Dispatches

  It was 2am and I was crewing on a yacht delivery bound from Gibraltar to Edinburgh when I was rudely awoken by the skipper with this weird request. Initially, I thought this apparently straight laced man was after offered one of the men a cup of tea. He visibly deflated. ‘You haven’t got anything have you?’ Later, over tea, they explained how they had tracked us since Gibraltar and our brief stop off Finisterre had convinced them we were up to no good. ‘The thing is you can tell as soon as you speak to someone if they’re smuggling – you were way too relaxed.’ We grinned. ‘One thing,’ he added, ‘did you know we were following you last night?’ ‘Yes of course!’ I said, not thinking. The skipper glowered at me but our boat to pieces.