Who lodges a Trip report before heading out wide.

[disorderly]

https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/farnorth...ing-to-vessel/

So it looks like lodging their trip report saved these fellas lives....

Lodged on Friday before leaving Innisfail(probably Mourilyan harbour)..

Come Sunday after they didnt return at the 11am time then a search was started and they were found just before dark at 5.45 pm..

Very very lucky for them as if they hadnt lodged the report naming the area they were in they would still be floating out there after the weekend finished 55-60kms from land...and also very lucky to be spotted half an hour before dark otherwise another night in the water..

A few things to unpack from that experience like where was the epirb located that someone couldnt dive under the hull and grab it..?

How did the boat sink or capsize so quickly in calm conditions without anyone being able to grab any safety gear....were they plastered ..?

Up here between Cairns and Townsville the coastguards are only open on weekends and any calls made during the week are usually transferred to Cairns (nearly 150KM's from our ramp at Mission beach or Mourilyan Harbour)and there is no station at Mission beach anyway so we never lodge a trip report from there regardless.

Do you guys lodge atrip report and how accurate does the times and places you go end up being and has anyone not signed out upon return or been late and received a call to locate you..?

3 ways to do a trip sheet..(its for Cairns so obviously use the details of your Local VMR station).

trip report.jpg

[Dignity]

https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/farnorth...ing-to-vessel/

So it looks like lodging their trip report saved these fellas lives....

Lodged on Friday before leaving Innisfail(probably Mourilyan harbour)..

Come Sunday after they didnt return at the 11am time then a search was started and they were found just before dark at 5.45 pm..

Very very lucky for them as if they hadnt lodged the report naming the area they were in they would still be floating out there after the weekend finished 55-60kms from land...and also very lucky to be spotted half an hour before dark otherwise another night in the water..

A few things to unpack from that experience like where was the epirb located that someone couldnt dive under the hull and grab it..?

How did the boat sink or capsize so quickly in calm conditions without anyone being able to grab any safety gear....were they plastered ..?

Up here between Cairns and Townsville the coastguards are only open on weekends and any calls made during the week are usually transferred to Cairns (nearly 150KM's from our ramp at Mission beach or Mourilyan Harbour)and there is no station at Mission beach anyway so we never lodge a trip report from there regardless.

Do you guys lodge atrip report and how accurate does the times and places you go end up being and has anyone not signed out upon return or been late and received a call to locate you..?

Yes, I logon usi g Tripwatch the night before and logoff ony return, also will call in if my destination changes. I also give a copy to my wife and if anyone is going with me I send it to them so their contacts have the details. I'm often on my own and always wear an inflatable life jacket, my mate has started wearing one as well especially since he stuffed his shoulders and realised that he wouldn't be able to swim as far as he could previously.

I've been late getting back, only 15 mins bit my wife has gotten a call from Coast Guard to find out if I was inshore or she had contact with me. They had tried to contact me but it must have been just when I was busy up front with leccy as I didn't hear them. Another time I was only 5 mins late and I could hear them calling me but as I was crossing the bar I couldn't take the call. Needless to say my wife got a call again in the few minutes before I could call them so I wasn't in her good books. The Caloundra Coast Guard here has a camera on the bar and one time going out I just hung around as the bar looked gnarly and it appeared to shallow. They called me up as they could see me and advised me that their boat couldn't get out around the same tide the previous day and to wait an hour and also the entry/exit had shifted south in the past few days.

They do a great job and I really should call them before crossing the bar, just a bad habit I need to break as the Bribie Island Bar, as it's called is getting rather problematic.

As for diving under and grabbing an Epirb it ain't going to happen. I can't swim other than 10 metres or so and I definitely can't open my eyes under water, followed an infection I once had, even my ophthalmologist has trouble checking my eyes out. I do keep a non inflatable life jacket within hands reach as I've tested a few inflatables and it's amazing how easy it is to puncture them, imagine diving under wearing one and snagging it let alone an automaticly inflatable. But then my epirb is also within a hand span of where I grab the TTOP.

[Corry]

I've got to admit, I don't log in, and I believe I should.
Some of my feeble excuses are that when I kitted the boat out I put the VHF inside the storage box in the overhead under the Targa, this makes it a pain to get to, I also don't know how to use it properly, I should have got a basic one, but everytime I turn it on it beeps and screams at me, so then I just turn it off again (and while it is where it is I can't see the screen on it), and I don't really know how to log in nowadays. In the older days it was just radioing in when leaving, this not only created the log, but confirmed that your radio was working ok.

When I used to volunteer for VMR in Gladstone, I would encourage everyone to log in as they left the ramp, understanding the benefits from it if something were to go south. During the day I would radio anyone who had passed their next check in time, or return time by 30 min just to check if things were ok, at the end of shift I would ring anyone who hadn't logged off and should have, and for those that were staying out longer than the end of shift I would radio and get them to confirm that they were still ok and prepped for their night.

I need to get on to how to do it now, and need to do it each time. Had a couple of close calls with whales, and with shallow reefs that have scared the ink out of me a couple of time, could be a long wait floating around if it does turn south. I also need to commit to moving the radio to an accessible place.
I remember a few weeks back when we were at Hinchinbrook a bloke come in and seen a few of us that were staying at the Lodge and asked about a bloke who'd logged on but hadn't logged off. Happened to be one of the guests at the Lodge, so happy ending, but the guys chasing him down had been walking around for the last hour looking through all the accommodation areas for him, great effort, and good on him for not giving up.

[chris69]

May be a auto bilge pump might have saved the boat sinking iiiiiiif you hear that one going off ist time to turn the other bilge pump on too ,thats if you battery isnt under water.

Im thinking why there boat sunk no neutral of positive floatation by the sounds of it that should be a no brainer these days if you havent got it get it.

[Dignity]

May be a auto bilge pump might have saved the boat sinking iiiiiiif you hear that one going off ist time to turn the other bilge pump on too ,thats if you battery isnt under water.

Im thinking why there boat sunk no neutral of positive floatation by the sounds of it that should be a no brainer these days if you havent got it get it.

A couple of bilge pumps actually don't do much. 1000 gall/hr pump will literally pump out around 1.25 L per second, no where near enough in a lot of situations. You really need something like 10,000 gals per hour to have any effect. Most bilge pumps are basically only useful for a little bit of a leak in the most but not for anything serious. Take a wave over the bow crossing a bar and most bilge pumps are virtually useless.

[Flex]

I dont feel the need to log on/off if you have a mrs/friend/family at home who you tell where you are headed and expected home time. I screen shot where im headed on google earth/maps and give it my mrs/family before headed out
Give them the coast guard number and they can call if you dont return.

Ive logged trips with coast guard before on overnighters. i go to log off the next day and they have no record of my login so never again for me.

As for sinking, alot of boats have thru hull live bait tank fittings etc. ive seen one of them come loose and nearly sink a boat in minutes and can overwhelm auto bilges. especially boats that have fully concealed bilge areas. you often dont notice 400l of water in your hull till to late.

[disorderly]

Yeah flex i guess it depends on the local VMR's I reckon some up here ara just a few old diggers hanging on to the old school traditions of pen and paper and memebr names in rollerdexs and raising some money for xmas parties...

It definately needs a bit of money and training injected to help with systems/technology training and a revamp which i beleive has started happening now around Brisbane at least to bring the outdated and undermanned system into the 21st century..

i imagine its pretty difficult when some of these stations have been running it the same way for a quarter of a century and dont want new folks with new fangled ideas coming in telling them better ways to do things...

A couple of times I have needed them they have been good but the calls were put through to Cairns and they co-ordinated the tow with the local bases because they were on weekdays...

The last time however my phonecall to the local VMR went unanswered and another number was given as a message ..this number was a family memvber of the VMR guy and also went to voicemail...

The whole system needs a huge overhaul...and also some relocation in our area as the Tully heads and cardwell VMRS cant even get a boat out below 1.6m of tide whereas Clump point at Mission beach recently had more then 20 million spent on Marine infrastructure and upgrades and is all tide but has no VMR ..its mind boggling indeed..

[disorderly]

So a bit more of the story of the fellas rescued last weekend..

It seems to raise more questions then answers though....

The 7m cat must have had some type of hull breach or leak that slowly filled the hull over the course of the trip..

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...de20668a&ei=36

and it seems if you are being circled by hungry sharks then just pour some fuel into the water and although it will burn the shit out of you at least you will be safe from attack...

[Brettoh]

I log in most of the time. I enjoy the chat with the MRQ guys.
On occasion, when I have been out by myself the wife has come back from work and tried to call me on the phone. If I am out of range she has called VMR and they tell he when I last called in and where I am. Its great. We are lucky to have people volunteering for this service.