“I’m not paying either – you can stay there”

It was 9.30 am and our smiling boat neighbour was leaving to go around into the next harbour (Falmouth Harbour) ready for the start of the race. His very friendly wife let us know they were leaving and we were all on deck with fenders.

His boat slowly moved out.

“Misery” was at the helm actively ignoring anyone on our deck.

He took his chain up as he moved forward into the marina…

CRUNCH!

Oops. His anchor winch ground to a halt. The bow of his boat dipped a little.

His anchor was stuck under (probably) our anchor chain. His boat wasn’t going anywhere from the centre of the turning area of the dock – and his winch was no match for the weight of our chain.

The dive team are always on hand here. They know that crossed anchor chains are pretty common in this tight space. The dive team sped out to offer their help. (For $60.) The normal practice is for the leaving boat to pay for any services they need on the basis that it is a lottery whether or not your anchor gets hooked with another.  But.. 

After much discussion it was ‘clear’. 

It was ‘clear’ he needed the divers. It was ‘clear’ that he would not be paying for any divers - and it was ‘clear’ to him that ‘Timeless’ would be paying for them on his behalf as it was probably the anchor chain of ‘Timeless’ that was holding his boat.

It’s at times like this that history has a way of affecting future actions. One can be conciliatory or stone faced, it just depends.

It was ‘clear’ that our friend had a race to go to and it was ‘clear’ that his boat was stuck in the middle of the dockyard whilst large yachts needed to manoeuvre.  It was also ‘clear’ that ‘Timeless’ was snuggly berthed up and would be for 4 more nights - or more

There was a stand off.

The skippers ensured that they never caught the other's eye. Who would be the first to blink?

A crowd gathered on the dockside.

The dive team RIB went back to the dock and tied up.

There were numerous discussions taking place between the crew of the fraught vessel.

We all waited….

 ..and waited

It took maybe another 10 minutes for the dive team to be called back.  They received their $60 – in advance. Our friend was free to go win his race.

..hey, we have one just like yours!

The deserted dockside wasn’t to last much longer.
That afternoon a flotilla of 5 or 6 charter boats arrived together all bearing the same flag. The crew from all these boats was made up from ‘Reservists’ of the UK Armed Services on training activities.

As it happens Les struck up a conversation with one of the crew on the boat next to ours.   “Toby”

It’s a small world. It just so happens that his parents had just purchased a new Discovery 55 like ours! To be called “Miss Discovery”.
Maybe this will be the very latest Discovery to hit the seas!

We just HAD to invite Toby onboard and compare notes. “Has your Discovery got this?” “Oh, that’s a good idea, we should do that”. “What’s the plan for “your” adventure and so on”.

Every Discovery owner has a story. Every Discovery has a purpose 

..and everyone we have met has been pretty cool too!

 We’ll be keeping an eye out for Miss Discovery in the sun-soaked , exotic locations of the world.