overboard

[mamu]

Had an interesting morning down at the Pin this morning.
absolute magical sunrise,caught tiddlers and ended up in the drink breaking the console screen and slashing my hand open at the same time....you know the true meaning of being vunerable when you are floating in the water bleeding profusly.

got me thinking .... who else has been waterlogged unintentionly. should be some good stories out there... lets hear them.

mamu

[Kleyny]

Years ago myself and the old man went out come to a bank to catch yabbies.
I jumped out the front in ankle deep water he jumped out the back into 2m of water.;D ;D
nothing funnier than seeing your old man take a dip with only his hand with a smoke in it still visible.

Still makes me laugh to this day

neil

[finga]

I got pulled out the back of the boat one-day after catching my motor that didn't want to be on the boat anymore.
We hit a log and the motor shot off and I caught it on the way down so I went in with the bugger then the cook had to pull both of us back up out of the briney. Quite funny afterwards :D

I got a shirt somehow after that saying "if you can read this pull me back in the boat" but it's written upsidedown. Smarties are everywhere in our camp :-/

[wessel]

Had a line wrapped around the prop.
So, stopped the boat, switch everything off and pulled the engine up.
Did everything but put the engine lock on. At the same time the coastguard patrol that was going past saw us drift and came over to see what the problem is. (We are way off the coast in a small boat with a tiller steer, not the done thing really but hey, the birds showed us the way to the tuna.)

As the coasties pulled up, I was leaning over the back of the boat busy getting the offending fishing line off the prop. Engine tilted down all by itself suddenly, and I went arse over into the drink. The coasties were laughing so hard the one guy collapsed onto the deck.... Got back in the boat, waved and left. Not a word was spoken to the coasties who were still laughing their heads off....
Not a word was said on our boat either. The two mates just sat there with their backs to me, all hunched over and squirming like they were attacked by fire ants....

Wessel

[fishing111]

Mamu what actually happened?

[haggis]

mamu was it you i heard talking to nugget on the tranny
this morning ? glad that you survived to tell the tale .
yeah the sunrise was magic .
cheers fae haggis...........................

[sharkymark2]

Running around Macleay Island one night and decided to fish the Iron Stem. We rammed a rock at low speed in the inboard and stuck on it. I jumped off the bow to push us off but missed the rock and went straight down. Pretty scary at night with heaps of phosphorescence around. My mates were laughing so hard they couldn't pull me up.

[snelly1971]

Cant afford to go over down here..the bloody water is too cold...the harbour gets down to 5 deg here in winter...

Mick

[mamu]

Mamu actually happened?


we were shifting spots, I was in my boat by myself with two mates in a seperate tinny, they said follow us and got on the plane toward the next spot, I waited 30 odd secs to give some distance between boats and powered onto the plane but with my boat I have to have the motor trimmed right down/in on holeshot otherwise it cavitates badly.
What I think happened was I caught the wake of the exiting boat as I powered up which grabbed the spray chine and pulled the boat further into the wake, I leaned over to back the throttle off, as by that stage water was coming over the gunnel and that made the whole thing dive further into the wake which in turn overbalanced me and over the side I went (at 6.30 am mind you) I was lucky enough to grab the throttle on the way over and bumped it out of gear so that I could recover my undies,shorts,trakies and hat that had been ripped of in the "swandive".

The mates had gone about 100 odd meters and looked back to see my boat full noise with no one in it .
Ah yes... I am gonna cop this story at every party we go to for the next ten years.

It could quite easily have gone quite bad, now that I think about it, guess I used all my luck there and then, that's why I didnt get any thing while the two mates were reeling them in.
mamu

[mamu]

No haggis that wasnt me, on the tranny talking to Nugget,
I couldnt even listen to his show on the wireless as the damn thing was full of water.....along with my mobile, car keys, camera, wallet
mamu

[Grand_Marlin]

Sounds like you were a very lucky boy Mamu.

As Snelly says, Tassie isnt the place to end up in the water .... but we did, my brother & I.

Got caught in a 60 knot southerly buster, with waves in excess of 6 - 7 metres.
If anyone knows about southerly busters, they cant forecast them and they come from nowhere ... so we went from 10 knots to 60 knots in the space of a minute

We were in a 5m Fibreglass Halfcab.

Didn't stand a chance.

Got the mayday call out, and ended up in the water.

There were only 3 boats capable of searching for us in those conditions, and we got picked up by the Police boat 40 minutes later.
It was so rough that the boats couldnt see us from 50 metres away.

We both had severe hypothermia (water was 12 degrees)

The Police said another 15 minutes in the cold water and they knew they would be looking for bodies, not survivors. :o

We were very lucky to be alive.

These are memories that stay with you forever ...

If anyone has ever wondered why I will never own anything other than a Sharkcat now, theres your answer ;)

[breamexplorer]

Over the side the same as mamu, mate and i doing a spot of crabbing in the Caboolture river at Beachmere, things going fine had a few good size crabs in the bucket, when we pulled the last pot it had a good buck in it but this thing so tangled in the nylon mesh we decided to leave it in there and head for the ramp, the pot with the crab was put sort of into the bucket incase the crab managed to get free, off we go with mate facing me half stadling the pots in the middle holding the pot in the bucket, then all hell brakes loose we were heading for a marker and some evasive action required,, at the same time i turn the tinnie to avoid the marker mate falls to the same side of the boat,, myself 100kg, mate 110kg on the side of a 13ft tinnie at speed you can guess what happened next...... both in the drink...... 9:30 at night end of winter still a bit cool.....good thing for positive flotation as the tinnie was about 2 inches out of the water but to my surprise still running. well 45min later enough water bailed to get in the boat, another 1hr to get enough out to drive,, amazing how much water a tinnie holds.. with all this we only lost a thong............we had a good laugh back at the ramp while waiting for the water to drain.

not to detract from the post but one thing we noticed in all this was the lifejackets were a good 20m away from the boat by the time we realised the situation we were in and looked for a jacket and buckets dont float when full of water.

[snelly1971]

Yes...you were lucky boys Pete...That is why safety is paramount down our way as you know....And as your story has stated ...there is always that day when it just blows up from no where and when those days happen then there arnt too many boats that are capable in making it home safely...

Cheers Mick

[harlequin]

holy sh#t grand marlin that some scary expirience stays close to your soul something one can only fully appreciate by expirence & i only hope i never have to. would be some valuable teachings there if you could relive it for us like how did you both manage to stay to gether lashed or holding arms ?

[ashh]

I was lucky enough to grab the throttle on the way over and bumped it out of gear so that I could recover my undies,shorts,trakies and hat that had been ripped of in the "swandive".



one of those moments you wished you were wearing your kill switch lanyard ? :D

[Chas & Clarry]

Hey Wessel, I did the same thing as you near Amity Point. Leaning full weight on the motor as I was unwrapping line, motor dropped and I did a graceful sommersault into the drink (that is how I chose to describe it, Clarry describes it quite differently). The thing is that we had been fishing the same spot the day before and had the boat approached by a large hammer-head that could smell our catch (hanging over the side of our boat in a keeper net):o ...I was back in that boat so fast!

Chas

[mamu]

one of those moments you wished you were wearing your kill switch lanyard ? :D


As I got back in, thats exactly what I thought, but how many poeple actualy wearr them,I find them a great idea but impractical.

[blaze]

maybe some one could design a kill switch that was remote from the engine that was fitted to a seat, like a ride on mower. could only see it practical with a tiller though.
cheers
blaze

[finga]

maybe some one could design a kill switch that was remote from the engine that was fitted to a seat, like a ride on mower. could only see it practical with a tiller though.
cheers
blaze
What about a pressure switch under foot??

[Blackened]

G'day

What about a bluetooth kind of connection? Short range radio wave it is,

Say you can set it via a wrist device that when outside the confines of your boat (4M maybe on a 3.7M boat), the engine will automatically shut down.

Dave

[finga]

Maybe that's why they have a little bit of bungy cord attached to a kill thingo now :)
As a sideline...did anyone see the program about the surf rescue guys down south and the occupants of the rubber-ducky were kind off thrown out of the rubber ducky into the surf and the rubber ducky kept going around and around and around until a guy on a rescue board got to it??
I would have thought the lanyard would have been a requirement for the surfies.

[Dirtysanchez]

Scotty, lets do it, I have pressure transducers as a product line, and I know a good eng who could implement it into a small module that could be fitted to a seat.
Ride on Mowers have a similar concept so if the mower rolls over on an incline the blades stop so it doesn't chop the driver into small bits :(

Russ

[finga]

Russ mate, that would be just another safety feature people would have to bypass.

[Grand_Marlin]

G'day

What about a bluetooth kind of connection? Short range radio wave it is,

Say you can set it via a wrist device that when outside the confines of your boat (4M maybe on a 3.7M boat), the engine will automatically shut down.

Dave


Thats a great idea ... until you swim back to the boat and it automatically fires up and goes a bit further away each time you get to it ;D ;D ;D

Cheers

Pete

[jigsnreels]

From Grand marlin:


There were only 3 boats capable of searching for us in those conditions, and we got picked up by the Police boat 40 minutes later.
It was so rough that the boats couldnt see us from 50 metres away.


As someone who was on one of those 3 boats, I think about that day a lot.:o:o

Was a helluva relief when the cops picked you up. The bit about not being able to see you was what really amazed me in the end - we went up and down past you again and again. Paul told me later he could see us out on the deck really close by and couldn't believe we weren't spotting you.

Anyway, good you're still kicking, breeding and making trouble:D:D:D

[Dirtysanchez]

Russ mate, that would be just another safety feature people would have to bypass.

Too true Scotty ;D
Mind you, in the same vein as the european car makers, we could design it that you have to have a body part in contact with it to even actually start the motor, that way the motor simply doesn't go if it isn't a completed circuit. But then there's the issue of wanting to have the motor idle while you drop anchor etc.
Arrh, the curly red cord still wins :-[

[Blackened]

G'day

lol pete, that'd only happen to you :P

You'd still have to start the engine as you normally would.

Dave

[Grand_Marlin]

As someone who was on one of those 3 boats, I think about that day a lot.:o:o

Was a helluva relief when the cops picked you up. The bit about not being able to see you was what really amazed me in the end - we went up and down past you again and again. Paul told me later he could see us out on the deck really close by and couldn't believe we weren't spotting you.

Anyway, good you're still kicking, breeding and making trouble:D:D:D


Yeah, it wasn't much fun :(

For those that asked, we were in the Australian Bluefin Tuna Championships off Eagle Hawk Neck on the Southern Corner or Tassie.

You see a lot of footage of this area on the Sydney / Hobart race ... the huge cliffs and the lighthouse on Tasman Island.

Anyway ... the forecast was for strong south westerly winds, but that didnt matter as we were tucked in under the cliffs, well out of the wind.
There was also a 3m Swell running down the coast.
Again, no big deal, especially by Tasmanian standards.

Anyway, we were just getting ready to set the spread of lures at the start of the competition and this southerly buster of 60 knots came from nowhere.
As I said earlier, they cant forecast them, and with the overcast weather / high cliffs you couldnt see it ... it was just there .... instantly.
We went from no wind to 60 knots in the space of a minute or so.

Well, picture 60 knot southerly winds against a 3m north easterly swell, and be out there in a 5m cuddy cab.... not a good mix.

The waves were standing up like pyramids, with no backs in them.

We survived 2 waves, and the third we came out the top of and literally free fell about 6 metres, landing nearly vertical ... not only submerging and flooding the motor, but half the boat as well.

Let me tell you here and now, that when the $hit hits the fan like this .... no amount of the biggest bilg pumps will help you... self draining decks and positive buoyancy are your only chance.

We rushed out a radio call ... albeit that it stated we were in a bit of trouble, when it should have said MAYDAY.
When no one could get us on the radio, they knew we were in serious trouble.

We put our life jackets on, grabbed the EPIRB and ended up in the 12 degree water, holding on to the nose of the boat.

A few other boats had sheltered behind the Hippolyte rock ... going round and round in circles to stay out of the wind & sea.
Other boats that were a bit slower out of port managed to get back to port.
A couple of other boats got into trouble, but got out of it.
We had many other friends in the area that desperately wanted to be out looking for us, but couldnt due to the unbelievable conditions.

Eventually the boat sank from underneath us, leaving us with just our lifejackets in 6 - 8 metre breaking waves.

The waves would literally break about 3 metres over the top of us ... you just had to hold your breath and wait for the lifejacket to bring you back to the surface ... grab a couple of breaths then wait for it to happen again ...and again ...and again.

40 minutes later, my brother Paul had nearly lost consciousness with the cold / hypothermia.

We could see two of the boats looking for us ... sometimes they would pass only 50m away, but due to the darkness of the storm and the roughness of the water, they couldnt see us or hear us.

Then the big Police boat came straight towards us.
These blokes were real professional.
They pulled up on the downwind side of us.
Can you imagine a 50ft boat coming down off a 6 - 8 metre swell right beside you?
We could have easily been crushed to death with the boat.

They threw us a rope, but I was too cold to even wrap the rope around us, let alone tie a not.
Paul didnt even know what was happening ... he was nearly gone.

I ended up looping the rope around my forearm and holding on to Paul at the same time.

The Police couldnt lift us both together ....

Somehow, in one of those uncanny shows of strength in a desperate situation ... I pulled us both up the side of the boat with one arm, to where the Police grabbed us and pulled us aboard.

I remember landing on the deck on my knees and on my face and couldnt move from that position.

They put us in the cabin, wrapped us in blankets and hat the heaters on flat out.
I remember watching one of the Police hold Paul like a baby as he was virtually unconscious and wasnt showing any signs of warming up.

All our friends were waiting for the radio call ... as they knew we had been in the water for nearly an hour, we may have been found alive, dead, or not found at all.
As Jigs n Reels said, when the call came through that we had been found alive, the feeling of relief they all got was something they will never forget.

When we got back to port, there was a helicopter waiting for Paul ... they put warmed up saline drips in him to try and warm him up ... then flew him to Hobart.
I had to go by ambulance ... the trip in the ambulance was scarier than our ordeal as the driver kept turning around to talk to his co worker and nearly ran off the windy road several times ::)

I kept asking how Paul was, and they wouldn't tell me. I knew he was in a very bad way, and I also knew they wouldnt tell me if he had died... I just had to wait.

After an hour or so, I was reunited with Paul, still not well, but conscious and co-herrant, and we lived to tell the tale - just.

The Police said another 15 minutes in the water and neither of us would have survived.
We did have good gear, good motor, excellent life jackets and were dressed for the cold as well.

All in all .... lucky doesn't even come close.

When you are told you were within 15 minutes of the end of your life, it certainly hits home - HARD.

Even though this was 15 years ago ... literally to the day ... it still feels like it just happened.

I still cant thank everyone involved in our rescue enough ... it always feels like I cant find a way to thank them enough.
They undoubtedly saved us from certain death, all putting their own lives at risk, and for that thanks will never be enough.

Cheers

Pete

[Argle]

What an incredible story:o Thanks for reliving the ordeal Pete and thanks for sharing it with us. I can understand your feeling of thanks towards the people who risked their own lives to save yours, people like that deserve a medal, not to mention the appreciation and support of us all. Thanks again for sharing.

Cheers and beers
Scott

[Nowhere Bob]

I'll back what the others have said, thank you for sharing.

People are funny, they can always think of excuses as to why "it will never happen to me." But it is all but impossible to convince them that it does happen to someone, not always the unprepared or ignorant. That wet stuff that we all like to tool around on is unforgiving, murphy rides high in the saddle, and people die.
I'd like to see stories like this compiled and every boat licence candidate made to sit & read & think about. If it only makes one person check his gear, or not head out on an iffy day then I think it's worth it.
A guy I know killed another dude by screwing around in a car. It has completely ruined his life. And I still find myself @130k's on the highway. So I guesss I need as much of a slapping as the 2 guys I saw about three weeks ago 4+ miles off DI in a little inflatable with a six hp on the back.

[FNQCairns]

Yes, thankyou very much for the story.

cheers fnq

[mamu]

G.M., WOW what a tale, I guess that sort of experience would travel through every part of your daily life.
Literally a life changing experience.

There was a post going around on this site a couple months back about a monster jack that was taken for a trophy and it had quite a few people hot under the collar. I had posted that some of them needed to get a grip on reality (and got canned for it) and your story is exactly why.
Life is too short to dwell on petty items.
Tell the people that you love exactly that, as every day could be your last.
mamu

[Sea-Dog]

Hey Pete, I suppose the fingers got a bit wobbly on the keyboard as you were reliving that incident.

I bet you still get that sinking feeling in your guts when you think about what might have been...............

Sounds like the only safe vessel for those conditions is a submarine.

[roydsy]

Thanks amazing story and it makes you appreciate the life you have.

roydsy marks southern tasmania as a no go fishing zone....scary stuff. I have been to that part of tassie and can only cringe at being in the water there.