, did I need one after being brought up afloat, I made visits to the boat’s mooring to check during high tides – checking and saving many another boat too at the same time.

During the last few years following the RIB incident, the mood within the club changed for the worse. Actions of the club’s hierarchy was causing angst – certainly among the club’s do-ers of the working parties – and the atmosphere was becoming toxic.

It was becoming ‘not a nice place to be’ and I silently began looking for alternatives, should that day dawn.

So, following the lodging of our complaint while away for a week at the end of June we decided to throw in the towel and make the final break.

Once our resignation letter had been sent, my anxiety cycles began to wain and a resemblance of a normal sleep pattern returned. Praise be.

Now we are gone!

Our open letter to the club’s members is unlikely to be honoured, but it is gradually making its way around via various routes from people who have supported us.

So, below is our letter. We don’t care who reads it: the hierarchy of the Island Yacht Club do not deserve any reserve…

A third page was directly to the Island Yacht Club committee and remains private.

So, farewell friends.

Some of you we will see afloat from time to time, others, well, we will both miss you. You gave us so much whilst members of a job, project, or just nattering over a piece of cake at tea time…

Thank you to all who we have been honoured to work with.

Poor Seaden has lain forlorn at Swale Marina in Conyer for some years now.

The boat has essentially been abandoned: the owner having moved onto another project. Why the abandonment, I have not been able to fathom.

In discussion with the marina regarding a berth for next week, it was mentioned by the office that there was another, ‘if I wanted one’…

Hmmm…. do I heck!

Ditch-crawler was asked to advertise the Finesse 24, Seaden…

But seriously, this is a boat that had everything going for her. She is in a bit of a state now, but could be refurbished with a little time and effort.

In just four weeks my mate and I completed a 40 year refurbishment to Whimbrel’s brightwork. All it takes is applied time and effort. Taking back to bare is something not done before, boy has it been a worthwhile exercise.

See: https://nickardley.com/ditch-crawler-mate-give-whimbrel-a-fortieth-anniversary-refit

So, if interested go and have a word and get your hands on a wonderful estuary cruiser…

Last year we’d decided that it was time to strip off all the boat’s varnished surfaces to bare wood and start again.

The last time she’d been ‘naked’ in these areas was prior to her first coats in the autumn of 1983!

Whimbrel’s varnished areas include the rudder, transom, sheer strakes and entire cabin sides.

During last autumn a ‘spanner’ was thrown into the plans. I was booked into a hospital for a new right knee – I went in a week early on our 45th wedding anniversary on 27th March!

After my knee operation, I worked hard at the physio exercises and was walking up to a 1km at the end of first week.

Whimbrel’s lift was duly booked for Saturday 20th May.

Before lift out I was able to enjoy two sessions sailing with The Boy and the Mate aboard, which was a great tonic.

It wasn’t long before the first fresh coats were being applied, starting with the transom and then the rudder.

I had chosen to use Le Tonkinois No.1 which is a semi man made concoction which I had winessed on several craft.

The rudder also was given nine coats!

A glitch occurred during the second week- my GP had decided I needed an additional blood pressure control tablet. They made me exceedingly sick. I lost appetite for any food, was nauseas and had blinding head aches, finally I couldn’t eat at all!

I took myself off and got an appointment. A sensible clinical pharmacist agreed. I was retching by then and had lost over a stone in two weeks…

I saw the chap after a week and he confirmed that I did not need the new tablets – it took that time for near normality to return!

As areas were stripped and sanded, varnish coating began. Pencil tick list to eight for each!

In between times, the hull was prepared. An all over sand, repairs as required going through the use of primer, undercoats and stripe coating with top coat. Leaving the final coat for when ready.

Having completed stripping for England and sanding for the World the mate morphed into Bilge Babe…

During the whole time ashore we had to cope with a generally easterly wind pattern and with the very dry conditions the club’s yard was a veritable dust bowl.

The majority of drivers passing us acknowledged this and passed by slowly, however, a significant minority gaily traversed the yard at a speed well above the posted 5 mph. I had to remonstrate with some.

After a ‘bad day’ we got hold of a collection of cones to screen the boat and made up a big sign saying ‘Slow’…

The cones and signs had no effect on many of the minority! One driver actually sped up followed by a white van. I shouted in frustration as I slammed brush down to fetch white spirit and cloths… a lady came back and apologised…

Several times lengths of varnish had to be wiped and redone – when going sheer strakes mainly. It was frustrating and annoying.

While away sailing for a week after the boat was launched and upon reflection, because we have never had a comfortable time with the club’s hierarchy, I made a formal complaint. It took several emails to get an acknowledgement … typically showing the club’s institutional attitude.

Another ‘bug-bear’ was the arrival of an email from my publisher with the final corrected book draft.

The next stage is a QA check and conversion to print files, when I will see the whole book together with covers…

Tired as I was, the job had to be done. I was still sick too, but checking against corrections had been the easiest of this publisher’s processes… Hey Ho!

My birthday – 68th – came round and because we could not be away sailing aboard Whimbrel, Christobel had organised a wonderful day aboard the spritsail barge Hydrogen, following the Blackwater & Smack matches.

It was a wonderfully relaxing day.

The ‘holiday’ over, it was back to work. Even on my actual birthday day, we went down early to re-coat all areas needing them!

The rest of the day was then ours to enjoy together…

With time moving on, I judged we would be ready for a launching this coming weekend and duly booked with the head of our club’s compound and moorings team.

All varnishing having been completed, the side and poop decks were prepared, meanwhile Christobel had graduated to supreme chief cleaner, working her way through the boat…

Today, we jointly finished our respective tasks!

The inside has had various areas of varnish redone. The loo compartment had been completed the week before my knee op … and Christobel’s home-sewn curtains are a treat, matching the berth and cushion colour beautifully!

So, on Saturday 17th June, just four calendar weeks after lift out, Whimbrel looked as good as the day she left Alan & Shirley Platt’s yard in the Daws Heath woodland paradise that surrounds our home on the northern edge of Hadleigh.

I am sure they and the family would be proud.

Forty years on from ordering Whimbrel, we are exceptionally happy…

Thank you, Alan & Shirley…

Some weeks ago I managed after a bit of an effort being taken for a ‘web ride’ to obtain an update for the Garmin GPSMap carried aboard Whimbrel.

See: http://nickardley.com/ditch-crawler-wants-to-thank-satnav-helpers

That was early in my knee replacement rehabilitation. Having since reached the boat, been for a sail even and completed a job of tensioning the engine belts, my mate in escort mode, carted all our life jackets and charts ashore for checking/correcting.

Upon perusing the Imray web site I soon discovered that my set of charts would need to be replaced, as edition was no longer supported. There were changes that I considered important.

I initially contacted a chandler regularly used – they failed to respond to calls and messages … great!

Series 2000 and 2100 were duly ordered direct from Imray. They were delivered one hour before I passed the front door of the chandlery the following day in Maldon!

They were probably cheaper than those from a chandlers, and nil postage was charged. Thank you Imray.

Then, of course, there was the little matter of correcting those ‘new’ charts.

One of the major changes to have taken place over the winter is the route of the River Deben’s access to and from the sea. For a number of years it has been close in and then a long run along the shingle banks in a NNE direction, turning northwards further in.

Now, it has burst through a swatch that has been growing in prominence south of Bawdsey land point. I discussed this with a brother and a cousin crewing last year as the cousin took Whimbrel into the river for the very first time. Not sure if the helm took it all in, but I was more than relaxed about his competence, watched by my brother…

So, with the charts corrected and out of the way, the life jackets were opened out and inspected. Dates and condition of firing units and gas cylinders, creases etc, etc, carried out before all were inflated.

Then there were the fire extinguishers (including the one at the home galley!) to be changed for newly purchased units!

Rarely are these extinguishers renewed where they can be clipped to the brackets already fitted. With my cockpit unit, I fitted a ‘universal’ bracket some time ago: provided diameter is similar, it is a straight swop.

This wasn’t the case in the cabin at a unit located by the companionway entrance. One of the bracket screw holes was different – making a hole filling, sanding and a varnish touch-up before job completion!

I fired off a couple of the old ones – both worked!

All of these jobs are necessary, whether replacement or inspections, during a boat’s annual ‘servicing’ – they are not onerous and give peace of mind.

I take various family members and friends sailing aboard Whimbrel so I feel such things should not be put off: it is a responsibility and a duty of care…

Not many people know much about the history of the Coastguard. It was formed in 1822 by the amalgamation of three services set up to prevent smuggling. Often the individual services were acting against one another in effect assisting the smuggling gangs.

As boaters, we are all mostly aware of the presence of the Coastguard at various times, listening to the forecasts, perhaps seeing their cutters in the distance and the rather smaller RIB type vessels closer up. Marinas are often used for mooring…

Since the 1820 professionalisation the service has been saving lives along the UK coast and at sea, as well as coordinating rescues for those in distress in international waters.

With the advent of the telephone a 999 emergency system came into being in 1937. A caller had only to call the operator and ask for whatever service needed or just state the emergency and operator directed…

However, public knowledge has been on the wain so back in 2018 a campaign was launched, based around a seaside cartoon type postcard couple…

See:

Joe and Petunia say “Dial 999 and ask for The Coastguard”

Clearly, the lack of awareness has continued to spiral downwards. It has been said that around 50% of people living in the UK don not understand this system or service, or even have any knowledge of it.

For seafarers this is a damning as it could mean literally life or death…

Now, I have been one who ’caused’ a call to be made, but it was made by a person who didn’t understand what we were doing. I had sailed Whimbrel onto a bank. It being shallow, jumped overboard to push boat’s bow round – I succeeded, but the tide still left us high and dry. A lady ashore (On Mistley Quay) called the Police/Coastguard – a life boat pitched up…

Told about in an article published by Yachting Monthly and retold in full in my forthcoming new book…

We were not in any danger.

The coastguard duty officer in discussion with my good mate (a local sailor himself and professed to grounding more than once) gave some excellent advice: If you go aground and are not in danger, let the Coastguard know so that if reports come in they can stop unwanted dispatch of emergency services…

They had this conversation at around 0100 the following morning as we reported floating and clearing away…

But the 50% figure has caused and a new website has been launched to promote awareness of the 999 service.

See:

HM Coastguard launches website to promote awareness of 999 service

When the Maritime and Coastguard Agency slimmed down its shore stations in a fit of modernisation with a centralised centre ‘somewhere in Hampshire’ from where experts , we are assured, will know a dinky little creek off a tidal waterway anywhere … many of the old CG Stations were taken over by an organisation called the National Coastwatch Institution. Many ex MCA staff transferred upon retirement – it is a volunteer organisation.

A branch opened at Holehaven – a singularly dire choice where other than big ships travelling by, little happened! They talked there way into hiring a chunk of the Island Yacht Club hardstanding, out on its south-eastern corner. A much more appropriate spot to gaze over the areas used by the general public.

The display I saw at my local library appears to be in conjunction with the new MCA initiative.

Like may organisations, the National Coastwatch are after your sevices!

So, if interested, look them up in your area and there may well be a local station.

Now this leads me onto the helping hand that has, by tradition, been freely given by one seafarer to another, for generations – the lore of the sea…

The above attempt to tow a ‘stricken’ vessel was made in 2020 during the Covid spring, when sailing was granted. The tow rope was my quickly joined mooring warps – dropped by our club workboat when they arrived to try and help. I never got the warps back from the Benfleet YC boat – it is told about in forthcoming book!

Sailing alone on a fine day with a good sailing breeze I was gazing at a little cabin cruiser going along when her mast folded at the hounds and collapsed.

There were many powered craft zipping about and a fair spread of sailing vessels. Other than myself, NOT a single one took any notice!

I sailed over to ask if they were okay and if their prop was clear. With their assurances, I left them puttering back towards leigh – all told about in my forthcoming book.

Now, recently, I heard, a vessel from my own club had run aground on a mud bank in Hadleigh Ray. They were returning to the Island YC after being ashore elsewhere. The bank, Bird Island, sits in the Ray Channel abreast of Two Tree Island and Marks Marsh Island.

I named it years ago and it was taken up be a chap at the Benfleet YC who surveyed the waterway from Benfleet YC to the Leigh Buoy – see BYC web site. I also produced a chartlet years beforehand marking where the buoys sit in relation to creek banks/gut way. It remains on the Island YC web site.

I have been monitoring the growth of this island fro a couple of decades and wrote to the PLA about it. The PLA denied its existence, but would look when next survey carried out!

I have sailed regularly up towards the BYC for decades and eventually ‘mapped’ the route from the seawall. There is a dished and fairly deep swatch to the north of Bird Island and Two Tree Island which is wide enough to tack through. The deeper and narrow channel runs to the south with hard steep banks.

The boat that grounded, fortunately ‘fell’ the right way, otherwise she’d likely to have suffered sinkage. The crew were taken off by the RNLI. A boat from the Island YC went out and plucked her off that night. Self-help at work.

Self-help does not appear to be the norm now though: I heard from a sailing friend about his problems with a folding propeller – leaving his mooring he found to his horror that the prop was thrashing about beneath the water not doing a lot!

‘I was drifting sideways up the creek…’ he said, ‘and called to people ashore at the Island to fetch a dinghy…’ The blokes stood and watched, doing nothing…

It was a passing kayaker who turned and sped up-stream to fetch out the boatyard boatman … my friend was taken in hand, lifted, sticky prop freed and greased and sent back on his way. Probably cost him, but help could have come from closer to home.

But I was dumbfounded by the lack of help from my own club members.

Shame on them!

It wasn’t a RNLI or Coastguard situation, just a simple within creek incident that was ignored by ignorance and a ‘don’t care attitude’ which I find extremely sad.

Deaths due to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is something to be feared, either in the home, a rented holiday pad, caravan, motorhome or aboard one’s treasured little ship, which is this post’s perspective.

Many years ago, when Whimbrel was new, I retrofitted ‘gas’ alarms beneath the drinks rack seen in the cabin view below. They were rather expensive marine units that were wired into the boat’s electrical system. They both failed – twice – before I went looking for different units.

In time I found that the best source for such items was the caravan and motorhome world. For CO units, the world wide web has a plethora of battery operated units that have a designed life-span of around seven years. An alarm sounds when battery is flat – besides, a lack of the tell-tale winking light is a damned good sign!

I have a gas alarm fitted low down under the step into the cockpit to tell of any butane/propane gas leakage. Incidentally, we have found that both will operate under ‘test’ should the mate’s underarm spray reach a sensor!

I was aghast to read in a marine industry editorial about the deaths of two boating folk in a Southampton Marina earlier this year. They were on a winter weekend. They had run the engine, a petrol unit, to charge batteries and get everything in order for a day afloat the next day.

However, during the evening/night, bothe passed away…

The report came up with the probable reason and, the fact that no alarm to monito carbon monoxide had been fitted.

See here:

Fit a carbon monoxide detector: Warning issued after Port Hamble fatalities

The number of deaths investigated by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has rapidly risen giving cause for concern.

On inland waterways craft, they are a necessity for a licence…

The most tragic side of this is the fact that a unit can be obtained online for a pittance – £15 – buys a unit lasting seven years and operates independently of the boats power system.

Be warned, if you do not have a carbon monoxide alarm, fit one. Funeral costs a darned sight more than the fifteen quid for a little box of electronics…