‘Towing risks damage, so plan the process carefully’
The 14ft dinghy was in a nasty trap. With the other sailing school boats, its crew had sailed across Plymouth Sound, around Devil’s Point and up-river past the naval dockyard, but on the return passage they misjudged the ebb tide and were drawn against the bows of two moored lighters. Luckily, they managed to grab the heavy Admiralty mooring buoy to prevent themselves being sucked between the hulls, where the mooring chains and churning current could have capsized the dinghy and pulled them under.
I was on the sailing school launch with Jack, the senior instructor, for a kind of floating interview as I had applied for a summer job. When he asked: ‘Can you throw a rope?’ this looked like being the key assessment test.
Jack throttled back to just stem the tide, beginning a cautious ferry glide to a point upstream of the dinghy. We warned the trainees that one of them must keep hold of the buoy, leaving the other to deal with our rope, even if it was fumbled or missed.
I took my time
