19th April 2009: Sailing on Thelma

We were offered another day's sailing on the classic yachts, and this time were back on Thelma. We are starting to know quite a lot of the crew, and I had a lovely day chatting to Nanda and to Tony's wife Fiona.

The sailing went extremely well for us, even down to the forecast rain holding off until we were home. Tony really is a very good sailor, and was helped by a gentleman named Bruce who sat in the cockpit planning tactics with him. Thelma crossed the line first and a leg ahead of any other boat we could see.

Our return to the dock was more exciting than usual. As we moored, an unfamiliar yacht came in beside us. A crew member had fallen off our sister ship Waitangi, and this yacht had picked her up. The poor girl was pretty shaken. It was her first time sailing and she didn't know what had happened; we later heard that the boom had nudged her off the afterdeck. She was wearing a lifejacket and was picked up quickly, so hopefully no great harm done.

After tidying the boat we went for a drink with the crew, and I got talking to a lady who had been with us on Thelma. Chatting about flat sharing and the kitchen equipment we collected over the years, she mentioned that she had lost most of her belongings when she was on a ship that sank. Gosh, tell us more about that, we said.

We found ourselves listening to a story that could have been straight out of a book. In 1982 she had been crewing on a classic tall ship which had leaky planks, and in some heavy weather the leaks had let in more water than the bilge pumps could handle. The ship sank pretty fast, and our storyteller swam to one of only two life rafts that had been released. One crew member drowned. They then waited a week (a week!) to be picked up by a passing ship that happened to see their torchlight. Apparently the captain had decided to ration the water on the life rafts to 30ml per person per day.

We were told all this in a very matter-of-fact manner. But seriously. Can you even begin to imagine?