14/07/10 22:00

My worst fears were realised! It was always a big call to get from West Storthwick to Hull in one tide … and a risky strategy as we didn’t have the experience of Paul Williams with us. It all started well: we were rowing up to speeds of 10 knots and enjoying being back on Oyster Shack. The decision of trying to get to Hull seemed good.

We turned the corner called The Trent Falls, where the Trent and Ouse join together to form the Humber, at about 3 o’clock. We were under the impression it was only about 7 miles to Hull and that we had a whole hour before the tide turned. The Humber bridge loomed in the far distance and we were still rowing fast! As I came off my shift, I almost hoped the ‘A’ team would bring us in this shift.

However we had somewhat mis-calculated the distance. Although we were still rowing at 6 knots, the hour came and went without even getting to the bridge!!

The team seemed to be ignoring the eventuality of our position. Kiwi was the first to say that we should moor up alongside some boats, but as we were still gaining good ground he was ignored!

I repeatedly said we needed a plan ‘B’, but the early trip problems of having too many chiefs on board came back to haunt us as – like normal – these warnings continually fell on deaf or ignorant ears and we all did our own things!

Speeds lowered and lowered as the headwind forced us to try and crank up the pace as we came under the hugely impressive bridge. Again, it seemed not everyone seemed to realise the urgency of our situation.

We swapped shifts again, and it was now 5 o’clock – a full hour after we’d been warned not to be on the Humber without mooring and the wind and rain came down. I was so relieved to get into solitary cabin, but remarkably we could still not see the marina – and we were still ignorant of the danger we had put the boat in.

I was just falling asleep when ‘bang!’ – for the second time on our trip, we grounded.

This time it seemed the rowing team were aware we would but gave no warning, The centre board was out and, before I had opened the hatch, half the ‘A’ crew had abandoned ship! They were up to their knees in mud with ropes deployed, trying to beach the boat!!!

The reality of the situation was that the water was coming in so fast that the boat would be dashed against rocks on the nearing shoreline within the hour!!

Fortunately, we were being monitored by the Humber Coast Guard, and within moments a rig was alongside us! Dave and his merry bunch of lads were fantastic. They got a line on us and carefully pulled us away from the danger.

It still took another 2 hours to be towed the couple of miles that we had failed to row: it had been a harsh lesson. Poor Paul Wiiliams’ first sight of us was being rescued and towed into the marina!!

We’re all ready to continue our journey. We need to get the boat in order today and not ignore the force 10 gale warnings! So it’s a days rest in Hull …

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~ by celebrityrow on July 15, 2010.