Rottnest Safety Convoy weekend..

 Hi Guys,

A mate and myself went on the Rottnest Safety Convoy last weekend, and it was great.

It started out at 7am launching my 5.5m Runabout at point peron ramp and meeting Sea rescue for the convoy assistance, and as I was the only boat leaving from Rocko, had marine safety as the group leader, and midway marine as a tail end charlie..

We waited to join up with the Mandurah guys, and 4 boats turned up - or 3 boats and a small ship.. one of those dream boats that you only ever get to see at the mandurah boat show, or drug cartel movies..

We headed off at about 7:30, and tucked into the wake of the 2 ladies on the mandurah marine Safet boat, and headed towards woodmans, inside the sound. the weather was fine, with about a 10 - 15 kn wind, and about 1m swell, and did good time to the woodman meeting point, regrouped and headed to the seaward side of carnac island. Visibilty was good, and we could see rotto from the carnac position, and started over.

Our boat was doing well, with the 2 stroke 90hp mercury on and we did a fuel tank change at about an hour in to the journey, just for safety sake, and it took us about 30 minutes from carnac to rotto, at about 22 knots, trying to keep up with the ladies.. Sea rescue must have noticed that we were taking it a bit fast for the swell size, versus the boat size and asked marine safety to slow down a bit during the crossing, as the side swell movement was tossing us around a bit. we settled in at about 18 knots, which was perfect, as I am just up on the plane, and about 3000rpm, which is about 75% of my rev range. we would not have been able to do more that about 12 knots, if we werent in the front boats wake.

When we arrived in thomsons bay, we made a quick pit stop for toilets, ladies from mandurah headed back, and about 25 boats arrived safely, from north and south spots. We broke into 2 teams, and headed out for the bay tours, and were shown how to approach each bay, what hazards to expect, and which bays were protected in which winds, like a 27MHZ guided tour, by the red group leader. It was very informative..

We started getting low on our 3rd tank of fuel, so headed back to thomsons to refuel and chill. the convoy leader arranged an escort back to the bay for us with one of the sea rescue boats.

We refuelled at $1,62 per litre for premium, and used $100 for 3 hours riding. about 3 standard red tanks.

We moored in Thomsons, had assistance from the safety guys there, and went to check in to the camping site.

The arvo was a presentation from marine safety on Lifejackets, EPIRBS and flares, and the sea rescue guys let off a few flares to show us what they actually looked like from shore. off for a few bevvies, some lunch and a shower, and met at the lodge for a prizegiving and dinner - great spread of all foods, good quality and proffesional service, bar available and great company. we sat with the 4 guys from rocko sea rescue and enjoyed the evening.

Off to the camp for a top up and back to the lodge for a few pints and off to bed at about 11..

We woke up and went to the dome for a coffe, packed up our gear and loaded the boat, as the 25 knot winds were starting to blow already, and the convoy decided to head back early, due to the prediction.

We followed a large Catamaran back, only running at about 11 knots into the wind, and managed to stay dry for the 2 hours it took us to get back to Woodmans, and then followed sea rescue inside the carnac area back to rocko..

We ended up playing with the trim to try get settled in their wake, upped our speed to around 15 knots and got swamped twice by running through a swell, luckily, the bilge took care of the water that we collected, but our trip was not completley dry due to this mishap - still not sure if the rocko sea rescue boys had anything to do with the unexpected swell, as the second one happened way too close to when they held up the camera to snao a pic..???

all said and done, it was a great experience, my boat went well, all my shit worked, and almost made the expense of the refurb worth it - pretty uneventful besides the 2 swampings, but enlightining to the capability of the boat, and all done with the support of a great team, which was great.

Thanks to all the guys and girls that supported the convoy, and offered assistance and advice, and to the orginisers of this great event.

LESSONS LEARNED:

* A 5.5m runabout is fine for calm to meduim sea and wind, but has its limits - 5 fathom on good days only.

* I would do rotto again on my boat, but would leave time to delay the return trip a day if the weather was bad.

* I would not take my family on that trip on this boat - the boat can handle it, but it does get scary.

* My boat uses almost double the fuel in bad weather conditions. we were prepared, but i normally only have 50 litres onboard.

* My 90HP 2 stroke has a consumption of about 25l an hour on average.

* Rotto journey from Rocko is an hour in good weather and up to 3 hours in bad.

* We have heaps of boating support in WA, and an event like this brings everyone together. the blokes and ladies of these support crews do a great job, and we should really appreciate what we have here in WA.

So, all said and done, it was great, learned heaps, met nice people, had a great stay on the island, and a great weekend.

Anyone wondering if they should give it a go, check online as they will do it all again in march..

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend very enjoyable..

Few pics added..

We are the small blue boat in the centre of the first pic..LOL!

Dave

 

 

 

 

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 Cheers,

Cold Feet 

 

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bleicester's picture

Posts: 219

Date Joined: 10/09/14

Great write up

Mon, 2015-11-30 14:49

Thanks for the detailed report. I'm already booked for March next year!

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Posts: 8016

Date Joined: 07/05/12

Nice write up mate. I am keen

Mon, 2015-11-30 14:53

Nice write up mate. I am keen to join one in my 5m Seafarer but would pick a weekend a tad calmer than the weather you pushed through. March sounds like it'd be perfect

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Auslobster's picture

Posts: 1901

Date Joined: 03/05/08

Repeating above comment...

Mon, 2015-11-30 16:09

 ...great write-up! Really gives people an idea of what to expect from these convoys. In March you'd have a much better chance of avoiding those stinking southerlies that are pretty much guaranteed for this time of year, but that's probably all the more reason they ran one now!