DeanWh
16-10-2007, 11:34 AM
Hi all,
I am new to this forum, and also new to boating, i.e. I bought my first decent sized boat about a month ago. A 17 foot Savage with a 115 Evinrude - not that I know much about boats and motors. I wanted to share my experiences with you all, as I feel that some may get a good laugh, but it has been a trying time for me and the only way to get over it is to laugh.
I bought the boat from a guy in Whyalla (incidentally, he put me in hospital over 15 years ago when we were kids but we are grown ups now!!), for $5000. His Dad just died and his decision to sell was an emotional one.
A friend and I tested the boat out in Whyalla's waters and because we caught 2 squid in a matter of minutes, I decided to buy it (that was a joke!).
Anyway, I drove back home to Adelaide, showed a couple of my mates and within a few days we were heading for St Kilda to launch and go fishing. We got the boat in the water no problem but the battery was flat. Because we had been trying out all the lights and gadgets etc, we had drained the battery without realizing it.
So I drove to the BP at Burton and bought a new battery, which is probably a good thing anyway as it pays to have a spare. So within the hour we were back on board, the motor was running, and we were heading out.
We had been told that St. Kilda can be dangerous in low tides but if we kept to ‘The Channel’, we should be right. However we left in daylight, and decided to come home at night, and at low tide! Stupidity, AND inexperience.
We had caught a few crabs and thought ourselves pretty clever. The boat motor had been running like a dream, we couldn’t see any leaks in the boat and all looked rosy, however the low tide at St. Kilda was about to give us our first real scare.
As we are inexperienced we weren’t confident of the actual where-a-bouts of the channel, and our natural tendency was to head towards the blue lights of St. Kilda. On more than one occasion we went from 10-12 feet of water to 2 feet within a few seconds, only to turn around just in the nick of time, head the other way and be met with the same problem the other way. It only became obvious to us later that we were bouncing from one side of the channel to the other trying to find our way back.
It got real scary when we didn’t turn back in time and the motor dug into the sand and seaweed. It was a trying time, and at one point, a seagull flew over us and then in front of us. We thought, maybe it’s showing us the way, and for a while it seemed it was, but nope, we almost run aground again.
Eventually we found the flashing lights and the black poles with the platforms on top, recognizing them from when we left; we finally got our bums back to the boat ramp. We realized how lucky we had been that things weren’t worse, but did afford a bit of a laugh. However, our mishaps hadn’t finished for the night.
After winching the boat back on the trailer, my mate had left the winch handle on the winch. It wasn’t until I turned onto Waterloo corner road that for some reason my mind just thought about it. “Hey, where did you put the winch handle?”
We looked in the car, in the boat and couldn’t find it. We drove all the way back to St. Kilda, looked around the marina and still no luck. After giving up, we headed back and just by pure luck, it happened to be in the middle of the road on the main bend of the main road to St. Kilda!
We decided to go out the following weekend, but this time we were going to leave on high tide, sleep in the boat and then come back on high tide. We had to sleep on the boat due to the times of the high tides.
On this night, we had no issues, well not really, as we had two batteries, but we found out how quickly the spot light fitted to the side of the boat drained the battery! Lucky we had two batteries. The other thing we found was that the fish well was filling with water. This didn’t happen the other night, but I found a bung in the boat which fitted the hole in the well nicely (still didn’t explain why there was no water filling it last week).
Mid-morning, I headed out to a drop called ‘The Shed’, for no other reason than that I found the GPS markers for it on the Internet and it said we can catch Snapper there. Once we got there, we slept a bit more and at dawn starting throwing our lines out.
Then I looked through the hole of the fish well cover and the damn thing was full again. We couldn’t work it out. Rather than panic (I mean we were only in 50 foot of water LOL), we just bucketed the water out, and decided to keep an eye on it. Then one of my friends noticed the water was coming from the front and not the back. The bottom cavities in the cabin were somehow filling with water and this was draining down into the fish well. At this point, my other mate noticed a gurgling sound and the back of the boat was starting to fill with water. Massive panic!
We instantly started heading back in, knowing we had about 16km to travel. When we launched the day before we had 50 liters of petrol, however, what we didn’t know was how long this amount of fuel would last. Again, inexperience was our downfall.
When the boat was starting to fill with water, we had just less than one full jerry, and the other two jerry’s had a few litres in them each. With a few kilometers to go, the main jerry ran out. I had to get one of my friends to plug in one of the other jerry’s and hold it in such a position, that we could the last few litres.
When that one ran out, we were actually in the marina’s channel, but we couldn’t get the motor to start on the third jerry’s bit of fuel and the boat floating aimlessly banged into the rocks. To my delight, it was just one of the fins on the motor that hit a rock and only left a small ding.
We finally got the motor started and got the ramp, and got the boat out of the water. Once on the trailer, we opened the two main bungs and the water just gushed out. Now for those who know this area of Adelaide, you are going to appreciate this next bit.
I live in Paralowie, and although close, is still a 10 minute drive from St. Kilda. When I arrived home, the water was still flowing out the bottom bung hole! I don’t mean trickling, it was still flowing!
We found an area on the bottom of the boat that had been bogged up with car bog. I don’t know why they used bog, but they did, and this was where it had been leaking through. My boat has some sort of under cavity bit where it all joins to the bottom bung hole (including the fish well) and then you have the top hole.
This under cavity had been slowly filling with water over the two fishing trips, and had just filled up. It must be some cavity with the amount of water that came out. No wonder we used so much fuel, the boat was weighted down with water.
We fixed the hole using a fiber glass repair kit and the next time we went out, we left at lunch, and came back in the afternoon. We decided we weren’t going to take any chances. The boat didn’t leak and it was our first trip with no issues (although after launching, we still forgot to remove the winch handle, and luckily found it in the car park!).
Last night was the first time I was taking my wife out, and it was just me and her. We planned this for quite some time, getting a babysitter, getting burley and bait and everything we needed. The plan was to crab at night near St. Kilda and then head out to the Shed for snapper and whiting in the early morning.
It was a nightmare!
Firstly, we put the boat in the water at the ramp, and I had forgotten to put the bungs in. I mean man, of all the things to forget. I couldn’t believe it when I looked into the boat to see a foot of water in the back half. If I hadn’t looked and drove the car of to the car park…….well, you can imagine.
I got completely soaked, not to mention the floor of the boat, but after getting the bungs in and getting the boat back on the trailer, we were able to get it out and drain it. Not to be defeated, we cleaned up and tried again.
Take two was better. We got out into the water and the plan was to crab around St. Kilda area in the evening, and then head out to the Shed before the high tide which was around 5:30am. After catching a few crabs it got late and we rested a bit before I started to head out.
Then my lack of inexperience with St. Kilda caused me issues again. I can not get this area right and three times I hit the sand and seaweed. Every time I though I was heading in the right direction – which was West on my compass, towards the Black Pole on my GPS and towards a flashing light, I still kept hitting the sand. In the end, I gave up, and just waited for other boats to come out before high tide and just follow them.
Sure enough, they started heading out around 4am, and so did we. We got to the Shed, burlied up, and waited around. Nothing was happening, and I remembered from the last time that we could actually see this huge lump on the fish finder, which I couldn’t see on this occasion. So after a while, we thought that if we just putt around the area, eventually we would find the lump on the fish finder.
After 10 minutes, I just could not find the lump, and so I said to my wife, just drop anchor here and we’ll keep waiting. Well, my wife; bless her cotton socks – she let the anchor out alright, she let it out without tying it, and we lost it!
My only positive at that point was that she did it and not me, and the reason I say this is because if I had done that, I would have been so upset with myself, I would have been a ba$%^rd to be around. As it were, she did it, and the last thing I wanted was her being upset. She tried not to cry but she couldn’t help herself.
I think if the last month had been rosier, then the loss of the anchor wouldn’t have been such a deal. But she knew I had been fighting everything uphill with this boat, and that this was possibly the last straw for me.
Well, I don’t know. Maybe I’m not cut out for boating, or maybe this is just the initiation stage most people go through before embarking on a very productive fishing and relaxing lifestyle – which essentially is my aim.
I called my friend to tell him the story and we laughed and laughed. This is truly a test of ones own fortitude. He let me know that he just happened to be in Big W that day where he saw anchors and ropes being sold. Funny that hey?
I know others have been through worse, a lot worse, but I really felt compelled to share this story. I feel a lot better having written this down, and hope that it brings a smile to a few faces.
Dean
I am new to this forum, and also new to boating, i.e. I bought my first decent sized boat about a month ago. A 17 foot Savage with a 115 Evinrude - not that I know much about boats and motors. I wanted to share my experiences with you all, as I feel that some may get a good laugh, but it has been a trying time for me and the only way to get over it is to laugh.
I bought the boat from a guy in Whyalla (incidentally, he put me in hospital over 15 years ago when we were kids but we are grown ups now!!), for $5000. His Dad just died and his decision to sell was an emotional one.
A friend and I tested the boat out in Whyalla's waters and because we caught 2 squid in a matter of minutes, I decided to buy it (that was a joke!).
Anyway, I drove back home to Adelaide, showed a couple of my mates and within a few days we were heading for St Kilda to launch and go fishing. We got the boat in the water no problem but the battery was flat. Because we had been trying out all the lights and gadgets etc, we had drained the battery without realizing it.
So I drove to the BP at Burton and bought a new battery, which is probably a good thing anyway as it pays to have a spare. So within the hour we were back on board, the motor was running, and we were heading out.
We had been told that St. Kilda can be dangerous in low tides but if we kept to ‘The Channel’, we should be right. However we left in daylight, and decided to come home at night, and at low tide! Stupidity, AND inexperience.
We had caught a few crabs and thought ourselves pretty clever. The boat motor had been running like a dream, we couldn’t see any leaks in the boat and all looked rosy, however the low tide at St. Kilda was about to give us our first real scare.
As we are inexperienced we weren’t confident of the actual where-a-bouts of the channel, and our natural tendency was to head towards the blue lights of St. Kilda. On more than one occasion we went from 10-12 feet of water to 2 feet within a few seconds, only to turn around just in the nick of time, head the other way and be met with the same problem the other way. It only became obvious to us later that we were bouncing from one side of the channel to the other trying to find our way back.
It got real scary when we didn’t turn back in time and the motor dug into the sand and seaweed. It was a trying time, and at one point, a seagull flew over us and then in front of us. We thought, maybe it’s showing us the way, and for a while it seemed it was, but nope, we almost run aground again.
Eventually we found the flashing lights and the black poles with the platforms on top, recognizing them from when we left; we finally got our bums back to the boat ramp. We realized how lucky we had been that things weren’t worse, but did afford a bit of a laugh. However, our mishaps hadn’t finished for the night.
After winching the boat back on the trailer, my mate had left the winch handle on the winch. It wasn’t until I turned onto Waterloo corner road that for some reason my mind just thought about it. “Hey, where did you put the winch handle?”
We looked in the car, in the boat and couldn’t find it. We drove all the way back to St. Kilda, looked around the marina and still no luck. After giving up, we headed back and just by pure luck, it happened to be in the middle of the road on the main bend of the main road to St. Kilda!
We decided to go out the following weekend, but this time we were going to leave on high tide, sleep in the boat and then come back on high tide. We had to sleep on the boat due to the times of the high tides.
On this night, we had no issues, well not really, as we had two batteries, but we found out how quickly the spot light fitted to the side of the boat drained the battery! Lucky we had two batteries. The other thing we found was that the fish well was filling with water. This didn’t happen the other night, but I found a bung in the boat which fitted the hole in the well nicely (still didn’t explain why there was no water filling it last week).
Mid-morning, I headed out to a drop called ‘The Shed’, for no other reason than that I found the GPS markers for it on the Internet and it said we can catch Snapper there. Once we got there, we slept a bit more and at dawn starting throwing our lines out.
Then I looked through the hole of the fish well cover and the damn thing was full again. We couldn’t work it out. Rather than panic (I mean we were only in 50 foot of water LOL), we just bucketed the water out, and decided to keep an eye on it. Then one of my friends noticed the water was coming from the front and not the back. The bottom cavities in the cabin were somehow filling with water and this was draining down into the fish well. At this point, my other mate noticed a gurgling sound and the back of the boat was starting to fill with water. Massive panic!
We instantly started heading back in, knowing we had about 16km to travel. When we launched the day before we had 50 liters of petrol, however, what we didn’t know was how long this amount of fuel would last. Again, inexperience was our downfall.
When the boat was starting to fill with water, we had just less than one full jerry, and the other two jerry’s had a few litres in them each. With a few kilometers to go, the main jerry ran out. I had to get one of my friends to plug in one of the other jerry’s and hold it in such a position, that we could the last few litres.
When that one ran out, we were actually in the marina’s channel, but we couldn’t get the motor to start on the third jerry’s bit of fuel and the boat floating aimlessly banged into the rocks. To my delight, it was just one of the fins on the motor that hit a rock and only left a small ding.
We finally got the motor started and got the ramp, and got the boat out of the water. Once on the trailer, we opened the two main bungs and the water just gushed out. Now for those who know this area of Adelaide, you are going to appreciate this next bit.
I live in Paralowie, and although close, is still a 10 minute drive from St. Kilda. When I arrived home, the water was still flowing out the bottom bung hole! I don’t mean trickling, it was still flowing!
We found an area on the bottom of the boat that had been bogged up with car bog. I don’t know why they used bog, but they did, and this was where it had been leaking through. My boat has some sort of under cavity bit where it all joins to the bottom bung hole (including the fish well) and then you have the top hole.
This under cavity had been slowly filling with water over the two fishing trips, and had just filled up. It must be some cavity with the amount of water that came out. No wonder we used so much fuel, the boat was weighted down with water.
We fixed the hole using a fiber glass repair kit and the next time we went out, we left at lunch, and came back in the afternoon. We decided we weren’t going to take any chances. The boat didn’t leak and it was our first trip with no issues (although after launching, we still forgot to remove the winch handle, and luckily found it in the car park!).
Last night was the first time I was taking my wife out, and it was just me and her. We planned this for quite some time, getting a babysitter, getting burley and bait and everything we needed. The plan was to crab at night near St. Kilda and then head out to the Shed for snapper and whiting in the early morning.
It was a nightmare!
Firstly, we put the boat in the water at the ramp, and I had forgotten to put the bungs in. I mean man, of all the things to forget. I couldn’t believe it when I looked into the boat to see a foot of water in the back half. If I hadn’t looked and drove the car of to the car park…….well, you can imagine.
I got completely soaked, not to mention the floor of the boat, but after getting the bungs in and getting the boat back on the trailer, we were able to get it out and drain it. Not to be defeated, we cleaned up and tried again.
Take two was better. We got out into the water and the plan was to crab around St. Kilda area in the evening, and then head out to the Shed before the high tide which was around 5:30am. After catching a few crabs it got late and we rested a bit before I started to head out.
Then my lack of inexperience with St. Kilda caused me issues again. I can not get this area right and three times I hit the sand and seaweed. Every time I though I was heading in the right direction – which was West on my compass, towards the Black Pole on my GPS and towards a flashing light, I still kept hitting the sand. In the end, I gave up, and just waited for other boats to come out before high tide and just follow them.
Sure enough, they started heading out around 4am, and so did we. We got to the Shed, burlied up, and waited around. Nothing was happening, and I remembered from the last time that we could actually see this huge lump on the fish finder, which I couldn’t see on this occasion. So after a while, we thought that if we just putt around the area, eventually we would find the lump on the fish finder.
After 10 minutes, I just could not find the lump, and so I said to my wife, just drop anchor here and we’ll keep waiting. Well, my wife; bless her cotton socks – she let the anchor out alright, she let it out without tying it, and we lost it!
My only positive at that point was that she did it and not me, and the reason I say this is because if I had done that, I would have been so upset with myself, I would have been a ba$%^rd to be around. As it were, she did it, and the last thing I wanted was her being upset. She tried not to cry but she couldn’t help herself.
I think if the last month had been rosier, then the loss of the anchor wouldn’t have been such a deal. But she knew I had been fighting everything uphill with this boat, and that this was possibly the last straw for me.
Well, I don’t know. Maybe I’m not cut out for boating, or maybe this is just the initiation stage most people go through before embarking on a very productive fishing and relaxing lifestyle – which essentially is my aim.
I called my friend to tell him the story and we laughed and laughed. This is truly a test of ones own fortitude. He let me know that he just happened to be in Big W that day where he saw anchors and ropes being sold. Funny that hey?
I know others have been through worse, a lot worse, but I really felt compelled to share this story. I feel a lot better having written this down, and hope that it brings a smile to a few faces.
Dean