Pan-Pan Pan-Pan Pan-pan


All Stations, All Stations, All Stations…

I have to say that I never thought I would hear a Pan-Pan call for real, on a boat I was sitting (well, sliding) on. For those non-boaty people reading this, it’s the emergency call one below a Mayday.

But we can always rely on our old University mate, now known as Ade (Adrenalin Tours Inc) to provide us with the best entertainment he can dream up. Our sailing trips in the Solent have always been peppered with that little edge that makes them so unforgettable.

It was an innocuous start, nine of us turn up in Port Solent for a couple of days sailing and an overnight in Cowes. Ade and Adess’s gorgeous yacht was looking immaculate, the weather was sunny and getting sunnier , the wind was a F3-4 and the tide was with us. What could go wrong?

Those of you that know the winding route out of Port Solent will have seen many a yacht aground. And that’s what happened to us. For those at the boat club who dish out bent bananas I have to say at this point that it was nothing to do with Commodore nor his lady. All of a sudden we are stationary and at a jaunty angle.  All attempts with sails and engines to alter that were to no avail, and as always it was a falling tide. A police rib waved (or was that a laugh) as it past us by.

We started off stoically, the news that it was neaps was positive, the news that it was still two hours before low water was not so positive! It was a tad crowded in the helm, and it was a big decision whether to sit facing the sky with your head about to touch the water, or stand facing the water with your whole body balancing on your toes. The good news was no-one was going to drown, there wasn’t enough water.

After a number of calls and numerous calculations and when the boat was listing at over 40 degrees Ade issued the pan-pan. And we were rescued by the RNLI! I will say that again, we were rescued by the RNLI! What a day this was turning out to be. The RNLI could do nothing to move the yacht which by this time was well out of the water, its 1.8m draft ended up in 0.5m of water and at an angle of over 50 degrees. But they did offer to take people off.

Ade and Adess and one other stayed on board and the rest of us climbed over the cliff face that was the side of the yacht and slid into the RNLI lifeboat.

To cut a long story short, we spent an afternoon shopping and eating in Gunwharf Quays, the three mariners spent a very long 6 hours on the boat before it floated and picked us up, but WE GOT TO COWES!!! Well done Ade.

And of course, all this was not so funny at the time. We know Ade was worried about the boat, and us (unnecessarily) and our thanks to him and the RNLI.

Anyways, we had an riotous and extremely alcoholic evening, an excellent meal in the Duke of York, an incident free sail back to Port Solent the next day and a trip of a lifetime (I hope!).

All thanks to Adrenalin Tours Inc.

At first it was hardly listing at all….
the angle got a little jauntier
the Chartplotter information was not encouraging
the RNLI approach
bye bye boat

on the lifeboat

lunch in Gunwharf Quays
From the Spinnaker tower you can see a white blob to the right of the top of the crane. That’s them!
our heroes
sailing home the next day… sooo uneventful

 

 


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