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Most lessons in life come from one of two places – a lesson you’ve learnt the hard way, or a lesson someone else has learnt the hard way.
This lesson is something I actually knew, but didn’t think too hard about in the moment. And the price – sitting on a beach all day waiting for the high, high tide to come in whilst we could have been wide of Morton reeling in fish.
We’d hit the beach the night before after picking up a few whiting in the shallows off the West side of Morton Island. Swags set up, snags on the go and a cold beer in hand, the boat was anchored in about a foot of water with the tide heading out.
It was about 6pm and little did I realise, this was the high, high tide. At 5am the next morning when we rolled out of our swags the boat was still high and dry with just over 2 hours until the morning high. Back to sleep for another hour, it was 6am when it became stupidly obvious there was a problem.
With the boat sitting in about 2 inches of water and the high tide just about on us the penny dropped, we were on the low high tide. Too late now. It was looking very much like we’d be sitting on the beach for 12 hours doing a whole lot of waiting. And that can be very motivating when it comes to dragging 1400kg of boat into deeper water.
Fishing + Leg Day – we did it, somehow, just. By pushing the bow from left to right, the levering action inched her forward bit by bit. And they were hard fought inches – but the thought of sitting on a beach for 12 hours was a serious motivator. Slowly but surely, deeper and deeper water until we were free. I don’t think a camp has ever been packed up so quickly. And we were off knowing just how lucky we’d been. Another 10 mins and this would be a story about the time I spent 12 hours fishing on a beach for whiting…
All because I didn’t make sure the boat was out from the shore when the tide went out. A lesson I won’t forget in a hurry. (I can still feel the burn in my legs 2 days later).
– Hillboy
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