Mike, keen on computers as he is immediately went on to Google Earth and started looking for Runagate. He came up with this and sent me an email about it. Of course we didn't know for sure, but we thought that this must be Runagate.
We now wanted to move carefully. I had secretly been thinking about what to do if we did find Runagate, and I hoped that we could do something with her similar to what the people of the Arthur Ransome Society had done to Arthur's yacht Nancy Blacket. They bought this boat and have restored her. The people of the Arthur Ransome Society now can rent her to go sailing. Nancy Blacket by the way was also a Hillyard yacht, although a little smaller that Runagate. Now with the owner living on Runagate it could be difficult to buy her. And if she would be for sale, the owner might ask too much for her if he knew who we were. The same thing happened to Nancy Blacket. But of course, this was only a small plan in the back of my mind. I didn't even know what the Nevil Shute Foundation might think of this idea.
The thing to do next was to have a look at Runagate, so Mike Meehan, John Anderson and I made an appointment to meet on the 30th of January 2007. Mike and John had to be in the neighbourhood anyway for the flying scholarships, as you will hear from John. I regularly checked Google Earth to see if Runagate was still there, and by the beginning of January she was gone. Now what you see on Google Earth is not live. They are pictures that are made by satellites and that are changed every now and than. It may be that what you are looking at is months or maybe even years old. So Runagate was gone, but may have been gone for months, or even a year. I informed Mike and John, and John than phoned the marina. He was reassured, she was still there.
On the 30th of January I flew from Amsterdam to Newcastle and was met at the airport by Mike and John. We immediately drove into Newcastle and started to look for the marina. At first we couldn't find it. Than we saw masts of sailing-boats over a wall, to the right of the street. We stopped the car, looked over the wall and there was St. Peters Marina. After a short search, we found what we were looking for: Runagate. White hull, light blue cabins and the forward mast lower than the mast aft.