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Amusing Story
Competition – Talisman
By Clive
While
sailing through the Danish Islands with Mary and David, we planned to spend the
night in Troense, a very pretty harbour laying up a shallow, winding passage between
a group of islands.
The
Danish Pilot book advised staying in the buoyed channel until you pass the third
port hand mark, then take a sharp left turn out of the channel and head across
the shallows straight for the harbour. On arrival we found a steady current of
about 1 knot flowing between the islands in spite of the absence of tide in the
area – this would have to be accounted for when taking the sharp left turn.
With a
keel of 1.6 metres we were nervous about leaving the channel and even more nervous
about the possibility of grounding on the shallows and being pushed by the current
into further trouble with no tide to get us off later in the day. So when we saw
a local boat go for the harbour several buoys earlier than expected we decided
to cautiously follow him. The depth of water decreased rapidly and panic set in
– we raced the engine in reverse and shot back out into the safety of deeper water
– all feeling more nervous.
Mary
then spotted two orange leading marks, one on the jetty head and the other up
the wooded hill, we consulted the pilot but no could find no mention of them.
However, we lined them up, powered the engine to counter the cross current and
turned across the shallows straight into the harbour – success!
We tied up, tidied up and relaxed.
Later
that evening while drinking beer in the cockpit, I happened to be looking up the
hill at the higher orange leading mark which was mounted on the wall opposite
a hotel. A door opened, the hotelier came out, drove his van close to the leading
mark, opened up the back door, picked up the leading mark , loaded it into the
van and drove off. – The leading mark of course was a pile of orange beer crates!
We all looked at each other, thought for a moment, then gulped.