So, my story’s not about sailing, I can’t remember much about that if I’m honest. Instead, it’s about my birthday party – early nineties. It was a relatively small and unassuming gathering at that pub in Lymington, the Chequers, I think.
I’d asked a few people along, and someone – Bob Wylie, bless him – spiked my drink. Not so much spiked as gave me a half pint of vodka while telling me it was water. I was already too far gone to notice, I downed it on the understanding that I needed to hydrate… and that was pretty much all I remember.
I came back to the world in Hamble, on the sofa in the flat that you were renting. I don’t know how you got me back there… to hell with the consequences for the car and the soft-furnishings. Although I probably should have been in hospital on a stomach pump, and it was two days before I could move enough to get back to my own place.
It was a terrible experience, and apart from a handful of lapses I’ve never had more than a couple of glasses of wine in the decades since that day – but I remember your kindness more than anything. You saved me. I doubt very much that I remembered to say thank you properly back then, but I’m saying it now. Thanks, mate.
It was fantastic to talk today – I’d forgotten all about that curry contest at the Hobbler!
Mark Chisnell
Chisy as well as being a highly skilled navigator and yachtsman, has written 16 books, they’ve been translated into five languages and topped sales and download charts in the USA, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
