The Voyages of the Princess Matilda by Shane Spall

Author:Shane Spall [Spall, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781448118007
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2012-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Domestics

Weymouth to Dartmouth: 60 nautical miles

OUR ABORTED TRIP had knocked Tim’s confidence, so I knew it was imperative to get him back in the saddle, figuratively speaking, as soon as possible. We both listened to the Met Office forecast over the VHF radio. It was the same as all the websites I had been checking obsessively the whole morning.

‘This is it Tim. It’s a slight sea. We won’t get a better window, the high pressure is just what you wanted.’

‘Oh Shane, you don’t understand, if I’ve made a mistake with my calculations we could end up being bashed to buggery by the Race. And that bloke in the pub last night really wound me up. He said his mate got caught by the Race and almost sank…’

‘Tim, you know exactly what time we should round the Bill. You’ve checked and treble-checked the times, so we’d better not hang around. We should leave now, or else we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.’

‘You are quite right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go. We have to hit the Bill at exactly four hours after high tide. We’ll go on the east side for about for two or three miles. The tide should be going with us.’

I helped him into his life jacket as he started up the engine and once again we left the quay. A man on a neighbouring boat shouted to us, ‘DON’T COME BACK THIS TIME! GOOD LUCK!’

Weymouth Bay was pleasingly calm, but we knew it would be another story as we came around Portland Harbour. Over the radio we heard a ‘Mayday’ being called on channel 16. The lifeboat that had been moored just ahead of us on Weymouth Town Quay overtook us a few minutes later. Silently we watched the wake of the boat disappear into the far distance. It was an ominous start; somewhere at sea a vessel was in danger. It did occur to me that the lifeboat would now not be available if we got in to trouble.

The Princess Matilda passed the place where we had turned around a few days before.

‘You made the right decision Tim.’

‘No, I bottled it.’

‘On the contrary, you were sensible.’

We could see the lighthouse on Portland Bill in the distance. Tim had decided to take the inside route, which meant we would be seeing it from fairly close quarters.

‘It will take us an hour to get there,’ Tim said. ‘Go and put the kettle on love.’

Tim wasn’t the only one of us worrying about what we were about to do. Everyone we had spoken to had told us a horror story about rounding this infamous headland.

‘Oh we almost got smashed to pieces. You’ll stand no chance in your boat…’

‘The lifeboat brought them back; the mast was broken and the skipper had concussion…’

And in the pub just by the lifeboat station was a board with the details of the latest shout. They had plucked a crew from a sinking vessel just off the Bill.

I decided to phone Sadie while I was waiting for the kettle to come to the boil.

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