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A Near Disaster
Well, first week back in Newcastle for me this week after working down Leeds for the past 4 or so months. I get a voicemail left on my mobile yesterday morning & check it on my break to find that its the mother of the chap I bought the boat off advising me that my boat has been untied & is at the other end of the harbour! 
Emergancy holiday booked in, raced home from Houghton le Spring on the bike (incidently, set a new world record I think! ) & met up with my sisters fella (who co-owns the boat), and we set off for Seaton Sluice harbour where she is moored. It was a race against time to get there before the tide got to her & I had a sick feeling in my stomach all the way, imagining all the damage caused and how many other boats it would have hit etc. let alone has it gone out the harbour mouth never to be seen again!? 
Anyway, we got there and luckily the tide wasn't quite in, so we had a look around the boat. Miraculously, there was very little damage. In fact the only damage we could find was a chip in the fibre glass near the transom on the back (looked like a rock had been thrown onto it), and on the 'bolts' where the oars slot into, one of them had came loose and the oars were no longer tied up they were just discarded in the boat so clearly someone had been out rowing in it! Maybe it was to row it back into the harbour by a good samaritain, but either way she was just sitting in the other end of the harbour when we found her, not tied up or anything so the next tide could well have taken her out the harbour mouth.
I was over the moon that she wasn't majorly damaged, so we took her back over to the moorings and found they were still intact i.e. hadn't been cut. Now there was absolutely no chance that the boat would have came free on its own, its tied up at 3 points! Clearly someone has undone the 3 knots deliberately and either had a bit row about on it or just left it to float away. Either way I am absolutely pi$$ed off and if I find the person who done it, well they will certainly wish they hadn't.
Its a little worrying as things keep happening to our boat and not others in the harbour. Whilst I wouldn't wish anything on anyone else, of course, it feels like someone is singling us out us as we've had buoys stolen, paint scratched (to the point of having to re-paint her), stones thrown onto her and now this. Also, we often used to find footprints on her which weren't left by us. We get on with everyone we have met in the harbour, and they all seem a good bunch of people, and we've never rubbed anyone up the wrong way. I called the harbourmaster but he hadn't heard of any disruptions lately in the harbour & is not back at work until Friday to be able to discuss it further (and maybe the option of moving to another mooring). There are no cameras etc. in the harbour, and no-one ever patrolling it at all, so its at constant risk. Fair enough, its cheap to moor there, and its a nice little harbour, but if this continues then I will have no option but to leave as it is becoming too much of a risk. We live 20 mins away from the harbour, so its not feasible to come check on her all the time. I asked around some people I saw in the harbour and no-one had heard or seen anything.
Anyway, just thought I would share this on here and apologies its a bit of a long winded rant, but as you can unsderstand we were very disgruntled to say the least!! Big thanks to the lady who called me though, because its been over a year since we bought the boat off her son and had she not have called then god knows what would have happened. Also, thank god I wasn't still working in Leeds! I think I would have definately missed the tide, no matter how fast I rode home!! 
All the best.
Steve.
Emergancy holiday booked in, raced home from Houghton le Spring on the bike (incidently, set a new world record I think!
) & met up with my sisters fella (who co-owns the boat), and we set off for Seaton Sluice harbour where she is moored. It was a race against time to get there before the tide got to her & I had a sick feeling in my stomach all the way, imagining all the damage caused and how many other boats it would have hit etc. let alone has it gone out the harbour mouth never to be seen again!? Anyway, we got there and luckily the tide wasn't quite in, so we had a look around the boat. Miraculously, there was very little damage. In fact the only damage we could find was a chip in the fibre glass near the transom on the back (looked like a rock had been thrown onto it), and on the 'bolts' where the oars slot into, one of them had came loose and the oars were no longer tied up they were just discarded in the boat so clearly someone had been out rowing in it! Maybe it was to row it back into the harbour by a good samaritain, but either way she was just sitting in the other end of the harbour when we found her, not tied up or anything so the next tide could well have taken her out the harbour mouth.
I was over the moon that she wasn't majorly damaged, so we took her back over to the moorings and found they were still intact i.e. hadn't been cut. Now there was absolutely no chance that the boat would have came free on its own, its tied up at 3 points! Clearly someone has undone the 3 knots deliberately and either had a bit row about on it or just left it to float away. Either way I am absolutely pi$$ed off and if I find the person who done it, well they will certainly wish they hadn't.
Its a little worrying as things keep happening to our boat and not others in the harbour. Whilst I wouldn't wish anything on anyone else, of course, it feels like someone is singling us out us as we've had buoys stolen, paint scratched (to the point of having to re-paint her), stones thrown onto her and now this. Also, we often used to find footprints on her which weren't left by us. We get on with everyone we have met in the harbour, and they all seem a good bunch of people, and we've never rubbed anyone up the wrong way. I called the harbourmaster but he hadn't heard of any disruptions lately in the harbour & is not back at work until Friday to be able to discuss it further (and maybe the option of moving to another mooring). There are no cameras etc. in the harbour, and no-one ever patrolling it at all, so its at constant risk. Fair enough, its cheap to moor there, and its a nice little harbour, but if this continues then I will have no option but to leave as it is becoming too much of a risk. We live 20 mins away from the harbour, so its not feasible to come check on her all the time. I asked around some people I saw in the harbour and no-one had heard or seen anything.
Anyway, just thought I would share this on here and apologies its a bit of a long winded rant, but as you can unsderstand we were very disgruntled to say the least!! Big thanks to the lady who called me though, because its been over a year since we bought the boat off her son and had she not have called then god knows what would have happened.
Also, thank god I wasn't still working in Leeds! I think I would have definately missed the tide, no matter how fast I rode home!! All the best.
Steve.
by the way what is the name of your boat? i,m often down for a walk and could check it for you no prob
And like you say, they all seem like a canny bunch, we've been there a year & a half now and everyone we've met so far has been spot on, so we have no reason to think it would be anything 'malicious', but then it does make you wonder when its seemingly just our boat being targetted. Could well be kids, but we definately want to get moored against the other side of the harbour. Seems less accessable than where it is now (for kids anyway). 
)
We tried putting a tarp over in the winter, but wrote it off as too much hassle. Could be that the tarp we had was the wrong shape of course, but hopefully if we can change to a different mooring it'll then spell the end to all this bad luck!
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