near misses

[disorderly]

There has been a few boating accidents/mishaps lately.
I just wondered how many of us have been in a situation that through inexperience/or quite simply a misjudgment that have caused us to come near to the point of grief. http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/embarassed.gif
I also wonder how many of us are willing to admit to such near misses.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gif
I think to admit them and share them could possibly help someone else from getting into trouble.

So a couple of mine are:-

I was once a few years ago flying home in good conditions from out wide but directly into the sun when my deckie asked why Beaver cay was so close off the starboard bow...good question he had seen it before me.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/sad.gif..I had plotted our route on the GPS...you know one of those GPS's that just plots but has no maps...they used to be great devises except that it was preferable to ascertain if there were any reefs in between point A and point B...well it was a wake up call and I decided to go around the reef rather than straight over ithttp://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gifhttp://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/grin.gif.

Another time at night with the same old GPS I was approaching the shore at 20 plus knots in pitch blackness by myself having travelled over 50 km's home and was relying on the lights in front of me to guide me to the ramp...however i suddenly realized that the lights did not seem quite right and I stopped the boat ,thankfully before I ran up onto rocks in the shallows about 500 metres south of where I thought I was...

Another time was just last trip.
I was approaching the ramp after a 70 km return trip by myself again and decided to try and cut across The Quickcat doing 20 knots...a large passenger catamaran that was heading towards its dock 500 metres past the Boatramp .....I knew I was running on fumes but having no gauges on the boat I usually am guesstimating fuel consumption at sea and pushed down the throttle to WOT for the last couple of hundred metres ...the old girl spluttered and died just short of the path of the much larger boat (thankfully which would not have been able to stop)).http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/rolleyes.gif

Anyone else willing to admit to their stuff ups?http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif

Scott

[Noelm]

one that comes to mind, but was spooky and not really my fault, was way back when I had a big Boat in Jervis Bay, (most know that it has a Navy base) I was steaming across the Bay late one night, at the Wheel and just chatting away, when right in front of us, about 10 million watt spot lights turn on us, and a loud hailer thingy telling us to alter course!! it was an almost submerged Submarine right in our path, nearly crapped our pants! would have been kind of funny to run over/into it I reckon!

[gunna]

I was about 1k out of Mooloolabah, heading back in in the dark, when a yacht passed me going out. Quite close. I hadn't seen his nav lights at all with all the onshore lights in the background. Could have been nasty.

[mirage]

Two years ago heading back into Mooloolaba, at night, missed an anchored tinny by about 100 feet. He was about 3 Nm out with no lights on at all. Only saw him in some moonlight as we went past doing 25kts! Not Happy Jan!

Been thinking about getting a radar ever since and pay a lot more attention now around the Inner Gneerings coming home.

[onerabbit]

We were fishing the 48s off Ballina one morning when we spotted a boat about 2 miles to the south of us. My deckie always likes to prove that his eye-sight is better than mine, so eyes were peeled to identify the pro crab boat, we agreed, it was Woodsy.
He mucked around a bit down there, we moved back onto our mark, then we noticed him moving up our way, no probs...

By the time he was about half a mile from us we realised he was coming over for a chat, as he had done many times, that's all good.

There is another pro crabber in Ballina (retired now) who used to approach us the same, FLAT OUT, STRAIGHT AT YOU, then pull up in the nick of time............& act like nothing was wrong, we just thought Woodsy was pulling a "Jack".

He was about 30-40 meters from us when he hit a big swell......& all we could see was the bottom of his 5.5 tonnes boat, & hear his motors roaring..we were starting to realise we were in the sh!t, we were set to go straight down the tunnel of his big cat head first, & he hadn't seen us................................................ ...

Amazingly, the next swell to come through pushed him more than us, so we were sliding down the back while he was still on the face of the swell when we made contact,
a million things went right............
at moment of contact, his boat was down in the water, had he still been in the air, or the angle of impact been more & he climbed over the side..........it would have been all over,
as it was all 3 of us were knocked off our feet, the side mounted bait-board flew through the air harder than i could throw it, into my mates back,
the inside of the boat was a mess, side pockets knocked totally off the outer skin, no-one dropped their rod though.....

I wasn't very social at first.....as you could imagine, even more irrate when the 2 deckies came out of the cab & dropped 2 lines down, I kid you not..............

Old mate wears coke bottle glasses & claimed we must have been in the sun, he said the first he knew was my arial flag hitting his windscreen.

On the good side, no damage that couldn't be fixed, in fact it has made her a stronger boat, & Woodsy was more than happy to cover all costs,

but I wouldn't go through it again for the world,

Muzz

[death_ship]

last trip out we nearly went into the path of a ship in the main shipping channel of moreton bay in total darkness, pulled up to see it cross our bow 200m away, real scary. then nearly ran over a tinny at the cape, saw the lighters going off! twits. then had a goose in a 2500 power cat cross my bow at 25 knots, he was doing 30, not once but three times as he negotiated what he thought was the channel at combie point. then back at scarborough asked if i caught anything! meanwhile while trying to get my decky onto the pontoon to get the trailer some bloke fishing off the pickup pontoon didnt move his rod and watched it wrap around my prop and bust off. some days it pays to stay home.

[Angla]

Muzz, Thanks for that story. In hindsight is there anything you could or would have done different.
Did jumping off the boat come to mind at all? Seriously ( not poking fun at you )

Chris

[FNQCairns]

Muzz, Thanks for that story. In hindsight is there anything you could or would have done different.
Did jumping off the boat come to mind at all? Seriously ( not poking fun at you )

Chris

Possibly a fog airhorn???? Thinking back one of those would have come in handy during night travels.

cheers fnq

[fivefishes]

Evening,

A few years ago we were about 5 miles SE of the Seaway heading into a reasonable SE swell and breeze on what was supposed to be a nice day (Good old BOM wrong again) and about 50m in front of the boat a bloody whale surfaced, scared the crap out of us, hate to think bout hitting that thing. He went under and never resurfaced, had us concerned enough to tread carefully for the next mile or so.

Matt

[Noiseworks]

G'day, new to boating and already lucky to be alive. About a fortnight ago I ( in my wisdom) decided to take the missus and 2 of my kids for trip out to Keswick/St Bees. Trip started out rough but much worse. Ended up with all 3 passengers sea sick and scared. Made it to the islands (wife couldn't really appreciate them from her view point;)
Trip home scared the bejezzus out of us. Consider myself lucky to have made it. In hindsight I can guarantee that i won't be going out in conditions like that again (20knots, seas 2m +). Missus took it like a trooper and they only thing she said when we got back to the marina was 'Thanks for getting us home'. I'm a very lucky guy.
Oops. ... forgot, our trip was in Seafarer 4.74 V-sea. I reckon if it wasn't for this plucky little boat I wouldn't have been so fortunate.

Ta Noiseworks

p.s. Suggestion - consider what can be lost, compared to any gain before acting.

[Apollo]

Few years back, I was delivering a 48' yacht to Sydney from Brisbane. Late at night off Port Stephens sailing at about 8knts in a pleasant Westerly, I on deck by myself with the autohelm on and siting on the bow enjoying the night. We were running full nav lights, which for the yacht were bow port & starboards and a stern light. Cruising along, watching out into the darkness, then about 60m away I spot a faint amber glow directly ahead- S#%T a smoke in some peckers doppy gob. Can't see how big the their boat is (completely unlit) but they aren't moving. About now, he sees us as the amber glow drops. I turn and try to sprint 48 feet in the other direction to disengauge the autohelm and try to avoid an ugly prang. Got about 12 feet before the life line on my safety harness pulls taught (always wear one when on deck by myself) and I go splat on the deck. Unhook and run back to switch off the autohelm and turn around to see where they are. Can't see them, then suddenly they (4-5m runabout with two POB) run right down the side of the yacht missing them by less than 30cm. I did 'politely' ask the whereabouts of their lights to which they replied that they "didn't think anyone was out here". Mind you, by the smell of it, either they had poor personal hygiene or one/both might have needed an underwear change very soon afterwards. I did check back a few times, but didn't see any lights get switched on. Wouldn't have been a high speed accident, but many tonnes of yacht doing 8knt is going to hurt!

[onerabbit]

Muzz, Thanks for that story. In hindsight is there anything you could or would have done different.
Did jumping off the boat come to mind at all? Seriously ( not poking fun at you )

Chris

Hi Chris,
My boat is a mid 80s Seafarer Vermont (5.25), it's white & I still struggle to understand how 3 blokes in a small cab failed to see us in broad daylight.

I think if it was a strange boat approaching I may have re-acted quicker, but were simply thought he was coming over for a chat, as he had done many times in the past.
Just for the record, I have a very large, very loud horn fitted to my boat, but when we realised he wasn't going to stop, there was no time left.
Ida (AF member) & myself only had time to sandwich my 16 yr old between us, & yes, prepare to jump.. I all happened so quick, no time to look for jackets, or even talk, just "HANG ON" at the moment of impact.
Had the swells not pushed us like they did, the whole boat would gone head first under his big cat.
It was very scary & I still get a bit funny thinking about it.

One thing for sure now, ANY approaching vessel that I'm not ABSOLUTELY SURE has seen me gets a big blast, then 5 more short ones, river or sea, I dont care.


Muzz

[disorderly]

Love the horn,muzz...does it play a tune?http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/grin.gif.
There's going to be a few people getting a fright if they come within 100 metres of you now, mate http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gifhttp://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif.

scott

[mik01]

Hi Chris,
My boat is a mid 80s Seafarer Vermont (5.25), it's white & I still struggle to understand how 3 blokes in a small cab failed to see us in broad daylight.

I think if it was a strange boat approaching I may have re-acted quicker, but were simply thought he was coming over for a chat, as he had done many times in the past.
Just for the record, I have a very large, very loud horn fitted to my boat, but when we realised he wasn't going to stop, there was no time left.
Ida (AF member) & myself only had time to sandwich my 16 yr old between us, & yes, prepare to jump.. I all happened so quick, no time to look for jackets, or even talk, just "HANG ON" at the moment of impact.
Had the swells not pushed us like they did, the whole boat would gone head first under his big cat.
It was very scary & I still get a bit funny thinking about it.

One thing for sure now, ANY approaching vessel that I'm not ABSOLUTELY SURE has seen me gets a big blast, then 5 more short ones, river or sea, I dont care.


Muzz

yeah the big tankers in the river and channel in the bay don't muck around - if they're even slightly unsure they'll give a blast.

makes me think about getting something like that fitted - no special horn, Muzz - just a 'standard' air horn?

[Fish Guts]

i really think sound signals should be used more in recreational boating. in risk of having the broadwater sound like a tokyo roundabout with horns blowing, i think it would be good.

[onerabbit]

Love the horn,muzz...does it play a tune?http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/grin.gif.
There's going to be a few people getting a fright if they come within 100 metres of you now, mate http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gifhttp://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif.

scott

Nah , just a single note, would be good if you could pick a song though, something appropriate:D .

I had it fitted ages ago after a bit of a scare with a small Navy boat , same thing, we were just on his course, but I had no way to alert him of our presence.

I was just getting ready to fire the boat up when he suddenly changed course (when he saw us).

Probably should put up a poll ? But how many already have a horn in their boat??

I've had to use it quite a few times now, perhaps they should be considered standard eqipment?

Muzz