An incredible sea-story: retold as I heard it.

A friend has lovely tough 40 foot steel cutter. Not pretty and mock chi-chi inside in the way modern yachts shat out of French, German and eastern European yards are, but the kind of thing you want around you in a blow, or if you t-bone a floating treetrunk at 8 knots.

Sitting in a distant port, sipping a beer in her cockpit a very drunk man staggered along the pontoon, saw his boat (which we will call Longbow) did a double take, said he knew the story of this boat and would return with the full griff, when not seeing double.

Two days later, he returned, got into the beer again and begunned. The boat was built by a gentleman very skilled in the arts of steelwork and welding, and on her he went to sea with his 8 months pregnant wife and 18 month old daughter. One day he wife was on watch, the 18 month on deck and he below: the boat was under twin poled out headsails, surfing downwind mid-ocean.

He had that feeling that all was not well and went on deck. The 18 month old had just gone over the side. Well, sailors what would you do? Our skipper picks his wife up and drops her overboard. He had two poles to unrig, two headsails to drop on a surfing 40 footer, which he does: it obviousl takes some time, the boat belting down wind all the while. He then sails back up his course, and finds his wife - a strong swimmer, even 8 months gone - supporting their child in the water. Both were rescued, obviously alarmed but ultimately well.

It doesn’t end there: such an event must have emotional and psychological fallout. He blamed her for losing the 18 month old overboard, she resented being dumped over the transom without permission (despite it, as it turned out, being the right thing to do) and they ultimately split. He then went on to survive a shark attack in which his wrists were so mangled that his hands are all but useless. He still sails and races (I hesitate to use the phrase but this is as it was told to me) singlehanded.