Peace offering
Some years ago, we managed to moor our motor-sailer on the outside of a trot against the harbour wall in Port St Mary on the Isle of Man. The wind had risen from a moan to a shriek and had us all running shore lines to the pier – noisy, bumpy but hopefully secure. But not for long. At the height of the storm two fishing boats came round the pier head and simply pushed between the inside boat and the harbour wall. Loud roars of protest had no effect, so after much adjustment of lines, we all settled down to make the best of it. The wind kept on rising and where possible, crew were sitting on the leeward deck of their boat, bracing legs against the yacht they were being pushed against by the force of the wind. It could hardly have been worse, or so we thought. Out of nowhere on that wild night came a sail training vessel (name of boat and skipper withheld). She ploughed into us, stanchions ripped out, rigging torn from chainplates, rubber tires just about preventing damage to the hull. More yelling, ropes flung and blown away, more ropes this time finding something to tie onto. Chaos reigned. The crew of the trainer were wearing duffle coats and wellies, clearly not sea-cadets. We found out later they were a group from a young farmers’ club. Up to this point my wife had been keeping the children occupied, reading stories and trying to block out the mayhem on deck. She was stressed, end-of-tether tired and understandably frightened. So it was not a wise moment for the master of the offending vessel to send one of his people across on a goodwill mission with a cup of tea and a wodge of cake. ‘Skipper’s compliments missus. He wants to know if you’d like something for your nerves ?’
Now here’s the tip. When things are bad, there are certain actions that just go to make them worse and this was a classic. The reply is unprintable. So take a lesson from this, judge your moment well and be careful not to antagonise anyone who is at his or her limits.