Story from Mike Nunn

It was Deben “Regatta” Week in the long distance past  and I’d been racing my Popcorn mini tonner named “Cornunndrum” at Waldringfield,   it was blowing quite hard and raining and I needed to get the boat down river to Felixstowe Ferry where the Regatta was continuing the following day.

Not wanting to carry any unnecessary weight I’d left my outboard ashore.  After tea and cake in the Clubhouse, Bill Bannister and crew Vic ‘the tree’  offered to tow me to the Ferry. I collected my PVC oilies and short yellow wellies from my hut and single handed got the tow from Bill,  and we set off down river,  it wasn’t too long after that when I felt something moving inside my jacket,  and after doing a frantic ‘war dance’ a mouse dropped out into the cockpit.  I managed to get the companion way hatch in to avoid it going below, I then took off my short wellies and captured the mouse inside and put the boots together one inside the other and placed them on the side deck, by now we are passing Ramsholt. 

Needless to say the mouse found a way out and started to run forward, peering over the tow rail every now and then looking for an escape. The mouse eventually saw the tow rope and started to walk along it, by this time we’d reached the Ferry and Bill hailed that he was turning, the rope slackened and then went taught and the mouse was catapulted  into the river.

I’d like to think that he made it ashore, and maybe settled in John White’s hut.