FWIW, I had two Epirbs on board when I got wrecked, One American, and one Australian,
Both registered to me, Did I use them, No,
Both are the type that are actuated by getting wet, Automatically sending a
distress signal,
I was on the rocks, Not sinking,
But to give some people an idea on how things change at sea with the
weather,
After three days of repairing my vessel, and no sleep, Due to a dragging
anchor,
I was pulling up the anchor to go 12 miles to get a new anchor and
steering cables as mine were shonky, They were Old ones I found in the locker and were rusted up and I repaired them to get me the 12 miles to port, The ones I had in it had exploded and were useless,
I looked to the west and had a very black cloud moving in, A severe storm was coming,
I am not sailing for 4 or 5 hours thru that with a shonky
steering,
MRS on the VHF stated there was a storm coming with winds in excess of 35 knots,
And a
small boat warning to not be out there,
fair enough, I will
head for cover inside the Island I was moored at,
There is an inlet there, inside an old volcano, It faces south, The storm is from the north west, Perfect safety for me and my vessel,
So I motored around and parked there, in the inlet,
10-00 PM that night, Port Stephens was totally flattened by the storm causing millions of damage, Im glad I wasnt in it,
It had come from the North west, I was parked in dead calm
water just off the beach in the inlet,
I will stay here till the storm passes, Being awake for three days, I was past my mental capability to
motor up and down behind the Island all night, So the Inlet was the best choice at the time,
My Passenger at the time was looking at the
fish with a spotlight in dead calm
water and no
wind,
At 10 to 4 AM she went to
bed, No
Wind and still dead calm,
At 4-00 AM she woke me, we were on the rocks and a foot of water inside the boat,
Yes it does happen that quick, and there is nothing you can do about it,
The wind had changed and came up from the south, Channeling straight up the inlet,
Picking my boat up and throwing it onto the rocks, The anchor was bent by 30 Degrees, So it was doing its job,
But two to three metre waves was just too much for it,
I tied the boat to a B-B-Que table on the beach to stop it moving sideways onto the bigger rocks,
After unloading the boat onto the beach with our personal effects, I then went onboard and called the MRS on the VHF and told them I was on the rocks, but not in any
danger,
This was some four hours later when I called the MRS, (
Marine Rescue Service)
On the way out across the inside of the volcano on the MRS vessel, The waves were between 6 and 10 Metres high, 20 to 30 feet high,
You wont get waves like that in the Gulf, But crossing the
Coral sea, I had waves that stood up vertically at the transom, level with my top spreader,
Which is 12 metres above the water line,
These are waves that sink big ships, If it lands on me, I am Dead, no ifs or butts about it.
50 to 100,000 tons of water crashing down on me, End of story,
Was I in
danger, No, Only if it landed or crashed down on me, Then I would be
history,
Or swimming in an ocean full of smashed boat,
Fortunately, the boat popped out at the last minute from under it,
The ocean is very powerfull, You can be prepared for the worst, and things will still happen to overpower you,
Even the best prepared boats can still come unstuck in bad
weather,
except the Capt could have easily motored down the ICW
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