A French treat (or not)

Many years ago now, when young and carefree, I was part of a crew with my two older brothers sailing a Westerly GK 29 from Corsica to Cassis in the south of France. It had been a gentle sail, with nothing much to report and, being the youngest brother, I, of course was given the 0200 till 0500 watch.

Because the seas were calm, at the end of my watch I went into the forepeak to sleep and as it was warm, took my clothes off, not expecting to arrive at our destination for a good few hours. I awoke to a glorious day, the forehatch was open, but I hadn’t noticed that we had stopped moving. The GK’S forepeak is quite low, so when standing on the bunks… need I say more.

I stood up only to be facing the quayside cafes, full with people, now choking on their coffee. While asleep, we had moored bows to the harbour wall (which you could do in those days). It’s taken me this long to come to terms with what was a very embarrassing moment!