The forecast on Friday night was force 5-7, possibly 8 later. It was a mistaken sense of duty, then, that made the organiser turn up at the Medway Yacht Club, which had kindly agreed to allow DCA members to launch there at high tide on the Saturday morning. Expecting a negative reply, which would have allowed him to go home to watch Wimbledon, he asked the secretary whether anyone had turned up. “Oh yes,” he said, “a Mr Jones and his wife arrived twenty minutes ago.” A short search found them, busy-tailed and bright-eyed and with their mast already stepped. As David and Jenny, when attending the last rally a month before, had sailed from Bradwell to Heybridge, the whole length of the Blackwater, using an oar instead of a rudder (broken on launching), and had then sailed back again in similar fashion two days later in force 5, he knew it was no use trying to persuade them to return home. Accordingly two boats set off for a brisk cruise in company. A couple of miles on their way, a shout from windward revealed Jason Friend and David Smith, in a YW Dayboat, charging upstream, having crossed the Thames Estuary from Two Tree Island behind Canvey the previous day. So now there would be three.

Temporary shelter had to be sought on the way in Shalfleet Creek, as the creek leading to our resting place didn’t flood until LW + 2 hrs. Eventually, however, after Jason had arrived, all three dinghies settled into the side of a creek comfortingly surrounded by saltings. Happy Hour took place with the aid of a box of wine and the participants ensconced on the salt marsh, with buoyancy aids as seats. Entertainment was provided by a Sea King helicopter rescuing a yachtsman half a mile away. It later transpired that he had got a rope round his propeller, had had a finger cut off by the blade of the propeller while clearing it, and had then had a heart attack. Well, these things happen in threes, don’t they?

And so to bed. The organiser was woken at 1.30 am by a maniac rigorously shaking his mast. It proved only to be the wind. Later he woke expecting to find the tide half filling the creek — but the creek alongside was deep and dry. The strong SW wind had delayed the flood for well over the hour. He kept his misgivings to himself and was rewarded by more than a sufficiency of water in due course. A minimum of two anchors per boat were recovered, and the Upnor pair departed with an hour of the flood still to run.

Jason and Dave sailed down to Sheerness a little later to have a look outside. They didn’t like what they saw, found a mooring in the Swale at Queenborough, and managed to get a lift back to fetch their car and trailer. When they returned, the conditions had got so bad they hardly would have been able to reach the mooring, let alone recover the dinghy. They eventually got their boat ashore on Monday morning at 9.30 am.

The other two dinghies, helped by only having to buck a neap tide, did at last reach their destination under sail. One who shall be nameless cheated a little by motoring the last mile to catch up the flying Joneses. We landed our dinghies with a glow of satisfaction that only a spell of laboured discomfort can buy.

(Attending: Beaufort 16 — David and Jenny Jones YW Dayboat — Jason Friend/David Smith Roamer — Peter Bick)