Young fan’s ‘pier-head jump’ aboard Nancy Blackett.

Nancy Blackett’s return voyage form the Maritime Woodbridge festival turned into an adventure reminiscent of Arthur Ransome’s “We Didn’t Mean to Go To Sea”, when a young American fan jumped aboard at the last minute.

Nancy’s appearance at the festival attracted loads of visitors, including a Japanese fan, Mimi Ohsawa, currently studying at UEA, Norwich, and local author and boat-owner Jonathan Lewis. One of the keenest on the Sunday was an American girl visiting relatives in Woodbridge, who expressed interest in sailing Nancy during her stay. Later in the day, just as Nancy was preparing to catch the tide for the voyage back to Woolverstone Marina, she turned up on the Tide Mill Quay and asked if she could join for the trip. Naturally skipper John Smith checked that her family were OK with this, but it was only once Nancy was well on her way that he discovered that Keetu was only 14 – and that her parents were under the impression that she’d just gone for a short trip and would be back to Woodbridge soon.

A frantic round of phone-calls later, her mum, Chez, was reconciled to the idea of her daughter undertaking a six-hour voyage, including a section in the open sea (between the Rivers Deben and Orwell) and some night sailing before the 8.30 arrival at Woolverstone.

As for Keetu, who, it turned out, had never sailed before, she thoroughly enjoyed herself, helming the boat and taking the opportunity to learn some of the basic seaman’s knots. “She took to it like a natural, and proved a really good learner – she’s now an ace at the fast-preparation bowline,” said Skipper John Smith. As for Keetu, she told us, “I had the most wonderful time! I’ve been practising the knots you taught me. I’ll never forget that fantastic andventure – it was amazing to see the coast from the sea, instead of the other way round!”

The motto of “We didn’t Mean to Go to Sea” is “Grab a chance – and you won’t be sorry for a might-have-been.” Keetu certainly grabbed her chance with a classic pier-head jump, and we’re pretty sure we’ll be taking her to sea again – with her family – some time soon.