27/07/2009
In Lowerstoft the Royal Yacht we were looked after brilliantly and thank you all at the club for your help, we were up early and out on the water heading off to Brighton on the first fuel tank change my engine re started and 5 min later i was on two cylinders so we dropped on to a beach changed plugs and checked wiring and then headed for the Thames Estuary, a long way from nowhere my motor dropped a cylinder again so i was now in the middle with 25hp we pressed on surfing down the waves and struggling up the others, i radioed in to Coast Guard and they relayed to land crew we were going to Margate Slip we all met within 5 min of us arriving fitted a new coil pack and then headed to Ramsgate harbour to re fuel.
The idea being that it would be Briton or further if we could, the bad news was after we rounded the headland to Dover , the sea state was really bad it had ramped up to at least 10 ft and we were getting through it well, Sunny was just in front of me it was a case of being very careful as you reached the top of the waves but Sunny got caught out and it was all over ! 
he was upside down desperately looking for his pull cord for the life jacket, before he could get hold of it i was alongside and dragged him in to my boat there was no way we were going to turn the boat over so it was a case of getting a rope on to it and tow it into the harbour as we were attempting to do this the harbour patrol boat was alongside and threw us a rope to attach to the upturned boat, Sunny leapt from my boat onto his upturned boat clipped the rope on and at the appropriate moment jumped back in with me, by this time the RNLI were shadowing us, they gave us some shelter and got us into to the outer harbour before going back out to recover the boat as by now the towing fixing had detached in the bad weather we were safe in the harbour and went alongside the RNLI station and moored up to recover, Sunny was looking a bit shaken up but the important thing was he was ok, the thing was we knew this could happen to either of us and at any time, 
up to now we have got out of all the situations we had been in but help was appreciated at this time i have to say, as the sea state was really bad when you are driving up the front face of a wave that is twice as long as the boat that you are sat in you have to think to yourself there is a possibility that it could all go wrong?
When the tow eye broke on Zapcat 2 in the conditions it was not surprising but it left the boat floundering until the RNLI could recover it, they did this with ease and brought it in to the harbour the correct way up.
DOVER RNLI TEAM
MO PARKIN – COXSAIN
JAMES CLAPHAM – MECHANIC
LEE RIDDELL- 2ND COXSAIN
JOHN MIEL -2ND MECHANIC
WAOMI PEGDEN
PAUL ABBIT-2ND MECHANIC
We would like to thank the RNLI Team and the Harbour Pilots that came out to help us as without them we could not of carried on.