In August of 1978, William Smith decided to sail single-handedly from Scotland to Great Yarmouth in England. En route, Willy missed Bridlington Harbour by 400 yards and rammed his yacht into a jetty. He overshot Yarmouth entirely and ran aground near Kent, 90 miles away.
A full-scale search for the missing yachtsman ensued, but the search was hampered by the fact that the yacht no-longer resembled the one they were looking for. Instead of a black, single-mast boat, the one they found was green and had two masts! "I passed the time while I was aground redecorating," explained Mr. Smith.
William was freed from his 'sticky situation' and began retracing his steps in order to find his way to his destination. (Yarmouth, remember?) But when entering Yarmouth Harbour, Mr. Smith scraped the side of a floating museum, rammed several buoys and sank one smaller motor boat, bumped into an entrant in the Tall Ships yacht race, knocked over several guard rails of a trimaran, and managed to get the ropes of a cargo ship wrapped around his mast.
Safely ashore in Yarmouth (finally!), Willy described his voyage as "pleasant with no hassle or worries" and immediately began to make plans for a trip to Australia.
