After a good nights sleep, we threw the ropes early and started heading South. A couple of nights from home with the swell backing off and a fantastic forecast for the day, it was perfect to explore the coast south of Davey. We landed at Windowpane Bay, a beach not visited by us since 2006, mainly due to the weather making it inaccessible. Today it was perfect, a paradise and experience that will stay with us forever. From the boats, we could see a large green rope pile on the rocks in the middle of the creek. We had been told about this by various fishermen & bush walkers and it was on our hit-list to retrieve.
As we walked through the rocky creek towards the mound, the enormity of the challenge became more apparent. We had estimated 'it' being 1-tonne of rope, maybe a few hundred metres in one coil. We could tow it off the beach with the Celtic Rose and if it was too heavy for the boat to lift, we'd just tow it home. On closer inspection, we estimated 'it' at 4-5tonnes and kilometres long! A test cut, to see if we could portion it into manageable pieces, made us realise we'd be creating more rope-fibres than we started with.
Then, some bushwalkers appeared from the campsite at the back of the gulch. One of their party was experiencing a medical condition and they had just set off their EPIRB, to call helicopter help from Hobart.
We contacted 000 and relayed the situation, within 45min the rescue helicopter appeared in the skies. As there was an unusually large amount of people spread across the beach looking for rubbish, a small land flare was set off to identify the landing zone. Initially emergency services hadn't received the EPIRB signal, which is a reminder that where possible getting into an open area when trying to contact the outside world is advisable. The patient was stabilised on the beach before flying back to Hobart.
The day sounds grim, but in truth it was a highlight of the trip and cruising around SW Cape to New Harbour in glassy conditions is a rare day. Over 5000pieces, a group team-clean photo and a few well-cooked steaks, it was a happy crew celebrating the sunset this evening.
Ps Uls surfed for 3-hours
Pps She was frothin'!
love yas
No comments:
Post a Comment