Life/death at sea

Post by **Matt Flynn** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:38 pm

Have you ever had bad weather or an accident at sea and feared for your life?

Fishhead · Post by **Fishhead** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:17 pm

hell no!
well, there was the time when the steering broke at cape croker and the tinny nearly landed on the back deck on its way down a wave...
then there was the one where the 4.5m tinny got air and did a 180' roll and we had to tow it upside down for a while...
closest one was when the same tinny as above poop itself off point blaze, and we didnt notice till the rear floorboard was floatin... oooops...
very very long trip home with much frantic bailing...
i've sunk a coulpa tinnies in my time, but all before i turned 20...
i'm much more sensible now...

2rods · Post by **2rods** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:51 pm

no never. I live by the old saying "there are old sailors and bold sailors but there are no old bold sailors"

If you are in fear for your life you have probably done something stupid or wrong

Oh Yeah · Post by **Oh Yeah** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:44 pm

Biggest scare for me was trying to retrieve tinnie in Karratha, weather was poor to say the least..... Got washed up on rocks scraping banging horrible noises waves smashing me against boat. Keep a cool head until 20l plastic fuel tank floated over seat. Mate had jumped out to get vehicle with keys in pocket yes it had a remote lock which promptly took exception to salt water, so could not start my Courier. Luckily was with another boat, unhooked his trailer hooked on to mine and retieved my tinnie.

Was stoopid that day!!

Oh Yeah.

chanos · Post by **chanos** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:36 pm

Nearly sunk by Tidal Bore daly early this year. Very close.

Spending 12 hours at sea in a cyclone on a Patrol Boat in sea state "awsome". copious damage to boat and personnel before we got to shelter.

chanos.

Jay Burgess · Post by **Jay Burgess** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:10 pm

The biggest scare I've had was when we camped on Delambre Island out from Point Samson WA. Headed out there in glorious conditions, and had an absolute thumper reef session in 5m of water just off Delambre with copious amounts of North West snapper, coral trout, chinaman and rankins caught.

Unfortunately the following day (day we were due to come home), the wind picked up to 25 knots + with huge swells, not ideal weather for a 14ft Ally Cat.

Made an attempt at the 25km trip home but was too rough and couldn't get on the plane which was sucking up the juice shockingly. Backtracked to the island and waited for the wind to drop fractionaly before attempting it again.

Eventually made it home. Not a pleasant trip in a 14ft cat with 4 people on board and an esky full of Nish and all our camping gear!

Never feared for my life though, the twin hull boat is exceptionally stable for it's size and can handle pretty big seas for a 14 footer! I also have a lot of confidence in the skipper who knows it's capabilities (fished with it for over 10 years) and wouldn't have attempted the trip back if it couldn't handle it.

Friends at home also knew where we were and when we were expected home so if we were forced to spend an extra night on the island they would know where to find us.

Travis · Post by **Travis** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:58 pm

Never been really worried at sea before, but have been involved with a 4.75m boat flipping and having to swim at Corroboree billabong (I wasn't driving!!!), as well as getting hung up and spun around on submerged logs right at the top of Nourlangie in a 4m tinnie when it was absolutely pumping during runoff. Neither was a nice experience especially up Nourlangie looking at a 3m croc 20m away with water flowing in over the stern of the boat whilst the three of us in the boat were madly trying to get the boat off the trees that we were wedged sideways against in current that would rival most white water rafting

Cheers,
Travis

max · Post by **max** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:41 pm

hey travis that would have got the old schfincter snapping

Glenn · Post by **Glenn** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:00 pm

I was heading north of Broome in the 95 Broome Sailfishing Comp. It was a howling morning and and we about 6ks off Willie Crk when we came over the top of a monster bit of swell. When the nose of the boat dropped to look at the bottom of the following trough a pod of bl..dy whales surfaced

.

I had to reef the wheel. No one was expecting the sudden change in direction and a seat was ripped out of the boat. Two blokes wound up on the floor and we were lucky not capsize the boat.

We had whales jumping all round the boat on occassions during Sailfishing Comps I was in. They could be quite worrying at times. But generally a very exciting distraction from the endless trolling.

Travis · Post by **Travis** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:12 pm

Hi Max,

Yeah, nearly needed a change of jocks after that one, luckily the branch that the back of the boat was half wedged under snapped. I was then able to reverse off the others with the poor old 40hp Yammie screaming it's lungs out and the prop hitting every bit of wood it could find. Made a good story in the pub at the Sth Alligator Resort later that night though

Cheers
Travis

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:18 pm

Nothing major while fishing, other than the usual p...ed idiot games!

Had to hit the slide and dunk lifeboat in preparation for an abandonment from a floater during a gas fire which was luckily exstinguished a nanosecond prior to the button being pushed. "THIS IS NOT A DRILL.......THIS IS NOT A DRILL"

Nearly got to go on the the worlds best amusement ride

Was evacuated to an nearby by rig after it was thought there was going to be a blow out on the one I was on. Talk about the old bend over and kiss it goodbye!

SCHOPPY · Post by **SCHOPPY** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:57 pm

1.i have had a few close calls
almost stepped onto a croc pushing a tinnie through some shallow water.i think it was a freshie long nose (and i still have both legs).
2.knocked out of the same tinnie on another trip by someone whos run to the front of the boat hi-n-dry,ive done a back flip out of the boat so here i am bailing the boat trying to find my fishing rod(overboard also)with my foot up to my neck in croc infested waters.
3.have had crocs hit the boat, lucky my boat is big .
but most times have been in control of the situation and not paniced.
you look back at your adventure and think" s**t did i do that" or" how did i get away with that!"

Matthew Brown · Post by **Matthew Brown** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 7:10 am

There was one time when coming up the South Alligator about 10pm in my mates 4.75 quintrex with another mate, no moon and was extremely dark. Both had been dinking all day and don't have very good night vision.

I was sitting on the bow seat keeping an eye out for shallow sand banks and the like. My mate had the spotlight on the left keeping an eye out on the mangroves. For some reason we started drifting towards the mangroves as we were motoring along near 40 km/h (easily). I looked behind to see my mate steering the boat looking where the spotlight was shining, explaining why we were drifting.

I think to myself if we keep going this way we'll hit the mangroves, so i say in a loud voice 'RIGHT!' and also gesture with my hand. We keep on the same course and are about 10 seconds from driving into the mangroves. I yell this time 'RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT' and frantically wave my right hand.

Guess what happened? My mate thought that was the cue for something on the right and without looking or probably thinking reefed the steering to the left. End result the boat drove head on into mangroves going over 40 km/h. Luckily being young and spritely i was able to do a matrix move and duck. We went a full boat length into the mangroves. My mates yelled out if i was alright. I actually had to check myself over first to make sure nothing was sticking in me. The mate steering the boat sliced the skin off his knee cap. If he was any shorter the console would've hit him under the patella and ripped it off!

Very scary incident.

Andy Grey · Post by **Andy Grey** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:45 pm

Hey a few of those, Travis a mate and I did the exact same thing as you but up the top of the Elizabeth on the Daly, not very scary seeing the water coming over the side! we still to this day believe that it was one of those superhuman strength moments that happen to people as we pushed the boat around and under the branch against the flow of the water tosave ourselves!! Also one night after a heavy drinking session on a mate mored boat we decided to go to the Casino so we all piled in to the 12 foot tender and headed a full throttle towards Mindal beach. Not knowing that the tide was out the reflections of the casino lights on the wet sand looked like water so needless to say we hit Mindal beach a full throttle! throwing all of us promptly onto the beach in a heap, we looked funny walking into the casino all dressed up but covered in wet sand, we were to p...ed to care! Luckily no one was badly hurt. Then theres the driving through the biggest spider webs in the world at the top of Norlangie that was not a nice experience!! and still get the shivers about it!

BEAR · Post by **BEAR** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:36 am

I was a little worried at the start of this year when I slipped with my fillet knife while bleeding a barra promptly severing an artery

Watch blood shoot several metre's over the side of the boat was a little unnervieng the infection that came after was worse.

BEAR

North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Life/death at sea

Have you ever had bad weather or an accident at sea and feared for your life?

Life/death at sea

Have you ever had bad weather or an accident at sea and fear

What couldve been

yes out of control