‘We were trying to navigate a cork in a hot tub’

This was my third boat delivery to Ireland, a 1986 Dehler 101 along with the new owner and his brother as my crew.

We had reached Rosslare 12 hours ahead of the forecast bad weather, everything was going well.

It had been a long night, a slow delivery and I was quite tired. It was early morning when I tried to contact the Rosslare Harbour team on the mobile phone and the radio, with no response.

The harbour looks like a flat car park with the sea around it, and a shipping port. We were tied up next to some steel fishing boats and it seemed like the worst place to be in a storm – we would be smashed up.

I said to my crew: ‘Look guys, we’ve got two choices, either stay here and get