What a surprise! Lo and behold! The rogue yacht of Discovery Bay has returned to the exact spot where her adventurous solo voyage began months ago!

I watched, amazed, as her jib unfurled in a high wind on the day she took off, dragging or breaking free of her anchor and setting her own unguided unvarying course directly for the timeshare dock - the only safe destination in the long stretch of bay ahead. There she rested a week or two until - for reasons unknown - she resumed her wandering to strand herself at Beckett Point. A thwarted ‘Mary Celeste’ seeking the freedom of the open sea.

Her arrival there was not welcome. It is said - correctly or not I do not know - that, claiming poverty, her owner refused to pay the extremely high costs of re-flotation leaving settlement to the extremely angry residents. It’s called social responsibility.

And what happened next? Her owner parked her right back where she started from, untended and insecure, so the whole performance can start all over again - as it surely will next time the wind blows hard enough. But perhaps the Becket Pointers can interrupt the chain of events? If it were left to me, and she has no value for sale as abandoned wreckage, I would put a match to her the moment she hits the beach.

Alternatively, perhaps the Coast Guard can impound her as a public nuisance and a proven danger to both shipping and shore before more absurdity ensues?

Cyril Lucas
Discovery Bay