I was unable to get out to Papa Stour to inspect the boat for another five days. When I did, I found her buried almost to the gunwhales in the sand and broadside to the waves. I spent the day digging out the sand and digging a pond around her so that when the tide came in I could turn her and pull her up to the high tide mark. High tide was around midnight, but fortunately there was a good moon and fine weather. I used the on-board winch and an anchor into the sand dunes to pull her as high as I could and took out all the gear. She was then safe until the next spring tides the following weekend. Considering the pounding she must have taken (which had shaken the main engine from its mounts), there was only superficial damage and none of the general looseness I was expecting. I was glad I'd built her so strong.

 A week late, on 24th September, the weather was OK and I took a small boat over and collected some gear from the island. The first job was to lay an anchor offshore to pull the boat out to. I then rolled the boat down the sand at low tide using the winch, rollers and levers. Once afloat I could turn her round, swap the engine from the small boat and pull both through the surf into quieter water further out. Although she had shipped some water going through the surf, I didn't feel safe in the open water with the wind rising, so motored round to the lee of the island to anchor in quiet water to bale out and re-arrange the hastily loaded gear. Then motored the three miles back to the harbour at Bousta with the small boat in tow - a good morning's work!