Nothing seems to bring out the willingness to help others like sailing appears to. This may be selfish self preservation of your beloved boat and your even more beloved no claims discount or just a natural instinct for kindness in the hope that some day it will be repaid, but either way it a rare breed of nobber who will sit in their cockpit while a fellow sailor is struggling.

We are currently in the beautiful National Trust area of Newtown Creek on the Isle of Wight enjoying a few days of sun and howling gales. For 2 days on the trot Lee has gone off in the dinghy to help others who had run aground. He did this by taking their anchors out and dropping them, and then they used the anchor windlass and engines (and today Lee hanging off the boom) to drag themselves off.

Each and every time others came to help without being asked, with no snide comments being made, laughing about how it happens to everyone swiftly followed by passing across a beer as if to confirm it was an everyday event that no one should be embarrassed about. I love this side to sailing.

Yesterday a boat ran aground right behind us, and after calmly hanging our fenders off Diablito our boat swung around and we offered them a Gin and Tonic as we were now within inches of each other. Lee then did his dinghy thing while another neighbour pictured below also came across to see if they could help.

The first time we entered Newtown Creek many years ago we also ran aground. There is limited detailed pilotage available for this area and so in we came, only to find ourselves aground due to missing the very narrow channel as some kind soul had moored themselves off the channel marker. Unfortunately the tide was also on the turn and not in our favour. Nonetheless we managed to get off with help from others and that day learned some very valuable lessons. Always help others and always enter somewhere new on a rising tide! When the tide fell we realised how stuffed we would have been if we hadn’t managed to get off. But we did and since then have lost count of the amount of times Lee has gone off in the dinghy here to help others in similar situations to what we have been in.

I like to think people are generally kind, and thankfully am reminded of this nearly every time we go out sailing, be it taking lines for someone mooring up, handing over spare milk or loo rolls or like the last couple of days, something a little more serious. Either way it makes me smile on the inside and outside, and smiling is always a good thing. Unless like some celebrities you don’t want wrinkles but then there is always Botox for that. But that’s another post.