Picked the WRONG night

#1

G'Day all,
Went out on Tuesday for an overnight trip. Was supposed to be Monday but the deckie got the date wrong. Wx was marginal by the forecast but decided to go. Bad move.
25 miles off Brisbane & the current in 250' is roaring. Could not keep a bait on the bottom. We normally drift this area & deploy a parachute. But never put the chute out at night. Soooooooooooo. Head back. Major wind shift & we are punching into 4-6 footers with speed down to 7-8 knots. Head back East at the same revs & the GPS shows 13 knots. Tide was zipping along at FIVE knots. :shock: :shock: :shock:
Get in behind Moreton Island under the lighthouse & set the reef pick. Turn on the GPS anchor alarm & wait. Sure enough we are not holding. Pull out the
big anchor with 20 foot of 1/2 inch chain. Finally hook up. Set alarm again & wait. Looking good. :) :) :) We are out of the wind which is gusting 25-30 knots but still getting 3-4 foot waves which made for a bad nights sleep.
Pull the pick at dawn & head home into 15 knots of SW wind & a nasty 4 foot slop. But a cabin keeps you dry & out of the wind. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Moral of the story: If your deckie is late, mow the lawn.

Frank on the radio letting the Coast Guard know where we are.

Punching into to it on the return trip. It is really hard to get a pic of water coming over the front. :roll:

Wake. Looks pretty snotty even with the sun shining.

The reef pick is 2" pipe filled with lead. Weighs about 20lb. Prongs bent back easily by the wave action on the hull. And there was heaps of rope out. But the 15lb sand/mud anchor with lots of chain held on a rubble/rock bottom.

As you can see, went with marine carpet on the deck. So soft but with great traction.

Bullshipper · #2

You guys must have been bushed (very tired) by the time you hit the sack the next night. No fun being the cork.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BLM26CC · #3

Same here, big time current.....it's a New Moon down under too!
Dang Pete, what do you do when that carpet gets all goowy fish fish snot? Just yank it out and wash it?

I bought a parchute "for" bad wind and seas, to keep the boat heading into it all. I thought that's why it might be a good idea to have one.
Have a friend with a big 55' long-liner boat and in 20 foot seas he swears the only thing that kept him floating was a huge parachute anchor. So I bought one too, just smaller.

I don't think I'd get much sleep either.

#4

JETTYWOLF wrote:Same here, big time current.....it's a New Moon down under too!
Dang Pete, what do you do when that carpet gets all goowy fish fish snot? Just yank it out and wash it?

Hi Dave,
This is the third boat that I have put marine carpet in. It is really easy to keep clean. I hose it down at sea if it gets blood & guts on it using the high pressure deck wash. That is the secret. The sea water dissolves everything & it drains out through the scuppers. But if you do not hose it down before it bakes dry, then there are problems.