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My weekend rendezvous with adventure


1800amix

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Well, what an effort this weekend was.

As I wasn't competing in the BRC I decided earlier in the week to head over to Moreton weekend and try out the

Curtain Artificial Reef. I had also booked the wife in to do her boat licence with Archie on Saturday morning so

while she was doing that I prepared the boat and got everything organised.

Friday night she was complaining that she didn't want to do it but after I picked her up on Saturday she was stoked

to have completed it. She also mentioned, "Archies boat is much better to ride in than ours, it doesn't stink of 2-stroke" Looking back, I wonder if this was an omen.

My deckie met us back at my place and we hooked up the boat and headed out to Whyte Island ramp to launch. I'd

expected to get here a little earlier than we had because I wanted to get to moreton well before dark so we could

sound around and get some livebait etc.

With the fuel tanks full and the boat in the water, we headed out the mouth of the river and into the bay. Everything

was going well until we got to the last markers of the channel and the bay started to get a little choppy, not too

bad though, but it did turn a 40 minute trip into about 1:40. We got to Curtain just before sunset so we managed to

find a spot and anchored up. Finding bait was a lost cause so we were left with dead baits and plastics.

There were a number of boats with us and we all seemed to be working hard to try and catch something. In the next few

hours the only bite and catch I got was a small bream. Pretty disapointed but at least off the doughnut.

The wind started picking up and the stars started to dissapear around 10:30 so we decided to find a calmer place to anchor up for the night but my deckie was having a hard time pulling up the anchor. I gave it a shot myself and had no luck either. We even tried driving off it with the outboard but no luck.

The other boats were starting to leave and we made the decision to just sit tight where we were. And seeing as we were firmly anchored, LOL, why not.

As luck would have it, I was now staring down the face of a nice Migraine coming on. So while my deckie caught a few zzz's I sat up and kept an eye on our position. The wind was fierce, in the dark it felt like about 25knts and it was like crossing the bay all over again but we held fast and although be bounced around a lot it wasn't too bad. By 4am dawn was giving me some light so I moved around a bit, drank heaps of water and had a massive hurl overboard to try and relieve this migraine. It sorta worked a bit and I was now down to a manageable headache. My deckie woke around 5am and we decided maybe we should head down to Tangalooma and see I can get some panadol or something.

Again we tried to free ourselves from the bay floor but our anchor was well and truly... anchored LOL.

I handed my deckie a knife and we cut ourselves free. Looks like I'm due to spend some more sheckles at Whitworths.

We cruised on down to Tangalooma and anchored up just south of the jetty there on my reef anchor. It was now 6am so we could either sit here and wait for a shop to open (if there was one) or start heading back to port.

I checked the weather and the report said <4knts S/SE and looking accross the bay didn't really agree with this so I checked the Aeroweather site that I use for flight planning. I usually find this more accurate as aviation weather reports are updated more frequently than anything else I've managed to find over the years.

Brisbane airport was reporting 9knts SW which agreed more with what I was seeing on the water. With High tide due at the bar at 10am we decided to start heading back now as the chance of the afternoon being worse in the bay is always on the cards.

As we got away from Moreton, the chop slowed us down to about 6-8knts and we took what seemed like an eternity to get abeam Mud Island. We decided to stop there for a bit, have a quick fish and rest for an hour. We anchored up on the reef anchor and threw out a line. It didn't take us long to realise that this anchor wasn't going to cut it so we just drifted around Mud for a bit and picked up half a dozen sweetlip. We joked on our efforts over at Moreton compared to our results at good old Muddy. With all that we'd been through in the past hours we were wondering how much trouble we have to get into to qualify for report of the month, or is it only for 'good' fishing reports ;-)

As the bite stopped around the high we started our last run from Mud to the mouth of the river and then headed back towards the ramp. Little beknown to us, the fishing gods had not finished with us yet. As we turned the port marker to head to the ramp at Whyte Island the engine died. "Ah, that'll be time to change tanks' I said to my deckie. Changed tanks, no go. Changed battery, no go. We were now drifting back into the Brisbane river, with the reef anchor about as usefull as a stick at this point.

We'd been sitting there for about ten minutes until we managed to wave down a coupe of AFO members who happily (well I hope) towed us the last few hundred metres back to the ramp. Thanks Rocket and Old Scaley, really appreciate the help!

We loaded up the boat and started our drive home to assess the problem there.

We managed one final incident on the way home with my deckie leaving the winch handle on the winch which managed to come off halfway home. He ran back up the road to retrieve it and we were now driving the last ten k's wondering what else could possibly happen this weekend.

Home, unloaded the boat and washed it down, totally knackered, headache still pounding away, we put the boat away and sat down and watched the fishing show.

I'll start assessing the engine later, or maybe it's time to get that four stroke for my wife!

Thanks for reading.

Amix

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now that was a weekend you'd have been better off spending in the yard with the mower and a few coldies.

towing you back was not a problem mate, Steve and I were heading back after one more drift anyway, so we figured that if we hadn't caught the winning fish after 16 hours of solid fishing then we may as well give up to help some needy fishos...didn't know if course that you were AFOers until we got close enough to see you.

Good luck with the new motor mate...wounds like a great Xmas present for your lovely wife (and maybe her next birthday too)

rod

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Yea I cant see how that comment could ever be an omen... more of a win win situation I think!

What sort of anchor did you donate to the reef? If it was a sand anchor then, a trick I have used for many years on anchors is with cable ties. I will try and explain it here. Unscrew the shackle holding the length of chain to the shank of the anchor and secure it to the top of the anchhor on either flat plate located on either side. Now run the chain down the shank past where it was originally secured and this is where you will cable tie the chain link to the anchor. I use a loop of cable tie loose enough that if you pull on the chain while its laying along the shank of the anchor it will 'load up' at the shackle and the cable tie will still be just loose. Theory is you anchor as normal and the normal rocking and rolling of the boat is absorbed by the chain weight, but when time to retrieve and you are stuck, you pull hard breaking the cable ties and as the chain is secured at the very top of the anchor you basically drag it out backwards (the way it went in)

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