FIRST CHANNEL CROSSING
Moored in Plymouth’s Mayflower Marina, Water Rat attracted more attention than any boat I have owned, invariably positive except for the ‘Admiral’, or whoever he was. “You didn’t cross the Channel in that, did you?” he said looking down at my boat. Well, I had done just that, in order to act as an unofficial committee boat for the 2023 Jester Baltimore Challenge, and to transport PBO’s Jake Kavanagh to photograph the Challenge start off Plymouth breakwater.
“Perfect boat for it,” I replied. My critical visitor would probably have said “I thought as much” if I’d added that my crossing hadn’t quite gone to plan.
All began well as Water Rat motored past Les Hanois Lighthouse en route to Plymouth. But as we closed the shipping lanes at a stately 12 knots the engine stuttered, so I closed the throttle, switched it off and looked around. Stretching out behind me, were two neat blue lines of nylon three-strand rope, 50m long. Well, I’m no hero, but I needed to sort this so I grabbed my Leatherman sailing knife, clipped the tether of my sailing harness to the stern ladder and clambered over. I felt it was too dangerous to go under the boat but by hanging on to the bathing platform I could reach towards the propeller and cut through the rope as it was, fortunately, not too thick. Water Rat is fitted with a rope cutter, so I gently motored her forwards and backwards, before moving ahead slowly building up to cruising speed. There were no strange noises, or leaks and performance seemed unaffected, so I got changed and pressed on.
Then fog closed in, much thicker than forecast, with visibility at times no more than 200m. I could see many vessels around me on radar and AIS and the Echomax did its job too, for no ship came too close as I held a steady course across the shipping lanes. Salcombe eventually appeared through the murk off starboard beam, and 7½ hours after leaving Guernsey I moored in Mayflower Marina. A few days later I had Water Rat lifted to inspect her stern gear – all was fine.