Kevin Payne dreamed of starting a new life by the Mediterranean. On 2 July 2007, he left Southampton in his 25m converted trawler Abundance, with friend George, Daisy the dog, Fluffy the cat, and everything he owned onboard. Mairéad Dwane reports The forecast predicted winds of force 5–6 for the English Channel, decreasing to force 4 for a time. Having spent 5 months working on Abundance, and taken her out in such conditions before, Kevin was sure that she would have no problems making it to her first scheduled stop, the Channel Island of Alderney.

However, conditions gradually worsened. At 10.30pm on 3 July, Kevin went to the engine room to pump extra diesel from the reserve tanks to the day tank. It was then that he realised he was in trouble: bundance was taking on water, and lots of it. George radioed the French Coastguard. Communication was difficult but eventually the message was understood. Help was on its way, but Kevin and George didn’t know from which direction, so decided to stay put and wait.

By now the west south west wind was a force 8 and, with breaking 4m seas, Abundance continued to take on water and started to pitch from side to side. The generator was swamped, which meant saying goodbye to the electric pump, the main VHF radio and lights. There were two manual pumps onboard but they were damaged from flying debris. Kevin recalls: ‘If we’d had 20 pumps that night it wouldn’t have worked; we couldn’t even stand up. Word came through to the Alderney Harbour Master’s office at about 11.30pm. Lifeboat Coxswain Declan Gaudion, also Deputy Harbour Master, finally made contact with the vessel by mobile telephone at midnight. After consultation with Lifeboat Operations Manager Dave McAllister, they paged the volunteers.

On the verge After scrambling down slippery stone steps to a boarding boat and crossing the harbour to the lifeboat’s mooring, the crew of seven launched the Trent class Roy Barker I at 12.17am. The route to Abundance’s reported location was straightforward but actually finding her proved more difficult. With wind and tide pushing Abundance north east, Declan set a course for a radar target almost 6 miles away, but sea interference made it difficult to tune in and the echo kept disappearing.

At 1.08am, the lifeboat crew saw Abundance just 100m away. She was very low in the water and rolling violently, the deck strewn with clutter and awash with water. Crew Member Victoria McAllister, who was operating the searchlight, describes the scene: ‘It wasn’t particularly moonlit, but we spotted a white, wooden boat. It would rise up and then – boom! – slam down.’

Kevin is diabetic and hadn’t had a chance to eat. ‘I was on the verge of collapse but adrenaline kicked in. You couldn’t just lie down. It was like being on a rollercoaster – down and up and down and up. But on this rollercoaster you had to stand up and move around.’

Abundance was too heavy and rolling too much to be towed, so Declan initially decided to escort her to harbour. Kevin explains: ‘At that point our engines were miraculously still going, but the boat was so heavy with water it couldn’t steer. They said it would be a few hours and we said we probably didn’t have that long.’ Declan realised that, whatever the danger, he would have to put crew aboard Abundance with the lifeboat’s powerful salvage pump. With Abundance making a haphazard course, Declan manoeuvred the lifeboat so her bow was alongside the casualty’s port quarter. After three attempts Deputy Second Coxswain Steve Wright and Crew Member Dean Geran leaped aboard Abundance. It took two more approaches to get the pump onboard.

They continued towards Alderney at a painfully slow 2½ knots. With the pump’s suction pipe passed down a hatch into the flooded engine room, the refloat attempt began. ‘But every time it started to pump, it would block up,’ remembers Dean. ‘There were things swirling around down there.’ Over the next 30 minutes the pump blocked about eight times.

At 2.50am, Abundance’s engines stopped. The day tank had run out of fuel. Steve strongly advised against going below to top up the tank, as Abundance was in imminent danger of capsizing. Declan heard on the hand-held VHF what had happened and decided to take everyone off.

Abandoning Abundance

But everything Kevin owned was onboard, from his 5,000-strong CD collection to the video of his daughter’s Christening. The cat was stuck in the aft deckhouse, the door of which had jammed shut. Kevin was not keen on abandoning ship. But, Steve says: ‘When there’s a possibility you could start losing people, you must consider personal safety above trying to save the vessel.’

Then came the most challenging part yet: getting Kevin and George, two lifeboat volunteers and a terrified dog off Abundance to the safety of the lifeboat. By now the tide had turned, against the wind, making conditions even worse. It was difficult for the evacuees to even stand together on the slippery deck. Approaching from the north east to gain shelter from Abundance, Declan tried to place the lifeboat’s starboard shoulder on the casualty’s starboard quarter. Crew Members Paul Fairclough and Mark Gaudion were standing at the very edge of the lifeboat’s deck, harnessed to the jack stay, ready to catch whoever came first. On the first attempt, Steve and Dean managed to hand over George. Mechanic Brian Frost took him into the lifeboat wheelhouse, wrapped him in a blanket and assessed his condition. Declan went round for several more attempts but the two vessels collided on the swell, and the ageing timbers of Abundance’s gunwale began to collapse.

On about the sixth approach, a bolt flew out from Abundance’s capping rail, hitting Dean in the elbow. With something of an understatement, he remembers: ‘It was very painful: I thought it was broken.’ The lifeboat stood off while Steve checked the injury – just bruising.The lifeboat approached yet again, and the dog was next off. Steve and Dean then picked Kevin up and threw him across to Paul. ‘The way they operate is most professional,’ says Kevin. ‘Looking back, that’s down to their superb training.’ Paul puts it more bluntly: ‘You grab hold of something and you are not going to let go.’ The lifeboat was still within reach so Steve and Dean jumped across.Despite attempts to save it, the cat went down with the Abundance.

The journey home

Kevin remembers very little of the journey back: ‘I must have just passed out immediately. I remember waking up and seeing Abundance quite low in the wate rand then I passed out again.’ The volunteers remember George as being ‘very quiet’– just exhausted. Daisy seemed to come through well, immediately taking a shine to Brian, but Kevin reports her suffering panic attacks in the following weeks.

Unlike Abundance, Roy Barker I was well able for the conditions, and her passage home was relatively uneventful. The lifeboat moored at  Braye Harbour quay at 4.10am on 4 July. Declan comments on their timing: ‘Thankfully, we did it  when we did it. The French Coastguard put up a helicopter soon afterwards and Abundance was not located … The boats they give us to do the job are  second to none.’ Mark adds: ‘It certainly doesn’t happen every time you go out, but that night we  made a difference.’

Taken to Alderney hospital by ambulance, Dean had his arm re-examined, Kevin was treated for
exhaustion and a broken finger and George for exhaustion. Kevin’s hospital window overlooked the
harbour and he could see exactly where he had planned to moor Abundance on his life- changing
voyage.

Declan, Steve and Dean were all awarded the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum for their parts in the rescue. Declan sums up: ‘A service like this, with more challenging conditions than usual, underlines the need for crew training and how it all comes together. It’s very nice to be recognised but I can’t stress enough that it’s a team effort. It’s a station award.’As for Kevin and Daisy, they started a new life after all. Having lost so much with the wreck of Abundance but experiencing the kindness of the people of the island while recovering, they eventually settled in Alderney. Kevin set up a hairdressing salon and Daisy enjoys visiting Brian and all her old friends at the lifeboat station. ‘Your whole life changes when something like that happens,’ Kevin says, adding: ‘I have nightmares about it even now.’