Bet that hurt

 At CPBA many years ago, nice yellow and blue Chivers F2000.........the person, I won’t  name him, had run the winch cable UNDER the rollers on the trailer and a fellow player was putting everything into winching ......the bow trying hard to get under the trailer ......bloody funny to watch!

 i have seen many things over the years to come out of our river and the ocean. the odd pushbike used to get hooke up and landed at como jetty when the old concrete platform at the end was there. (going back 30 odd years ago )

but the funniest thing i have see would have to be a 4x4 being pulled out of the river covered in growth of all sorts down near the boat pens near freo bridge

 We left woodies at daybreak one ultra calm morning back in the 80,s , and zoomed as fast as the old 70ho jonno could muster heading for greener

pastures, the water had that almost oily look to it , but up ahead there was a couple of strange lines in the water , so we backed off a.s.a.p

on inspecting said lines they were 2 floating full size telegraph poles , just sitting under the surface , gulp.

We called sea rescue and reported it , and were told more had been found , prob off a ship.

Lastly a work mate told me when on a nw fishing trip to a fairly remote spot they saw a whitish floating object they were sure was a human body

as there seemed to be some tatters of colour around it , like old cloths , they were shitting bricks and  were just about to call it when on a slightly closer pass it was

a big old dead cod with some debris caught around it , phew.

 I’ve seen a few different sections of bamboo scaffolding floating a 100 kms off darwin. Would of come down from Timor or indo I imagine. Nothing hanging around them.

 The hatch off a container ship separated from a ship somewhere between Gero and Bunbury during a storm. Ship was heading to Bunbury port , the hatch was thought to be lost at sea. It ended up washed up on the back beach just south of the surf club. Shipping company hired a crane and it was eventually re installed on the ship. The hatch actually beat the ship down the coast.

 Ouch! That looks painful. Craziest thing ive seen is 1.5m+ bullsharks free jumping in the belmont ski area in the middle of the day on a hot summers day.

 in Lagos, Nigeria I saw a body caught up in the Maesrk jetty. I alerted the our security staff and went with them to see what was going on. When I said about retreiving the body I was told "No way" in very strong language. Apparently if you recover a body from the water in Nigeria you then become responsible for all the costs of burial etc so they just leave them floating on the tide. I was told no wahala (problem) as the Nigerian Navy was next door and that they would recover the poor guy. I heard that sure enough they picked him out of the water 15 minutes later.

Pulling the shark net off the back of Wrights Bank off Cape Naturaliste and up comes a very corroded 7.5 Jono outboard.

Took a week off and went home to Two Rocks and mate who ran a shark boat out of there wanted a hand so I took a run out with him and bugger me dead, up comes another Jono 7.5 in his net, a lot better conditon than the one I got.

Pulling shark line down the west side of Barrow Island and trying to sit on one of the marker floats was a jack russell, must have fallen off a travelling yacht and the float was the only thing he could grab on to

 Have to be fishing out if Broome. The tide was pumping creating still waves, whirlpools ECT.  Making our way out I could see something unusual ahead couldn't make it out until we were close. It was a upturned dinghy with 2 elderly people hanging on. It must of just happened minutes befor we got there. Very lucky no one was hurt got the 2 on board, another boat got a line to the dinghy.   

A fellow fishwrecked member who became seperated from his boat off North Mole.

 Going back nearly 40 years south end of Garden Island we picked up a fisherman in a sinking wardrobe, fitted out with o/b mpotor he thought when he sealed the joints with silastic it would not leak. Done well to get as far as he did but always destined to be a 1 way trip in it.

Mates ex catching a baby dolphin on her rod inside Two Rocks marina about 15 years ago.

We were catching herring, so assume she hooked a herring and the baby dolphin must have grabbed the herring.

Line was peeling and a baby dolphin starts jumping out of the water. It did about half a dozen jumps as it bolted towards the marina entrance, then the line snaps!

on the cliff in the afternoon and watching a bloke

bring in a 5ft tiger shark he tail hooked on his

balloon rig only too watch one of the resident

groupers too casually swim up and swallow it

whole head first...... 

 keep them coming, some strange stuff happens out in the big blue !! love it 

a friend of mine headed up north with his boat and set out on deep days fishing, once out wide and reached the destination he got up from the seat turned around and his first step was onto a razor sharp swibo knife with his full body weight.... 6inch long very deep very bloody knife wound he ended up with, choppered to hospital and then foot needed micro surgery to repair wound. ouch, you dont want to see the picture. Same guy had his boat at abrolhos islands one year when a drunken random made his way onto his boat, this random was standing on the marlin board when boat was getting moved, he fell into water and got his foot chopped off by one of the surface drive pops !!  this drunken guy then tried suing my mate later on for the accident.. 

Seeing the SES volunteers boat sitting high and dry on the end of the rock wall in Mandurah after NYE. That was pretty funny. 

 Going back to early 80s, was fishing with a mate over on the front of the 5 Fathom Bank. Fair old swell coming through and watched a couple of blokes come in a little north from us. Old mate goes up the front and drops the anchor straight down and tied it off. Next big swell swamped them. We had to up anchor and go and help them out. They saved their esky, it had probably 30 cans of emu in it. Don’t know if they were going to drink all that, but it’s probably a good thing we helped them out when we did.

 Spearfishing off western edge of Abrolhos middle Group couple years ago and had just dropped anchor and was about to jump in when heard loud splash only metres off starboard, look over to see a large swirl on the surface. Think that's weird

keep looking in same direction and out launches a 2.5 to 3 metre shark directly upwards and twirls couple of times before it lands 

needless to say we up anchored and moved to another spot as we figured it was either chasing something or something much bigger was chasing it. 

Sailing in and around Lombok straight, I was on the upperdeck doing some gun maintenance when I got a whiff of something foul. Went up to the bridge and they too had caught a whiff and we were edging closer to something in the water. Cut a long story short, we recovered 17 bodies from the water that day. Both females and males. They had been in the warm tropical water a wile and were bloated to double the size. Only way we could tell male or female was a bra. They most likely died from the act of pirates. Was a gruesome task, my job on the day was to photograph and help document it.

Another time we came across a 1/2 submerged sea container. Being a shipping hazard, we normally slab them (a couple of slabs of C4, or brass them up with the 76mm gun. This day, we slabbed it, blew a hole in the container which filled with water. But then up came thousands of plastic wine coolers, covering a large area of the ocean. We put the boat in the water and recovered heaps, enough for anyone who wanted one. 
Years later, I was on the HMAS Sydney again and saw those same wine coolers being used as tool holders etc

Cheers

Willy

Jarrahland 

 I went a trip on the leeuwin.seen heaps of random stuff. Trolled for Tuna of the back wind was down why not troll at 6-7 knots.

anyway got back to Perth early so we're cruising at the back of rotto had the navy helicopter start circling us the captain called everyone to the deck next minute a submarine breaches like a whale maybe 15 m from the ship was preety kool. 

Anyway later that day anchored 2.5-3km off south beach hanging around on deck some random swims all the way out stoned of his head big ranga dreadlocks asks for a coffee does a backflip of the ship and swims back to shore ahha

 Didn't happen to me, but Mum and Dad are Augusta regulars. One day whilst heading towards the sticks, Dad spots a life jacket floating in the water. The river cruise boat was not too far in front of them, so they head over to investigate. They pluck the empty life jacket out of the water and notice that there is a rope attached to it. Naturally enough Dad starts hauling the rope in...and what should appear? A crab pot! Dads thinking to himself, not the smartest thing to use as a crab pot float just as a tinny starts heading towards them flat out. Tinny driver gets close enough to start yelling at Mum and Dad to leave his crab pots alone. Now Dad is a Fire Fighter and thinks that this guy should know that using a life jacket as a float isn't a great idea. Tinny driver tells him that there aren't any rules in the river and that they should fark off. Dad says now come on mate think about it. Tinny driver doesn't want to think about it and demands his life jacket back. Dad cuts the rope throws him the life jacket with his left hand and throws the crab pot in the drink with his right hand. Tinny driver goes out of his mind and starts ramming Dads boat. Mums up the front of the boat screaming her tits off whilst Dads at the back swinging the gaff around his head. Wish I would of been there. 

Huge sunfish cruising around 50m out off Mindarie marina, leatherback turtle 30kms out, at least 100 dolphins together behind the 3 mile.
Mako shark off 2 rocks that bit my bottom hook off, came back got the second hook, came back and got the top hook then came back and ate my sinker.

 Watching lines of 70 hooks with big Hapuka and Blue eye on each hook float about a 25kg lead weight was a sight back in the day i'll never forget on the water.....

Watching container ships emerge from the fog not far off the bow is also an exhilarating sight!!

You watch them on the radar, you can hear them but you just cant see them and then out they pop......

 fishing off lancelin and a dolphin came up to the side of the boat and let me pet it and feed it squids and Mulies, then my dad hooked a dhuie and the dolphin went down and had a crack at it!!! Who needs to go to monkey mia hahaha

 Got a few..

Picked up a diver floating about 4-5 mile offshore from Alkimos. His mate had surfaced and headed back into the marina. Needless to say, when we got in and his mate was at the jetty with the boat out of the water, old mate gave him a pretty hefty serve. Still remember his mate saying he was going to head back out to get him.

Picked up 2 guys whose jet ski had flipped in the bay at Jurien. Jet ski had filled with water and they couldn't right it. Actually saw the ski first and then the 2 guys swimming to shore about 100m away. They were both pretty stuffed and reckoned they were going to drown.

Found an urn floating on the way back from pulling the pots one day. Was all sealed. Thought sh*t, I've just found grandpa's ashes. It sat at home on the bench for a few weeks before I mustered the courage to open it up. Turned out to be empty.

Came across a heap of packing wood off Jurien. Must have picked up around 50 planks and then gave up because we hardly made a dent and could see planks for hundreds of meters in all directions.

But the craziest thing I have seen or experienced was a day when the weather turned quite quickly. Went from nice to 35+ knot southerly within 30 mins. Had to run some pots off in about 25 fathoms and into the increasing breeze and when finished, turned around to head north and inside the reef. Boat was in gear but idling and guys had just come into the wheelhouse and sat down when we got thumped behind by a big greeny. Sent us screaming down the wave and into the trough and submarined the boat. It was a 60ft Millman with maxi vision wheelhouse.  The entire wheelhouse was in green water. How we didn't broach and roll or flip has got me, we just came straight back up. Remember looking at our speed on GPS and it showed 26 knots. Hands down the craziest moment for me at sea.

I would much rather go into a big sea than travel with a big following sea.