Betrayal Book 03

Chris came on deck and shouted in my ear, so loud was the wind. "She's the fishing trawler Northern Star out of Stranraer. They've lost power to their main engines and drifting towards the reef over there!" pointing shore wards. By this time we were close enough to see the figures in life jackets scrambling around the deck desperately trying to loosen the ties on their life raft. I looked shore-wards and realised that unless they managed to restart their engine PDQ they were destined for the rocks within the hour. I handed the wheel over to Chris and went below to talk to her skipper. He agreed with my assessment of their situation and asked us to stand by in case they had to abandon ship. His engineer was working on what he thought was a blocked fuel line and hoped to get going again shortly. I also talked to the Coastguard and they informed me that a RAF Search & Rescue chopper was inbound and should be with us in five minutes or so. The local RNLI Lifeboat had also launched but they were at least forty five minutes away.

Back on deck, I made sure Chris and Toni had secured their life lines and checked the sky for the helicopter and was relieved to see her charging towards her with her huge searchlight illuminating the sea around us. I was not sure if this was helpful as it also made me realise just how big the waves now were. TAGHTA was struggling to keep station with the drifting trawler and we were really getting knocked about. I clambered over to Chris and warned her not to get too close as she could crush us if her net hawsers were to part. Chris acknowledged this and moved TAGHTA a bit further off her port side. By positioning ourselves there, we had a little more protection from the wind and rain, as the trawlers hull was between TAGHTA and the worst of the elements. The down side was, this position placed us between her and the ever closing shoals! I checked again and the warning buoy was only about five hundred yards away and I was getting seriously worried. The skipper of the Northern Star needed to make a decision in the next few minutes or we would all be on the rocks!

When I was below, I switched the radio to the cockpit control and put it on loudspeaker so we all could hear the communications between the rescue services and the trawler. It was a great relief when we heard the Northern Star confirm her engines had restarted and they had steerage again. We started to turn away, when the Helicopter crew informed us that one of the Star's crew had fallen overboard. I turned back to look and spotted him in the helicopters floodlight, bobbing about in the trawlers wake. Chris had also spotted him and instinctively turned TAGHTA towards him on an intercept course. We reached him before the helicopter could deploy their winch man to rescue him, but without their searchlight we would have been unable to keep sight of him. Chris timed her approach to perfection as we caught him with our boathook right at the top of the wave and started to pull him in. We had some difficulty in actually getting him aboard as the waves were tossing us about as if we were a cork, eventually we were successful and were relieved he was still moving his arms to grab us when we got him alongside. TAGHTA was shipping a lot of water and when we opened the hatch to the cabin, water cascaded in. Once aboard, I helped get him below decks and started to strip off his clothes. I left Chris and Toni to look after TAGHTA and take us to the safety of Loch Ryan. The cold sea temperatures at this time of year meant that our guest was running the risk of hypothermia and though he was still conscious, his teeth were chattering too hard for any speech to be possible.

I had his life jacket and outer coat off before I realised that he was in fact she, but this was no time for debate, I had to get her out of the wet clothes and some heat into her before she lost consciousness. I stripped off her jacket, pullover, over-trousers and jeans beneath and started vigorously rubbing life back into her limbs. When she started to complain, I realised that she was capable of doing the rest herself, so I handed her a towel and went to check what was happening on deck. The sea was a lot calmer as we had reached the shelter of Loch Ryan. I sent Toni below to help out passenger while I contacted the Coastguard to tell them she was alive and recovering. The helicopter had departed and before they left, I thanked them for their assistance.

The captain of the Star came on and could hardly speak, the emotion in his voice was very plain to hear. He told us that the woman's name was Mary, Mary Adam and that she was his daughter. We agreed that she would stay with us until we reached Stranraer where we would both be mooring. It took us about half an hour to reach harbour and found that what seemed like half the town had turned out to meet us. We were allocated a berth on the pier to tie up to and people were cheering when Mary came on deck wearing some of Chris's dry clothing and began to wave to them and she practically leapt into her father's arms as soon as we tied up. After he had disentangled himself, he formally introduced himself as John Adam and gave each of us a huge hug. He could not express his thanks enough and to see his obvious joy was a pleasure I would remember all my days.

I was exhausted and when I looked at Chris, I could see she was also drained. I told her and Toni to get below and change into some dry clothes; I was treating them to a large steak and chips tonight or so I intended, but the skipper and crew of the Star had other ideas and it was they who insisted on treating us to the meal. I was glad to see that Mary suffered no ill effects from her ducking as she was so happy with life that evening and never talked telling anyone who would listen about her rescue. Later that night, and after a few drinks, we were too tired to notice that our bunks, bedding and the clothing we had discarded earlier were all pretty damp, but we slept the sleep of the dead despite the cold clammy conditions. Yacht folk get used to such minor irritations, I guess we had all experienced similar conditions before.

The following day, it was still too stormy to venture out and in any case we had a load of broken crockery to replace. Toni drew up a list as Chris and I pulled the damp clothing and bed linen that had suffered during the storm and put the lot into plastic bags. The local laundry-mat was going to be busy this morning. Once the clothing and bedding had been delivered safely to the laundry-mat, we set about trying to dry out the rest of TAGHTA. The bilge pump had worked so the bilges were fine, but the main cabin was pretty damp and I borrowed a little portable dehumidifier from the local chandlery and set it to work. The amount of water this little unit absorbed was amazing. That left only our mattresses to be dealt with. I hauled them up onto the deck and stood there wondering what to do with them, when Mary came over from the Star and suggested we take them up to the local fish processing factory. They had a large boiler house and the owner was her uncle. She was sure he would let them use the heat from the boilers to dry out our stuff.

Mary ran off and returned with a van and we heaved the mattresses into the back and transported them to the factory. He was more than happy to oblige the crew that saved his favourite little girl's life and had his boiler-man deal with it. He told us to come back in a couple of hours when they would be dry once more.

We returned to the quayside to find Matt waiting for us with a full camera crew. We were not expecting to see him until we reached Plymouth. He told us excitedly, "The footage from the deck cameras was absolutely marvellous, I can't wait to see the footage from the below decks ones. If it's as good as what came from the other three, we will have a sure fire introduction to the series!"

I was stunned, I looked at Toni and she explained, "I switched them on when we saw the first flares go up, but I forgot all about them in all the excitement."

That explained why Matt arrived so unexpectedly, he had once again spotted the chance to capitalise on the rescue and promote his series. I was not too concerned, that was his job but I made a mental note to take some measures ensure the transmission of the data could only be triggered to operate by a key switch interlock. I was more concerned about the transmission of unedited or unplanned events could lead to some embarrassing incidents!

Matt took me to one side and asked, "How do you do it? This is the second rescue you have pulled off in under a year!"

"Just lucky, I guess, but two are more than enough for a life time, so in future, I'm not getting involved in or putting TAGHTA in a position where events like that can arise!"

We were sitting at the computer aboard TAGHTA reviewing the footage from below decks and had reached the part where the sex of our passenger became apparent and I realised that she had to agree to this footage being shown. In my haste at the time, I didn't notice just how much of her body was exposed to the camera's lens. We discussed this and Matt agreed with me so I asked Chris if she would go and fetch her.

Mary and her father came over together. Mary was rather self-conscious when she came towards as the cameras were still present and recording everything. The huge support van was still parked on the quayside. We met them at the dockside and went to the van to view the video as it had the facilities to house us all. TAGHTA's tiny cabin would not have accommodated us. I introduced her to Matt and he briefly explained what it was all about. We explained how the cameras worked and he stressed that I was unaware that the cameras were operating during the rescue the previous evening. He then asked if anyone minded if they continued to record during this session, as he wanted to see our reactions to the scenes he was about to show us. We all consented and Matt waved the cameraman over to start recording. None of us, other than Matt had seen the footage transmitted overnight and when he then played the video as seen from the deck cameras, I think that we were all shocked at the ferocity of the storm. TAGHTA was pitching and rolling so much that at times the camera locked on the helicopter and others when we were staring at the rollers as they burst over her bow. There was one final shot however, taken by Toni with the hand held as we approached Mary struggling in the water. It was only a brief shot as Toni had to put the camera down to assist me hauling Mary aboard to safety. She had also shot some footage as the helicopter bore away to return home. They were remarkable shots given the conditions and darkness surrounding her after the departure of the helicopter.

That brought us to the scenes below decks and Mary and her Dad sat silently through the next ten or so minutes, up to where I realised that Mary was in fact female. They all had a laugh at my expense at that point as the expression on my face was priceless and it helped relief the tension that had been building.

The footage had continued when I had left and Mary was joined by Toni who helped her get stripped and into dry clothing provided by Toni from her rucksack. Luckily, most of this footage displayed Mary wrapped in towel or had the images blocked by Toni standing in front of the camera, blocking it's view. Toni assured us that she had forgotten all about the camera at that point and her positioning was purely fortuitous. I looked to her Dad and he was sitting there quietly with tears running down his cheeks, I think watching the video had made him realise just how close he had come to losing her. Matt asked him first, if he would consent to letting Inter-video use excerpts the clip from inside the cabin.

He looked again at his daughter and said. "This is not my decision to make. Mary will decide that! I will support her decision fully."

Mary asked if there were any other clips to see and when Matt shook his head, she replied, "In that case, there's nothing to decide. You can use whatever footage you want, only you must not cast any blame on my Dad or his crew for my sudden immersion in the sea. I had not attached my safety line properly and that's why I ended up falling overboard."

Matt moved quickly to assure them both that casting any blame was not on the agenda. He then asked her Dad, "Mr Adams, or may I call you John, would you be prepared to let us interview you and your crew about the circumstances the led to this incident? We want to talk about the incident from your perspective and record your comments about the short video we have just watched together."

John Adams smiled and said, "How can I refuse you anything now? If it hadn't been for Bill and his crew, my daughter, Mary would likely be drowned. I doubt if the helicopter would have reached her in time given the sea that was running."

Chris, Toni and I left them to work out the detail, we had plenty to do to get TAGHTA shipshape again. We found the van used to transport our mattresses to the boiler-house waiting our return. We thanked the driver and he helped us take the mattresses below. They were dry and still warm as we positioned them back where they belonged. The owner of the Laundry-matt had also taken it upon herself to bring our freshly laundered bedding back and refused any payment. It restored my faith in human nature, small towns like this one still retained that respect for family and liked to demonstrate their collective gratitude for a good deed done well.

We stopped over in Stranraer for two more days until the storm had abated. Amanda journeyed up after I told her of our intention to prolong our stopover and I booked us into the local hotel for the two nights. I missed her more than I realised and judging from the passion we shared, she missed me too!

We became good friends with the Adams's and met the whole family during our brief time with them. They were interested in what we were doing and I promised to send John a signed copy of the book and a personal copy of the DVD when it was published.

It was with some reluctance that we departed and headed south once more. We made one other stop on the way south and that was at Peel on the Isle of Man. I had never visited there and wanted to see the island. We took quick tour of the island during our thirty six hour stop over before setting off once more.

The remainder of the voyage was uneventful, a fact that I for one was more than happy to see. Amanda was there to greet me when we docked and I left Chris and Toni to secure TAGHTA. I had a date with a bath and my soon to be wife. I had decided to ask her to marry me for the second time. I realised during the latter part of the voyage south, that despite her infidelity that led to our divorce, she was the only one with whom I was truly happy.