Dnarever wrote on Feb 10
th, 2022 at 8:08am:
freediver wrote on Feb 9
th, 2022 at 9:02pm:
Have you ever had a good day rock fishing when they were predicting a howling southeaster and 6 foot swell?
Nobody even slightly sane would even try the rocks in conditions like this.
Every year people fail to survive this situation.
Agreed, but people still do it.
Mostly people not familiar with the Australian coast and it's propensity to throw the rogue set every now and then.
Quite often, I sit in our radio base and watch people in too small a craft head out onto seas which are far too rough to go into.
Some get a fright and turn around and come back.
Some keep going
Some, we have to rescue.
I have been on the boats, on boat duty, and had to fight serious seas to rescue some clown who took a tinny off shore.
And it's not just off shore.
Most lakes have some nasty waves and chop in the right weather.
I have rescued clowns who have tried to get across the lake with a 10ft tinny and a 4 HP motor in 6 foot waves.
What they fail to realise is that it's not just them they are putting in danger.
It's the rescue teams and anyone fool enough to join them.
But my all time favorite.
A small 10 ft tinny with a 2.5 HP motor.
A family of "large" New Zealanders, wanted to get to the sand island for a picnic.
It was only about 100 metres of very fast flowing water to traverse.
And the tinny had a good 4 inches of freeboard before water started coming over the sides.
And just because they didn't open the vent on the fuel tank and the motor died from fuel starvation, and it was only natural for the biggest guy on the boat to stand up and attempt to restart the motor.
Of course, no one was wearing any of the life jackets that floated away when the tinny went down.
And apparently swimming lessons were not a part of the education of those on board.
They were more than fortunate that the skipper saw the accident happening before the tinny started out and headed their way at full volume.
We got there in time to throw the adults flotation devices while we set about rescuing the three young children.
Once we got them back to shore and towed the tinny back.
We found the motor/ fuel tank problem, explained the tag on the boat identifying MAX NUMBER OF PEOPLE and explained what the "now lost" life jackets were for.
They were very lucky.
Had we not just finished an assist and been in the vicinity.
Had the skipper not been quick enough to see the danger.
Had we not reacted as we had, several people coukd be dead.
That my friend is what common sense IS NOT.
Forum
Pages: 
