I recently found myself in a dangerous situation and thought it was about time I wrote it up, with a little help from Johhnie Blue over ice.

The day started as any other day on the bay.
Got up just after 4am, checked meteye again, got ready and headed off to get ready to hit the water by first light out from Werribee South jet ski ramp.

The only difference with this trip was that it was a half day. There was a change due around 12-1ish so I planned to be back on the sand before 11.

Perfect morning, nice and calm. I snagged a few flatties on the trawl out and better yet the micro pinkies had seamed to have taken the day off.
Normally I would head out 2-3k but as I was coming in early I only headed out about 1k, luckily.

Skipping forward to around 10am- The weather went from nice and calm to eerily silent and flat.
I looked over my shoulder just in time to see the change coming, it was the calm before the storm.
Not only had the change come early, it was well over double what was forecast later.
I hauled my anchor in and tried to fight my way back to shore. The waves, which had white tips, and the wind were coming in from slightly different directions and no matter how hard I tried they worked together to turn me out to sea time and time again.
It wasnt long before I was gassed out and heading out to sea.
I dropped my anchor and got my phone out to call for help, knowing I was in serious danger.
Turns out my waterproof Sony z1 dosent like wet fingers and while I tried to unlock it with one hand and hold on, white knuckled, with the other my anchor slowly bunny hopping me out further.
After about 10min I managed to get the number for the coast guard and rang. I was quickly told to hang up and call 000 as they could not respond without police direction.
I rang 000, explained the situation and where I was.
Help was on the way.

The next 30-40 min were pretty scary as the waves got worse and I was positive I was going to end up in the water and no matter how prepared I thought I would be for a re-entry situation there would have been no chance.
About 40min after the 000call a police chopper and the coast guard showed up. The coast guard struggled to get a rope to me in the conditions but eventually managed and pulled me and the yak to them and I boarded.
On the way back to the boat ramp we were all saying how the weather came up from no where, just as a strong wind warning came over the radio and we had a chuckle. It had come as a surprise to us all.

Without the coast guard I honesty dont know what would have happened. I cant thank them enough.




That is just rough, very quick recap. Scary stuff.

As the title says- Mother Nature has no master, expect the unexpected.

Thanx for sharing jay, glad ur ok and sounds like a well thought out plan for help

Wow thanks for sharing Jay, glad it all worked out for the best When the weather turns down there it really turns nasty hey?

Glad you were ok.

I had a close call with a front that came through quicker and stronger once before. Not as bad as yours though, now I dont trust the timing so if one is due on the day I stay away.

But it shows even with doing weather checks things can go wrong, let alone for those who dont check the weather .

Somewhere Offshore wrote: I dropped my anchor and got my phone out to call for help, knowing I was in serious danger.
Turns out my waterproof Sony z1 dosent like wet fingers and while I tried to unlock it with one hand and hold on, white knuckled, with the other my anchor slowly bunny hopping me out further.
After about 10min I managed to get the number for the coast guard and rang. I was quickly told to hang up and call 000 as they could not respond without police direction.

Thanks for sharing Jay, glad to here you made it to tell the tail!! I have a lifeproof cover on my iPhone and have had the same problem when my hands are wet not being able to open phone, answers calls, etc(lucky for me not while trying to call 000) does anyone have any secrets on how to overcome this? thought maybe a disposable glove (like surgical) but haven't tested.

I have an old house on the side of Arthurs Seat at McCrae and can see from Melbourne and all of the bay down to the heads , and I can't tell you first hand that a hell of a lot of weather reports that I listen to are not what I'm looking at, and I just plain don't trust them,any of them. Sure you can pick your days if you know what to look for in the weather maps but I won't stake my life on it.

Goodness me, what a frightening exercise!

Glad you are alright though.

Good to here your ok
Two others and my self were in the same sitch off port mel. Only one of us did not hav a rudder (aqua yak big fish) he had to beach it at port mel while my mate and I easily made it back to our cars at willy then went over and picked him up.
We had a cross wind and no matter what he couldn't keep his course we were lucky we had a beach to make a landing other wise it would have been a lot worse.
We'll done on keeping calm and calling for help and realising the danger you were in it happens mor often than you think.

I did type something up that went into greater detail about the ordeal but when I pushed 'submit' something went wrong and I lost everything.
-But i think that quick post summed it up pretty well.

I will add that even though I had a safety flag and bright orange paddle blade in the air - the coast guard said I was pretty much invisible until they were quite close to me.
Luckily I had a good explanation as to where I roughly was or maybe I'd still be out there.
Time to invest in an eperp or plb.

Don't sound like fun at all. Think it might be time for a new boat to go along with that plb. Throw in a VHF and some flares while your at it. Getting caught out in bad weather is something that we have to live with. No forecast will ever be 100% especially on our bay. You need your plan b sorted. But with an aqua yak your plan a is already compromised.
Glad you got out ok to tell the story.