Sir, – I would like to profess my profound and heartfelt thanks to two kayakers who played the Good Samaritan for a gent of a certain age, namely myself, on a dismasted Laser that was foundering and drifting back out to sea in the powerful current of Dalkey Channel the weekend before last.
Resolutely ignored for two hours by a veritable flotilla of passing yachts, fishing dinghies, motorboats, diving skiffs and even fellow sailors, the skipper of the Laser saw Holyhead in his future unless he somehow paddled his way closer to shore.
As I finally approached the rocky strand north of Killiney beach, I spied the kayakers, and they spied me. They counselled me not to land, since they said I would never get off the shore, and instead proffered me a line. I grabbed onto it for all my life was worth, and they towed me round to Coliemore Harbour, valiantly battling wind, waves and the outgoing tide.
As they dropped me off, Katie, for that was the name of the female half of this two-person kayak couple (whose male partner’s name has slipped my mind under the circumstances) quipped, “We’re the post-Celtic Tiger coast guards.” And would there were many more like them who realised that safety at sea is everyone’s business. – Yours, etc,