Shoal bay chaos!!!! Near drowning!!!!!!
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:55 pm
Well it all started as a nice easy afternoon of fishing, crabbing and drinking. 
But it soon turned into a day I will never forget. Myself, Grant, Helen and Jess all cruised out of Buffalo Creek ramp with 10 crab pots full of bait, a carton of rum and high expectations for the day. There where storms all around us and the trip had been almost called off a few times before the shoal bay rock was in sight. As we approached the rock we noticed a woman and 2 kids going absolutely ballistic waving their hands and screaming at the top of their voice. 
With no boats in sight I thought this was very unusual for this time of day. We approached the rock with caution and tried to make sense of what these people were saying. It was soon obvious that something terrible had happened. With tears in their eyes and emotions running wild they screamed that someone was missing and pointed to the last known direction of the man. Straight away we noticed in the distance a boat about 12ft long going crazy in the storm ripped Shoal Bay mouth. Not knowing exactly what had really happened, our general conclusion was that there was a man overboard, but where???
We quickly calculated that the tide was almost at the top of the turn and therefore he must be upstream of where his boat was almost doing back flips in the surf. With eyes peeled in every direction it seemed an impossible task. There were white caps and wind and tidal rips everywhere combined with an approaching storm it was like searching for a needle in a hay stack.
No more then 10 minutes had passed and amazingly we sighted a head bobbing in the waves. 
Fighting the wild shoal bay current had obviously taken its toll as the man had shed all his clothing to try to beat the prevailing shoal bay tide. Finally we dragged the almost lifeless body aboard and luckily we had 2 nurses aboard who quickly took control of the situation. We slowly motored to the Gunn Point mainland opposite the Rock and provided him with fluids, clothes and warmth. The man could not talk and could hardly breathe so we dialled 000 to call for back up. With the man and 2 experienced nurses on the shore we headed out to retrieve the remainder of lost crew from the Rock.
Communications by mobile phone with the emergency crew was very difficult and as my 6 month old new marine radio had given up the ghost we couldn’t communicate directly with the coast guard. I gave a precise description of the situation as well as a GPS point over the phone to the authorities and requested that medical help was required, also that the boat that was running out of control needed to be stopped.
After an hour had passed and help was no closer to us, Grant and I decided that the 12ft tinnie with a new 15 Yammy on the back and 20lts of juice on board going flat out doing doughnuts and jumping waves on its way out to sea needed to be stopped. With the girls assuring us that they had things under control we decided to have a crack at stopping this Yamaha powered weapon before someone else was hurt.
Approaching with caution
and dealing with a thousand different strategies of attack we come up with a brilliant plan. 
We unhitched a few crab pot ropes and tied them together with a float on each end. We then towed one float behind us until we were in the direct path of the out of control boat and threw the other float in the direction it was travelling. We had hoped that the rope would tangle the prop and stall the motor, but it was not to be. The ropes tangled up as planned but the motor did not stall, although it did slow considerably. So plan two come into play involving my sand anchor and 50 meters of 10mm rope. We got as close as possible to the boat and Grant landed the anchor into the centre of the tiny first shot. We then waited for the boat to circle the rope a few times placing the rope around the leg of the outboard. We then nailed it aiming to stall the Yamaha by going flat out backwards. The next thing we know we had an unmanned 15hp 2 stroke Yamaha and 12ft flat bottom tinny coming straight towards us. AHHHHHHHHHH FAAAAAAAARRRKKKKK,,,,,,,, a lucky quick reaction allowed us to avoid the missile and rethink or approach once more.
With our patience drawing short and the boat moving significantly slower Grant decided to cut to the chase and just jump out of my boat and into the 12footer. “Closer, closer one more circle, one more, one more, one moreâ€ÂÂ
But it soon turned into a day I will never forget. Myself, Grant, Helen and Jess all cruised out of Buffalo Creek ramp with 10 crab pots full of bait, a carton of rum and high expectations for the day. There where storms all around us and the trip had been almost called off a few times before the shoal bay rock was in sight. As we approached the rock we noticed a woman and 2 kids going absolutely ballistic waving their hands and screaming at the top of their voice. With no boats in sight I thought this was very unusual for this time of day. We approached the rock with caution and tried to make sense of what these people were saying. It was soon obvious that something terrible had happened. With tears in their eyes and emotions running wild they screamed that someone was missing and pointed to the last known direction of the man. Straight away we noticed in the distance a boat about 12ft long going crazy in the storm ripped Shoal Bay mouth. Not knowing exactly what had really happened, our general conclusion was that there was a man overboard, but where??? We quickly calculated that the tide was almost at the top of the turn and therefore he must be upstream of where his boat was almost doing back flips in the surf. With eyes peeled in every direction it seemed an impossible task. There were white caps and wind and tidal rips everywhere combined with an approaching storm it was like searching for a needle in a hay stack.
No more then 10 minutes had passed and amazingly we sighted a head bobbing in the waves. Fighting the wild shoal bay current had obviously taken its toll as the man had shed all his clothing to try to beat the prevailing shoal bay tide. Finally we dragged the almost lifeless body aboard and luckily we had 2 nurses aboard who quickly took control of the situation. We slowly motored to the Gunn Point mainland opposite the Rock and provided him with fluids, clothes and warmth. The man could not talk and could hardly breathe so we dialled 000 to call for back up. With the man and 2 experienced nurses on the shore we headed out to retrieve the remainder of lost crew from the Rock. Communications by mobile phone with the emergency crew was very difficult and as my 6 month old new marine radio had given up the ghost we couldn’t communicate directly with the coast guard. I gave a precise description of the situation as well as a GPS point over the phone to the authorities and requested that medical help was required, also that the boat that was running out of control needed to be stopped.
After an hour had passed and help was no closer to us, Grant and I decided that the 12ft tinnie with a new 15 Yammy on the back and 20lts of juice on board going flat out doing doughnuts and jumping waves on its way out to sea needed to be stopped. With the girls assuring us that they had things under control we decided to have a crack at stopping this Yamaha powered weapon before someone else was hurt.Approaching with caution
and dealing with a thousand different strategies of attack we come up with a brilliant plan. We unhitched a few crab pot ropes and tied them together with a float on each end. We then towed one float behind us until we were in the direct path of the out of control boat and threw the other float in the direction it was travelling. We had hoped that the rope would tangle the prop and stall the motor, but it was not to be. The ropes tangled up as planned but the motor did not stall, although it did slow considerably. So plan two come into play involving my sand anchor and 50 meters of 10mm rope. We got as close as possible to the boat and Grant landed the anchor into the centre of the tiny first shot. We then waited for the boat to circle the rope a few times placing the rope around the leg of the outboard. We then nailed it aiming to stall the Yamaha by going flat out backwards. The next thing we know we had an unmanned 15hp 2 stroke Yamaha and 12ft flat bottom tinny coming straight towards us. AHHHHHHHHHH FAAAAAAAARRRKKKKK,,,,,,,, a lucky quick reaction allowed us to avoid the missile and rethink or approach once more. With our patience drawing short and the boat moving significantly slower Grant decided to cut to the chase and just jump out of my boat and into the 12footer. “Closer, closer one more circle, one more, one more, one moreâ€ÂÂ
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