Mayday, Mayday ......

MayDay, MayDay ......, a set on Flickr.

On holiday in Devon, near Salcombe. The house we were renting was literally 10 yards from the sea, and one Saturday afternoon, the gentle rustling of the waves was interrupted by a siren. Looking out of the window, we could see a largish boat wallowing in the sea about 5 yards form the shore.

It gradually sank into the water, and very soon, the local Coastguard vehicle and lifeboat appeared, as well as a sizeable posse of local people, all hell bent on sorting it out. Over the next couple of hours, as much of the boat's contents as possible were recovered, but it all got in a fair old pickle in the water. At the same time, the local youths set about getting a very thick rope around the hull to allow a JCB brought onto the beach by a local fellow to haul the sunken vessel up the steep slope onto the beach.

This took a fair length of time, because the rope did not want to stay in place, but with a good deal of determination, they finally managed it.

Meanwhile the poor souls who owned the boat were looking at all this going on with a bit of a shell shocked attitude, as what started out as a gentle potter around the South Devon Coast turned into a fair old nightmare for them.

It turned out that the boat's prop-shaft seal had gone and that had started to let considerable quantities of water into the rear of the boat. When the owner realised what had happened, he rammed the throttle wide open and tried to run it onto the beach before it sank, failing by about 5 yards.

The rest, as they say, is history.