I found out afterwards that the coastguard had used his high powered binoculars to watch us all the way to Blakeney Point, (well, as far as we dared to go in the breaking swell off the point) and right back to the bar at Wells-Next-The-Sea (Norfolk) so it isn’t logical to be secretive about the problems we had. After all, our problems arose partly because most other people seem to have been secretive about their problems and the answers to them, so it may be that my being open about our trouble may help to avert trouble for others or at least warn them.

We left Wells that morning on almost literally the last few buckets full of the ebb; several times we both had to get out of the boat - a helen (??) dinghy - and half drag it over the sandy and shingly shallows; only the last few hundred yards of the channel, as it turns north to the open sea, gave us enough depth to sail readily. As we tacked out to the north against the onshore force two, we had plenty of time to see the white breakers on both sides of the channel as the two foot high swell (presumably from the overnight northerly gales to the north of us) felt the shallows and sand banks which characterised much of this part of the coast line; clearly ahead we saw a distinct gap in the breakers through which we sailed quite easily - the swell steepened a little, and the forefoot thumped down on the advancing face of successive waves, but we've been through worse then that before.

That was our moment of decision, though we didn’t realise it at the time; that gap in the breakers was the door that shut behind us. It all seemed so straightforward, though within three hours we were to learn that it was nothing of the sort. We were caught out in more ways than one.

The direct course for our destination took us unpleasantly close to the swell as it broke on Bob Hall's Sands, the high drying banks of Wells; the breakers were noisy and frighteningly obvious even from a couple of capors (??) from seahood (??), so we hardened up in the force two or three to gain some offing. An hour and quarter later we were off the entrance to Blakeney Harbour, and were distinctly put off by the breakers which seemed to be continuous right across the harbour mouth; so despite lunchtime we went about on the reciprocal course, foregoing the half hour ashore we had promised ourselves because of the white water between us and the shore!

With a fair tide we were back at Wells Bar as the flood was really under way, but by now there was no gap in the breakers for us to sail through. To make matters worse, the wind had dropped to almost nothing; and the sea conditions were worse than I had ever experienced.

I dropped sail, unshipped the rudder and lashed everything down; my only hope was to row in stern first, keeping the boat bows-on to the breakers, which by now seemed to be five feet high. It was at this point that my nautical saviour appeared; "William Edward", one of the Wells whelk fishing boats, circled us with warnings of deteriorating conditions, and offered to take us aboard and tow the boat over the bar and into calmer waters - an offer which I accepted without hesitation, for I had no great hope of being able to avoid a back to front broach, a capsize, loss of gear, damage to the boat and possibly even loss of life. "William Edward's" skipper handled his boat with consummate skill: even when ours sheared off - I am ashamed to say I forgot to raise the centreboard, and furthermore the towing warp came up out of the bow fairlead and thus was attached to our boat only by the king post - he was able to retrieve the situation, and within minutes he was able to throttle back in the amazing calm "this side of the bar", to allow us to return to our own boat.

So ended our little adventure, without a scratch or even a pint of water over the gunwales (and let nobody dare to say God doesn't answer prayer). But why, amongst the millions of sailing works I have read, ranging from the humblest D.C.A. member's experiences to almost all the library's stock, and including Adlard Cole's definitive tome on Rough Water Sailing, why have I never seen anything helpful about crossing the bar. Will someone please write something, or tell me what has already been written? There won't always be a helpful fishing boat to hand.........