I stood down form the RNLI lifeboat crew at Tower after over 20 years on the crew last month. As we left for Cherbourg we found a young man at about 0615 in the morning swimming well over 2 miles offshore. He was struggling a bit and was glad of a ride back into Chichester… so we turned round and went back the way we came.
I phoned the coastguard to report what we’d found and try to arrange some sort of reception for him when we got ashore – he’d set off from West Wittering beach at 0430, and all his clothes and possessions were still on the beach. We could only land him at Hayling, and it’s a good two hours by car from one to the other, around the harbour, and all he had were a pair of swimming shorts. As I was speaking to the coastguard watch leader he wasn’t initially sure what to do as the guy seemed fine and was just in need of a taxi (and some clothes), but as we spoke he got a report in that a suicide note had been found by the police that related to the guy. That urge had clearly passed, as whilst a bit cold and glad of a cuppa, he’d been swimming for shore, was glad of the assistance (and very apologetic) and borrowed my phone to try and call his dad (though he didn’t get through). We headed into Sparkes marina and waited for the cavalry to arrive. They had trouble raising me by phone as it was so early my phone was still in sleep mode…. Sussex police turned up first, followed by HMCG’s rescue team (well one of them in a truck). The lovely woman police office from Sussex was torn between trying to make sure she did the right thing, ie keeping the guy safe, and the logistical problem she had that whilst he’d set off from Sussex we were all now standing in Hampshire, which has a different constabulary. She put the young guy in the back of her Sussex Police car with one of the coastguard’s blankets, and we left them to it. Only to find that the tide had now dropped too far for us to get out of Sparke’s marina… well we got out and then ran gently aground in the channel 20 minutes before low water, about 10 feet from a channel mark where we waited… The deep water turned out to be about another boat length ahead of us.
After an otherwise uneventful passage motor-sailing we tied up in Cherbourg at about 2130 local time – several hours later than we’d aimed for with our 0500 start. We spent a day recuperating and taking it easy (we’re both fighting off colds, and had been cooked in the sun on Monday) and I discovered that the engine coolant levels had dropped a fair bit on the trip. The engine had run hard for over 10 hours, but it’s meant to be a closed system. None of the local chandlers had the right coolant (and I’d not quite got round to buying any spare before we left) but on Wednesday I found a motor factors round the back of Carrefour with the right stuff (G12, if anyone cares). I think that the leak was from one of the hose joints on the engine, and that with such a slow dribble (we’d only lost about 300ml) it had all evaporated in the hot engine compartment. The hose clips are all a bit tighter now.
Tuesday wasn’t a great day: we were both feeling a bit grotty, and slightly grumpy; I had found the coolant problem; and then when taping up the split pins on the backstay to stop them cutting anyone using the boarding ladder I knocked the starlink dish only to have the nice 3d printed mounting bracket I’d made it fail. In hindsight, its good that it happened then, as it was clearly going to fail, and at least I was able to recover all the parts and not drop anything in the harbour. It didn’t feel like it at the time. To round things off I dropped a nice Wera stainless allen key in the harbour whilst unbolting the bracket. Amazon will have a nice new one waiting for me in London, but I had to buy a ‘cheap’ set in the chandlery to finish the job… I made the bracket as I just couldn’t find a commercial solution that did what I needed so there isn’t an easy replacement which leaves us only able to use the Starlink when at rest and able to perch the dish safely in the cockpit. The cables, that I’d so carefully run on Sunday morning, are now fixed and rather limit our options.
I did get to have a look around one of the French SNSM lifeboats though. It was Goury’s boat and on Tuesday they’d launched at 0400 to a British sailing boat that had been in collision with a small freighter, presumably somewhere off Cap de la Hague. They’d towed the boat into Cherbourg and put it straight into the slings of the travel hoist, as there was a decent sized hole on the starboard quarter right on the waterline. There were two decent sized pumps on board – one the lifeboat’s (looked like the same big diesel pump that the RNLI use) and I think the other from a helicopter (it had a big lifting lug on it) who I suspect had also recovered the crew, as they weren’t about. One of the helicopter crew turned up in a flightsuit, presumably to recover the pump. The lifeboat moored up astern of us as the crew headed off for a well earned brunch (it was mid morning by then) but on their return one of them was asking about Trouper and we got into a conversation, and then I got the tour. It was a very nice bit of kit, only a year old, aluminium, slipway launched, and 17m long. It carries a tender under the aft deck and has a big hydraulic towing reel as well as powered bollards that would be the envy of many an RNLI crew. The deck provides a decent sized well protected working area – it seemed really well thought out, though I’d swap its props for water jets. The cabin was air-conditioned too which was very welcome on Tuesday.
So a mixed start to the trip, but a life saved (and Kathryn’s first) and a nice meal tonight make it seem rather better, and a lovely text message from the parents of the guy we fished out rather reframes things.