Good News from Perth

[JPA Cate]

I thought I'd post this because it is inspirational: this man and his eleven year old daughter cautiously and persistently swam what is reported as about 5 miles to safety from the disintegrating yacht to a beach where they could land. He must be a mighty fine Dad to have pulled that off! and maybe a whoopee! as well.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-...iles/100177654

[ahun]

I really would like to know what happened here as we are heading down that way soon. Was it a freak wave, they hit a reef or normally conditions can be that bad around the continental shelf?


From the crew's perspective:

'Once they left Rottnest Island near Perth, they were headed to a cape North of Jurien Bay but something unexpected happened. While both girls were resting in the back cabin, the sailboat made a turn to enter Jurien Bay when a giant wave picked up the boat and slammed it back down, capsizing the vessel, knocking the captain and its daughter overboard, and throwing the girls and the rest of the crew all over the boat.

The whole crew injured and the vessel quickly sinking it was the quick thinking by the girls who fought to grab life jackets and the emergency beacon before repeated waves breaks continued to break up the boat. Once it was obvious that the boat will not survive, the crew was forced to abandon the sailboat as it sank completely within only a few minutes after the first capsize.

Thanks to the quick response all crew were wearing a life jackets and the Personal Locator Beacon was activated, notifying sea rescue. However, the water was still very rough and was cold, not to mention sharks are well known off this Coast so every minute counted and the crew wondered if they would ever see there loved family and friends ever again as the boat slipped into the deep.

After several desperate hours floating in the torrent, clinging to their lives they were spotted by a search plane who sent out 2 vessels and rescued all of the crew.'

From:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/qtcran-he...cp+share-sheet

[ilenart]

My understanding is they tried to enter Jurien Bay southern entrance when the swell was running around 4.5m. The West Australian Cruising Guides states Caution: The southern entrance is not recommended if the swell is greater than 2 m. With a 4.5M swell you would of had breaking waves around the markers when you turn into Jurien Bay where the depth drops from 11m to 3-5m. I understand this is where the yacht was hit by a breaking wave.

The northern entrance is preferred in medium to heavy swells, however you have to sail a further 5NM north to be able to turn into the northern entrance. Not sure why they did not keep heading north for another hour and then turn into Jurien Bay.

Last month I waited in Jurien Bay for 3 days for the swell to drop so I could safely get into Lancelin further south. Going through Jurien Bay in a 1.5m swell was still a bit of a roller coaster. Anchored in the lee of Boullanger Island the previous night we could hear the boom of the breakers hitting the reefs all night.

You could also question why the skipper left Rottnest Island heading north when I believe a strong wind warning had been issued.

Ahun, download the WA Cruising Guide and follow all the recommendations. The BOM site also has an excellent predictions for swell along the whole Australian coast. Finally there is a wave rider buoy just off Jurien Bay which provides real time monitoring of actual swell. All the links are below. Follow all the recommendations, be cautious and you’ll be fine.

Ilenart

https://www.fsc.com.au/wa-cruising-guide/

MetEye

https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imar...-wave-data.asp

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by ilenart

My understanding is they tried to enter Jurien Bay southern entrance when the swell was running around 4.5m. The West Australian Cruising Guides states Caution: The southern entrance is not recommended if the swell is greater than 2 m. With a 4.5M swell you would of had breaking waves around the markers when you turn into Jurien Bay where the depth drops from 11m to 3-5m. I understand this is where the yacht was hit by a breaking wave.

The northern entrance is preferred in medium to heavy swells, however you have to sail a further 5NM north to be able to turn into the northern entrance. Not sure why they did not keep heading north for another hour and then turn into Jurien Bay.

Last month I waited in Jurien Bay for 3 days for the swell to drop so I could safely get into Lancelin further south. Going through Jurien Bay in a 1.5m swell was still a bit of a roller coaster. Anchored in the lee of Boullanger Island the previous night we could hear the boom of the breakers hitting the reefs all night.

You could also question why the skipper left Rottnest Island heading north when I believe a strong wind warning had been issued.

Ahun, download the WA Cruising Guide and follow all the recommendations. The BOM site also has an excellent predictions for swell along the whole Australian coast. Finally there is a wave rider buoy just off Jurien Bay which provides real time monitoring of actual swell. All the links are below. Follow all the recommendations, be cautious and you’ll be fine.

Ilenart

https://www.fsc.com.au/wa-cruising-guide/

MetEye

https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imar...-wave-data.asp

Also, the bureau of meteorology has all the wave rider buoy sea state data, so you can check well in advance what the present sea state actually is.

Ann

[ahun]

Originally Posted by ilenart

My understanding is they tried to enter Jurien Bay southern entrance when the swell was running around 4.5m. The West Australian Cruising Guides states Caution: The southern entrance is not recommended if the swell is greater than 2 m. With a 4.5M swell you would of had breaking waves around the markers when you turn into Jurien Bay where the depth drops from 11m to 3-5m. I understand this is where the yacht was hit by a breaking wave.

The northern entrance is preferred in medium to heavy swells, however you have to sail a further 5NM north to be able to turn into the northern entrance. Not sure why they did not keep heading north for another hour and then turn into Jurien Bay.

Last month I waited in Jurien Bay for 3 days for the swell to drop so I could safely get into Lancelin further south. Going through Jurien Bay in a 1.5m swell was still a bit of a roller coaster. Anchored in the lee of Boullanger Island the previous night we could hear the boom of the breakers hitting the reefs all night.

You could also question why the skipper left Rottnest Island heading north when I believe a strong wind warning had been issued.

Ahun, download the WA Cruising Guide and follow all the recommendations. The BOM site also has an excellent predictions for swell along the whole Australian coast. Finally there is a wave rider buoy just off Jurien Bay which provides real time monitoring of actual swell. All the links are below. Follow all the recommendations, be cautious and you’ll be fine.

Ilenart

https://www.fsc.com.au/wa-cruising-guide/

MetEye

https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imar...-wave-data.asp

That's great info and help, appreciate it, thank you.

[RaymondR]

That is definitely a part of the Australian coast where it's not good to be at this time of the year. Between the northern suburbs of Perth and north of Port Dennison there is a shallow coastal shelf which one needs to pass over to enter the few safe anchorages available. The shelf generally lies about five miles from the coast.

It is possible to make a passage along the coast inside the outer edge of the shelf and the WA authorities produced a set of large scale charts about three decades ago which allows this to be done safely. Using the charts there are only a couple of places where one needs to go out over the shelf edge to access deeper waters to pass the blocking inshore reefs and islands.

On the four occasions I have transited that section of coast during winter I have had to pretty well motor the entire passage when not cringing in Port Denisson or Jurian Bay marinas or the Lancelin lee-of-island anchorage waiting for strong winds and big seas to pass.

The lack of safe secure havens is characteristic of the Western Australian coast between Geraldton and Cape Leveque and that stretch is actually one of the better in that regard.

[Budawang]

60 Minutes did a report on the incident - see link below. The tenacity of the father and daughter was impressive. Sounds like they were in shallow water and big breaking waves sank their 11 metre yacht. Unfortunately, half the crew split up from the father and daughter, who had a broken leg, and swam ashore along with the EPIRB. Due to her broken leg, it was much harder for the father and daughter to swim and, without the EPIRB, it took much longer for the rescue team to find them. I guess questions will be asked about why they split up, although it's hard to know what actually happened. There was probably a lot panic which inevitably leads to poor decision-making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsAOo40n9b8