ON A NOT SO GOOD FRIDAY NIGHT
Whenever I am delivering a skipper’s course and start discussing the benefits of having a safety barrel to store essential safety items, I am drawn to my own experience as a twelve year old boy. Last week a client urged me to retell this story and although it is difficult to share now that my dad has passed away, it is a valuable boating lesson and possibly part of the reason I run marine safety courses.
Captain Jack, as dad was known, never had much money and so often used to barter for what he needed, using either his lawn mowing skills, home brewed beer or other acquired items. His mum lived at Nelson’s Bay, on the NSW north coast, conveniently directly across the road from the RSL Club, where rumour has it she spent more time than at home, but that’s another story. Jack and I would often do fishing trips up from Sydney, mostly fishing from the shoreline, but Jack was getting a bit jack of this and so on one occasion bartered to borrow a mate’s ‘dingy’ dinghy. As a twelve year old I had little knowledge about boats, was a keen fisho, so thought nothing of it as we geared up for a night fish in the bay. My main recollection is a boat full of stuff, with none of it resembling safety gear. We were about 300 metres from the shore, the night was clear, no wind to speak of. Bliss really, until Jack stood up to have a leak over the side and in a split second we were capsized. As I came up for air, there was no sign of Jack as he was under the boat, as he was wallowing in a heavy duty fireman’s jacket, which, once soaked, acted like an anchor. He discarded the jacket and we stayed with the dinghy ( allelujah, it had flotation ) as it began to move with the outgoing tide. My immediate aim was to swim to shore, but Jack was having none of that, not because it was unsafe, but he did not want to pay for a new boat. I became a little concerned when it became obvious we were on our way out to sea. In the distance we could see a large vessel at anchor, the only vessel really and as we passed nearby, began yelling frantically. At the last gasp, a guy rushed out and at full stretch I managed to get my two fingers around the end of the boat hook he had extended. Jack had my other arm in a vice grip, he was holding onto the front of the dinghy and the tide was working against us. As my fingers were slipping, I screamed for him to let the boat go, which he did, reluctantly. Our rescuer took us to shore in his tender, soaking wet and we walked the five miles back to the car. I thought it was just another adventure at the time, although reality set in when the boat was found the next day,15 miles out to sea. Later that night, Jack penned a verse which started with, ‘On a Good Friday night, without setting a light, Jack and Wayne went a boating. But if only they knew, in a moment of two, both of them would be floating’.
To answer last week’s question, perigree is the name for the point in the orbit of the moon, at which it is nearest to the earth. This week’s question is, “Why are there always big tides at Easter?”
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