Like a boat out of Hull...
A whole bunch of years ago having recently split up with a girlfriend and really welcoming the distraction, my old friend Johnny (web site for his new boat can be found here: www.enigmasailing.co.uk/) talked me into coming along as crew for a summer of sailing the balmy...uh...thats is to say brown river Humber. Things were going pretty good on the whole, but I was a complete novice at this game. We set out on a big trip down to Grimsby for a couple of days. As we sailed down the river, just a couple of miles east of Paull, Johnny had gone below (fnar) to write up the log, and I was left helming when one of the big ol' cargo ferries came barrelling up river, trying to get in before she lost the tide. She was certainly going faster than anything I'd seen on the river before or since. As she got closer to us, I couldn't help noticing this WALL of brown streaming out behind her.

"Johnny. Wake line approaching. Its a big one" I shouted below

"It'll be ok" came the reply. "Just point her nose into it like you've done before"

"Mmmm. Ok. It is a bit bigger than any one I've seen before"

"I'll be up in a minute"

So I steared on. The rags lovely and full making 7 or 8 knots straight at this wall of Humber.

"Its a big wake, amigo" I called

"In a mo."

The noise of the ferry blasting past us at about 25 knots got Johnny out the cabin quicker than you could blink, and he grabbed the tiller for grim death all the while shouting "shhhhiiiiiiiittttttt!"

The wall of river bore down on us, and we held on best we could. The boat started to raise over the huge wave, at one point the WHOLE of her 23ft length suspended on this wave, before she slammed down into the trough behind, and then she started to raise again, only less so, this time, and again, until finally the river settled down and we continued on our way.

As I popped down below to change my strides, Johnny, salty old sea dog that he is, commented "That was a big wave, wasn't it?"
(TC, Tue 27 Feb 2007, 17:33, Reply)