Old Mans Hat Nightmare

[whi7eindustries]

Set off early this morning to beat the crowds at OMH, had a great fish and pulled in heaps of livies which in turn pulled in some good Kings, it started to get abit too busy, around eight boats all up, so we moved out towards Bluefish point. Never seen so many birds flying around, awesome sight, as we trolled out, both lures got smashed so hard I actually thought the Ugly's were going to struggle. Pulled in some of THE biggest Salmon I've ever seen, around 8kg easliy. Anyway, the wind picked up and the swell got abit hairy so we headed back in. Great to see no-one at the OMH, came around to drop the anchor when the engine just stopped dead, not a great place to have your engine stuff up, especially with the swell running straight onto the rocks. Went to see what the problem was, and there was some twats anchor rope wrapped around the prop, at which point I realised we were now anchored by this rope with the transom pointing straight into the swell, even better. I have a stern drive which a: doesn't lift very high and b: weighs a bloody ton. So I ended up standing on the cavitation plate and trying to cut myself free whilst being hammered by an onshore swell, had the bilge pump running the whole time as we were taking on a fair amount of water. Cut the rope to the anchor, still couldn't even turn the prop, but light at the end of the tunnel. A couple of really great guys in an orange fibreglass runabout gave us a tow round to Quarantine beach so we could jump off and remove the rest of the rope. I would like to say a massive thankyou to those guys, you really are troopers, really really appreciate your help, pretty much saved my boat.

I know OMH is a great spot and very popular with everyone, but for gods sake be aware of other boaties, if you do have to cut your anchor rope, tie a lead to the end so it sinks back down, there is way to much traffic through there to leave ropes floating around, this could have been a proper disaster story. Sorry for the long winded story, but thought it kinda important that people know about it.

[Josh88]

Good report mate, sounds like things were getting pretty hairy, glad you got out of it safely though.

8kg Salmon is bloody enormous especially in Sydney, have to be up around 90cm or so?

Don't suppose you got any pics??

Cheers

Josh

[whi7eindustries]

Good report mate, sounds like things were getting pretty hairy, glad you got out of it safely though.

8kg Salmon is bloody enormous especially in Sydney, have to be up around 90cm or so?

Don't suppose you got any pics??

Cheers

Josh

Must confess I was pretty worried about the boat, one big wave and it would've gone under. Don't normally carry a camera onboard, probably should huh. It wouldn't fit into the fish box (recycling box), big fat bugger, the birds were circling an area around 1km, I'm sure there will be more reports as there were a few boats amongst it all.

Cheers

Tobin

[stylo]

Forget the pics mate. Glad you came out of it OK.

[arpie]

OMG!! That was a close call Tobin!! Thank goodness for your saviours! Nothing worse than being tied rear to a big swell (other than being broadsided by giant swell too!) Go & get a lottery ticket or two ...... the rest of that rope is still out there, to catch someone else, too!!

Well done on the sammies tho!

Cheers

Roberta

[glennmreid]

glad you got away ok. good to see there are still decent people out there willing to help someone in trouble

[whi7eindustries]

glad you got away ok. good to see there are still decent people out there willing to help someone in trouble

It was almost Karma, a week earlier we towed a tinnie with a stuffed motor around to the same beach. I reckon they must see quite a few boats being towed into there.