Please note that the photographs of Morwena shown below were taken at a later date after we had fitted a more powerful engine! 

At the age of 40, I gave up smoking and spent 18 months smoking-money in advance, on buying Morwena an 18-foot clinker built cutter rigged Irish Glen boat. With her gunter rig, tan sails, pronounced sheer and bowsprit, she was a most attractive boat. For our first sail, my wife and our two children made an early start and towed Morwena down to Keyhaven in Hampshire from where we lived in Oxfordshire. By 11.00 am we had launched her, conditions were ideal with only a light south westerly wind as we sailed down the river and out into the Solent. The wind then became so light, I started Morwena’s ancient 3hp outboard engine in order to get back into the river, where we anchored for our picnic lunch and sailed back to the quay. After a discussion with the harbour master, we decided to leave Morwena on the far side of the river lying to her own anchor until our return the next day, we took any loose equipment such as flares, lifejackets etc off the boat and put them in the back of my Landrover.

The following morning I woke at 4.00 am as a result of our house literally shaking with the force of the wind. My thoughts immediately went out to Morwena lying to only her own anchor at Keyhaven. After a brief discussion with my wife, we decided that it would be best if I left for Keyhaven immediately to retrieve Morwena and bring her home. My old Landrover was far too slow and so I took my wife’s new car to which we had recently fitted a tow bar.

The mud at Keyhaven!

I arrived at Keyhaven just before 6.00 am and despite the strong wind Morwena was lying comfortably in the middle of the river and showed no signs of having dragged her anchor. Having connected my wife’s car to the trailer that I had left in the boat park, I backed the trailer down the slipway until the wheels were almost under water, leaving the keys in the car. I then walked over the footbridge to the other side of the river so that I could wade out to Morwena from the far bank. Once on board, I started up the outboard engine and weighed anchor to motor less than 100 feet across the river to the slipway. The wind was now blowing about force 8 from the north west, this was exactly in the direction in which I had to go, but as a result of Morwena’s pronounced sheer and her extremely ineffective outboard, I could not hold her bows into the wind. Again and again I tried but only succeeded in being blown further and further down river, away from the slipway and toward the Solent. Soon, whilst still struggling with engine and tiller I found myself out of sight of the slipway and round a bend in the river, still being blown seawards. I realised that I must either anchor, (something I should have done earlier), or secure to one of the many yachts lying to their moorings in the middle of the river. I chose the latter course of action and once I had secured Morwena, I began to reflect on what had become a worrying situation.

Firstly I have to admit I had no flares with me, nor was I wearing a lifejacket or buoyancy aid, they were still in my Landrover and anyway I had not thought it was necessary to wear one when just moving the boat across the river. It was now 6.45am on a Sunday late in September; the likelihood of someone coming past at this hour in a boat was small. Then the awful truth hit me, I had arrived at Keyhaven just after low water springs, the tide was rising and my wife’s car was on the slipway, the rear wheels just a few feet from the water, I had to get back to the car as quickly as possible, but how should I do this? I considered swimming about half a mile all the way back to the slipway but have never been a brilliant swimmer and so quickly realised that this was not a good idea. The only alternative was to take all my clothes off, except my underpants, swim across the river and then run back to the car, but between the edge of the water just sixty feet away and the riverbank was about 300 feet or more of mudflat. Would the mud support me?

I was feeling extremely apprehensive about the whole situation and very tempted to just sit there and do nothing until rescued, I then visualised the ensuing telephone conversation with my wife several hours later to explain that her new car was on the slipway at Keyhaven, but totally submerged in salt water! Not even remotely funny! Swimming to the bank was my only choice. I would love to be able to say that having taken my clothes off I plunged into the river, head first, but I did not. I lowered myself into the water slowly with a fair amount of heavy breathing caused by the combination of fear and cold water. After a short swim, I touched the muddy bottom and decided not to stand up until I was certain that the mud would support me, exploratory downward pushes with my arms soon confirmed that it would not, would I be able to wriggle across the mud? Would it support me? Again, more heavy breathing, this time entirely through fear, rather than cold or exertion. However, my confidence returned as I began to realise that my wriggling technique was working.

I discovered that there were some much softer patches that would not support me, these could be identified by their total lack of vegetation, to make my way round these softer patches I developed the technique of rolling sideways until I could move forward on less soft mud. After about twenty minutes of alternatively wriggling and rolling, I at last reached the hard ground of the riverbank and with more relief than I can possibly describe, I stood up. A quick glance at my near naked body showed that I was completely covered with a thick layer of mud and having removed a small amount of this from the face of my watch, I could see that it was now nearly 7.15 am and realised that I must get to the car as soon as possible. I began to run as fast as I could down the bank towards Keyhaven. As I rounded the last corner the car came into view on the slipway, thank god, the water level was only just under the boot and halfway up the rear wheels. As I approached the bridge to cross the river, a car pulled up at the quay, a man got out, who I recognised as being the Harbour Master, he stared with open mouthed astonishment at what must have appeared to have been a manic and naked early morning jogger completely covered in mud!

I thundered over the bridge and back towards the slipway, where I paused for just long enough to realise that I could not just jump into the driving seat of the car whilst completely covered with very smelly mud. It was then that I did the first and I hope the last really macho act of my entire life, I dived head first straight off the quay into the river, swam over to the slipway, climbed out of the water, briefly shaking myself like a dog, before climbing into the car and driving up the slipway. My only witness to these extraordinary antics was still standing with his mouth open wide in amazement, but now with just a tinge of amusement appearing on his face. I could see that an explanation was required and explained to him what had happened.He kindly offered to take me down the river in his launch to tow Morwena back to the slipway, which he said he would include in the fee for anchoring at Keyhaven overnight.

I did not make the mistake again of backing the car and trailer down the slipway until we had returned with Morwena and I had secured her to the quay.

Whilst some aspects of this story are amusing, the fact that I was being blown out to sea in an 18 foot boat in a gale without lifejackets or flares was a very dangerous situation to have put myself into, my Landrover had been parked next to my wife’s car outside the house, it would have taken a few seconds to move one lifejacket & the flares across to the car. I just didn’t think as to what might happen if my moving Morwena across the river didn’t go as planned.

Good seamanship is all about allowing for what might go wrong and being prepared for it. I did not allow for anything to go wrong, nor was I prepared for it; being on any boat without a lifejacket and flares is extremely dangerous. At that time, 23 years ago, my actions on this day would have been considered foolish but not against the law. Now however, International SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations do require that one takes certain safety precautions prior to going to sea, in addition to all of them being common sense and good seamanship, people need to be aware that failure to comply is breaking the law. In the event of a serious  accident involving loss of life, if you are found not to have complied, your insurance could well be invalidated and you could be prosecuted by the MCA (in Britain) or The Marine Police (in Portugal) and if found guilty you would not be the first person to serve a prison sentence for this type of offence.