New Artificial Reef?

[David_P]

Had a few days up Wathumba way over the Aussie Day weekend and came across the unfortunate sight of a bogged 4wd in Wathumba Ck. Apparently these guys had launched their tinnies on the southern side, gone fishing and on their return found the creek too shallow to get the boats back in. Rather than wait for the tide, they drove their utes across the creek to the northern side, retrieved the boats, and it was on their way back that one got bogged.

The tide was still very low, and we only just srapped back in but the tide was rising! By the time we got there, there was bugger all chance of recovery with the salt getting higher and higher. I couldn't help but feel sorry for these guys as they started stripping radios etc from the ute before the salt got them. Though I did wonder why anyone would deliberately drive through salt water, not to mention that cars are banned on the north shore of Wathumba.

Anyway, as the tide swallowed the ute we had a rum with the owner on the tray, and he even shouted us another when ours ran out. Pretty decent bloke considering his ute was now buggered :) Wasn't a bad spot to sit on the tray either, with the tide rising and the sun setting :)

Next morning, Sunday, we anchored the boat beside the ute which now had about four feet of water over the cab. Went for a snorkel to see if any jacks had taken up residence, but still too early for that. Heres a few pics..... Hope all works out well for them in the end, if that's possible :-?

[David_P]

Tracks....

[David_P]

Time for a swim....

[wayne_cook]

scary stuff!I wonder how much rum was had defore the crossing was made? ;)

[Argle]

For sale, 1 Patrol ute one careful owner no rust (yet) :P It never ceases to amaze me what people will do to destroy a perfectly good vehicle.
I guess he wishes he had waited for the tide now, one too many rums already methinks.

Cheers and Beers

[revs57]

Dave, I thought this post may have been about the Hornet that went down of 250 k's SE of Brisbane the other day off the Ronnie Regan,

Damn shame to lose a nice rig...good on you for consoling the owner and sharing his grief...and rum ;)

Seeing things like this always remind me that I've still gotta drive my 4x4 to work on monday and I can't do that if its parked on a beach somewhere...

Cheers

Rhys

[cooky]

does look like a pretty well spec'd ute from what you can see, so they probably thought they'd be right. Don't know why you'd try it without another vehicle to winch / strap you out though - must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed or had little sand experience. Wet sand can be hard or very soft. Recently I hit really boggy soft dry sand on the beach and started to bog down so decided stupidly in a millisecond to turn with the downward slope to pick up speed, at the bottom was some wet sand (looked hard). In another millisecond I was bogged deeply in this soft crap (on one side). Fortunately brother in-law was near at hand with winch. I have been badly bogged in a tidal area before (many years ago) and was sole vehicle - fortunately for mobile phones I was able to call friends for help. I won't risk it if help not close at hand.

The following photo was taken in Townsville on Australia Day. Myself and friends were on the way for a 4x4 trip and came across this ute that the owner had decided to attempt to cross this flooded crossing 1 minute before - you can see the result of his efforts in the photo.

[David_P]

Dave, I thought this post may have been about the Hornet that went down of 250 k's SE of Brisbane the other day off the Ronnie Regan,

Damn shame to lose a nice rig...good on you for consoling the owner and sharing his grief...and rum ;)

Seeing things like this always remind me that I've still gotta drive my 4x4 to work on monday and I can't do that if its parked on a beach somewhere...

Cheers

Rhys

Hi Rhys,

Always happy to console and share others rumbos ;)

As a matter of interest there was another well spec'd ute with them, but no snatch strap. They tried winching out till that gave up the ghost, then tried towing out with the winch cable. Wet sand is pretty hard to pull out of though. Also, none of the guys there seemed as though they'd been drinking excessively, just guilty of being impatient.

I reckon they might have tied on a big one though once they got back to camp. I know we had a few in order to help cope with their grief ::)

Regards,
Dave.