WHEN THREE SAILORS CAME KNOCKING AT ISLAND WARDEN’S DOOR

A NATURE warden has told of his shock when three sailors who’d been on a night out knocked on his door on a remote Welsh island – and how he sobered them up with cups of tea and warm porridge.

Ecologist Richard Twining revealed that the three seamenwere washed up on his island cold and soaking wet after their night out went “horribly wrong”.

Mr Twining, an ecologist volunteering on Flat Holm, off the coast of Cardiff in the Bristol Channel, was making his breakfast at the island’s only farmhouse when he heard a knock on the door.

Richard, 29, said: “When you’re on a deserted island you don’t expect a knock on the door. There were these three wet guys and they were particularly cold. I made them comfortable and gave them blankets, some porridge and a cup of tea.”

The two seamen and their skipper had been hoping to go for a pint on dry land in Minehead, Somerset, after a rough crossing on the cargo ship Alana Evita, which was sailing from Hamburg to Avonmouth. But they misjudged the strong tidal surge of the Bristol Channel and their inflatable dinghy took them to Barry.

The trio – including Dutch captain Philip Verhoeven – later attempted to sail back to their ship, but instead washed up on Flat Holm, a usually uninhabited island.

Richard said: “Once they were safe and secure we phoned the coastguard and then we met the RNLI rescue boat on the beach at the same time. It was a very happy ending – they were really nice guys.

“They’d had a real pasting coming over from Hamburg and they thought they could just go for a pint and it all went horribly wrong – as it does sometimes.”

Flat Holm has one official resident –

island warden Mat Brown – but even he only spends three weeks out of every four at the farmhouse.

After landing in Barry the three men realised they had missed last orders, so tried to secure a hotel for the night.

They were turned down by two hotels because they were wet and weren’t carrying passports but eventually found a place to stay.

Mr Brown, 29, said: “At 2.45am they had a knock on the door from police, saying their boat was about to float away, so they went out again to get back in the boat, which had

not much fuel.

“It was dark and foggy but they eventually found a buoy and tied themselves to that before setting off again and landing on Flat Holm. They were very lucky we were here. We are only on the island three weeks out of four.

“I asked the men if they would be in trouble with the captain when they got back and one very sheepishly told me, ‘I am the captain’.”

The three have since returned to their ship, after thanking the rescuers for their kindness.