DOWN AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA ! ! !

Alnmouth in Northumberland is a superb stopover for a bilge keel boat in a very, picturesque setting.  We had sailed our 17ft bilge keel Allouette, “Duet 2” into the river for an overnight stop whilst on passage up the North East coast to Dunbar. The entrance is very difficult to see until high tide, which is when we made our way in and found a suitable spot to drop the hook as close to the North shore as we could.

We inflated the dinghy and rowed ashore to explore.  On returning to the dinghy we found both the dinghy and “Duet 2” high and dry and well above the receding tide.  Given the type and amount of exploring that we had done it was fortunate that we did not need to risk using the dinghy to get back aboard.

Never one to leave well alone I decided to take the opportunity to move the anchor, lengthen the warp, and dig it in by hand, just to be on the safe side, and also while Mick made a brew and a bite to eat.

The following day dawned (earlier for Mike than myself, insomnia must be terrible to live with), bright and sunny and by breakfast time we were just about to refloat in water as clear as gin.  As I said, never one to leave well alone I decided to remove and clean the spark plug from the outboard motor mounted on the transom, and in doing so managed to drop our only plug spanner over the side into the water. Mike was his usual cheerful and helpful self “you dropped it, you get it back!” he said without even looking up from his breakfast.  This shouldn’t be too difficult, I thought, I could see the spanner glinting on the bottom. As we had only floated off the bottom ten minutes earlier, I calculated, that as we only draw two foot six and we had only been afloat a very short time then the water must only be waist deep.  Furthermore I could see the offending tool clearly so all had to do was remove my shoes and trousers, lower myself gently into the water and pick up the spanner with my toes. Easy !!!!  I undressed, rolled up my shirt and slid sedately into the waist deep water, RIGHT OVER THE TOP OF MY HEAD !!!!!

What I had not taken into account was that as the boat had floated off it had swung  out into mid stream in line with the previously moved anchor.  In the perfectly clear water the spanner would have been visible in just about any depth on the clean sandy bottom.  I shot out of the water like a rather portly Polaris missile, clearing the water without even touching the boarding step and landed on the transom wide eyed and breathless and quivering with an exclamation of “Jesucrissasscold”.  Mike was as laid back and helpful again, Stop Bu----ing about just get back in and get the spanner!” again without looking up from his breakfast. So the moral of the tale has got to be - if it’s not broken don’t mend it!

Brian Ferguson