We were out last night, both boats, looking for something..........you see, someone had left a rope hanging over the cliff near Anvil point, tied securely at the top but attached to nothing at the bottom. Being as it was a climbing rope it was thought prudent for us to go and have a look and see if there was anything lying at the bottom or in the water near the bottom. Luckily it turned out there was nothing there. So we went home.
And then this morning we were called out again. Only it wasn't, as we expected, to go and look for the same missing something. Instead, to confound our expectations, it was to assist a yacht which had become attached to some fishing net. This sounds trivial but it was securely around their propeller and rudder so they had no steerage or motive power. Like good sorts they had tried to sort things out by themselves but despite going into the water armed with a knife, had failed to achieve any success. Thus they were well and truly 'Not Under Command' and in sore need of our assistance.
As we drew close we began to realise that they were no strangers to adversity on the high seas. From a distance their mast looked unusually short. Once I got aboard and chatted with the owner I got the full story. It turns out that on passage from Bermuda to the Azores they had been dismasted!, they had then made for the Azores under jury rig, made some repairs then continued to the UK. Last night crossing the channel from the Channel Islands to the south coast of England they had encountered further trouble............I only hope that bad things don't come in threes for them.
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