What a long day... Up at 5am to ensure we got the last bridge opening of the morning. Then had to wait 3 hours (moored along side a 6,500 tonne dredger) for the fuelling station to open. Took on 250 gallons of the red stuff and off we set. Good bye Whitby... hello cruel sea.
Col & I (the dynamic duo) were in high spirits as we passed Flamborough Head and Scarborough. Within 3 hours we had travelled 55 miles of the 155 planned... this was gonna be easy !! WRONG !! The North Sea dealt us it's normal hand of crap !! Force 3's & 4's soon turned to 6's and 7's and the sea took on a rather ominous character. 12 foot waves shook the the CAT by it's tail - 20 miles offshore and 35 miles passed Grimsby, there was nowhere to hide !
Following a set of three monsters, which pitched the boat 35 degrees front to back & ripped the seats off the bow rail and threw them over the top of the flybridge - we reached a point where a decision had to be made... we would not survive for much longer on our planned heading. After turning the boat downwind to steady her, some quick calculations and frantic surveying of charts offered only one safe course of action - turn back and motor Northwest back to the relative shelter of Grimsby. 35 miles in the wrong direction but potentially SAFE - I never thought I would be so pleased to see Grimsby.
On arrival we surveyed the damage to the boat... lost seats, missing falcon and most seriously - damaged hydraulic steering. There is red hydraulic fluid everywhere, so we are now stuck until we can find an engineer to repair the damage.
The only positives from today are that we raised £65 in the bar for A Passage of Hope, we will have no trouble getting to sleep and of course - we are still fit to fight another day...
Too tired to write much more... Tim & Colin xx
2 comments:
Flaming hech certainly ain't no holiday for you guys, must be incredible + scary all at once WOW FACTOR 'n' all that. Hope you got the jokes off Col - think perhaps you needed hysterical rather than humerous given yesterdays boating ! Hope you get some smooth + glassy stuff today guys...ttfn S-C
Well I'm glad your both safely back on dry land ..... sounds like you need a large drink and Stray Cat might also need a bit of TLC. Take care and I'll cross everything and hope you get some kinder weather very soon .... the North Sea doesn't sound like our usual weekend boating on the welsh coast !! Carol xx
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