I rescued 2 kids today

[Razgo-]

Well actually it was 2 adults and 2 kids. As i headed out 9:45am this morning from horizon shores marina I noticed a couple in a tinnie towing another dingy with 2 kids in it. They stopped and it looked like he ran out of fuel.

So i pulled up and observed what was happening. Unfortunately they were drinking and he was clearly drunk.

So I yelled out and offered a tow. After about ten minutes of maneuvering into place (my boat is 33' long and didn't want to run them over) I eventually was able to throw them a line.

In hindsight I probably should have offered the kids into my boat but they seemed fine and not panicking and all boats were well afloat and safe.

I only made it back to the entrance near the 6KM zone buoy before I noticed a police boat heading out. The copper indicated for me to stop.

So I stop and they circle around and come along side me. Not much conversation was exchanged as the coppers pretty much could plainly see what was going on so nothing was said apart from the police saying they will tow them in from here.

Apparently they have a boat in the harbor and were heading back in. Not sure where they actually came from when I came across them.

Its not a good look drinking and with kids involved. As far as I know the police took him away after they towed them in.

I am just glad I made the decision to head out when i did as god know what would have happened with them adrift and no fuel.


The video is currently being uploaded to youtube and is 138mb in size 6min 45 sec.

So it might be a little while but i will update this post with the video of the drama unfolding.

here is my tracking that was recorded on my garmin enrout/mapsourse and converted for googlearth viewing google earth file (http://www.aussiecommunity.com.au/garmin/GoogleEarth_Placemark.kmz)

I also uploaded it to vimeo as the video quality is far better than youtube http://www.vimeo.com/1462585

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRrVYV47Oao

[Benno1]

onya Razgo...way to help out another boaty in need...bit irresponsible of that guy to be drunk i recon...specially with kids thrown into the mix...they prolly took him away and booked him for DUI...and rightly so imo...

(Mrs Benno1)

[Razgo-]

I reckon there might be several charges involved. not even sure if life jackets were onboard. towing whilst under the influence might be another charge and endangerment reckless driving whilst towing a boat with minors onboard.

The funny thing is when discussing this with another boaty back at the marina he said this is quite common on the broadwater. Now that horrifies me!

[Razgo-]

updated with video now.

[Benno1]

cheers for the update Razgo...(nice rig btw)...i can agree with you on that about a lot of ppl being pissed in the Broadwater...our homebase is on the GC...near everytime without fail we'd pass ppl in their pleasure crafts of all sizes where near everyone was on the turps(not claiming to be an angel...yes we take a few drinks out with us...but not enough to get wasted)...but on a few occasions we'd see the same ppl...being towed back to port by the coppers having been breath tested and failed...then carrying on like two bob watches claiming theyd done nothing wrong...theres that fine fine line that some ppl choose to cross...and should suffer the consequences when caught...imho...(end of rant)

[Razgo-]

it would have been real easy for those kids to end up overboard then what? you have to look close but the second child looked to be about 4-5 years old only.

[Benno1]

if that mate...i had another look...and at 1:30...old mate has a swig of whatever he's drinking...and it was hard to tell with the glare wether those kids had life jackets on...did they???

[Razgo-]

no the kids had no life jackets on that i could see.

[Razgo-]

Have a look at 5:45 you see the 2 kids pop up on the police boat with no life jackets on.

edit/

sorry the youtube video isn't high enough quality to show it. But at 2:57 you can tell a bit.

[TimiBoy]

Stunning. Simply stunning. Several conclusions can be reached from this video:

1. Some people need to be sterilized.

2. The Coppers have seen the light. See those lovely V-Rods on the back?

3. You need a haircut!;D;D;D

Cheers,

Tim

[Razgo-]

lol, haven't been to the barbers since 1992 (wedding day) but i do slice some off every now and then at home :)

[Benno1]

it ended well which is the main thing...i just hope for his sake (and those of his kids and ANY passengers this tool carries in his boat)...that he's learnt a bloody good lesson...

(Mrs Benno1)

[Razgo-]

I spoke to the police this morning at the horizon shores cafe shop and they said the woman had already fallen over board once. they were up further at jacobs well and ran out of fuel where i found them.

[Fish Guts]

good on you for helping out. good to see the boys in blue out there.

[PaulMark]

well done mate,its amazing what people get up to,and they probably call themselves "battlers".Well he'll be battling for awhile now.wonder if he had a licence??The Noosa river of a weekend is very similar to the Broadwater,you could make a tv series.
Paulo.

[Searaider 2]

Geday Razgo ,
Good on you for giving them a hand .
I'm sure the water Police have sorted him out .

I'm impressed with your camer footage & how you seem to have the camera set up on sime type of turntable .

Could you give us some details on your camera & the setup .

Thanks

[Razgo-]

Hi Peter, no special setup. you would be surprised at the pot luck shots i get ;D . I bought this DVD handy cam Sony DVD 201e about 4 years ago.

I just put the DVDcam on the dashboard and moved it around.

So nothing special that i do really.

The only addition is a wide angle lens I have on it to make better footage. Took me ages to even remember to put in on after i had it for 2 years. So now it just stays on permanently.

i found a link to a picture of one http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/Sony-DCR-DVD201_vanity.jpg

I wished i had of turned it on earlier as there is some footage that may have looked a little comical that was missed :)

The only downside to using this cam in HQ mode which is 9mb/s gives me only 20 mins of footage on the DVD disc before having to swap it out.

LQ mode would give me an hour but at a low 3mb/s which is ok but when you convert it down even further for youtube or email it starts to look very shabby.

/end babble/

P.S

my favorite part of that footage was when that awesome Police cat came around astern! It was as big as my boat and looked amazing as it came into the shot, and not to mention the priceless look on that guys face.
That i could never have planned in a million years.

[Searaider 2]

Hi again Razgo ,
Thanks for the Info

[FNQCairns]

Great Vid, thanks, had the family gathered around, the engine's awesome as the backing sound.

High drama at it's most civil:)

cheers fnq

[Razgo-]

For those interested I edited my first post to include a google earth file that will show my tracks create by the GPS. You will note how I nearly ended up on sand myself as there was a degree of difficulty in maneuvering on position to tow them back.

The tide had turned so the current was going out and i had to reverse and drift back to them for safety reasons so i had the most control over my boat without running them over as they had no control over their boat at all.

I never realised how close to sand i was until i saw it in google earth. The tight circle you see at the marina entrance is where the cops came alongside so we were both drifting tied together with the 2 dingies tied up also. Must have looked a spectacle from afar :)

[Little grey men]

You did a good thing Razgo. Timmiboy is right about sterilization. That should be done right after they cop a severe thrashing. He not right about the haircut though...everyone likes Gandalf the Grey !!!;D

[jareyjareyjareyjarey]

good on ya mate.

[disorderly]

You did a good thing Razgo. Timmiboy is right about sterilization. That should be done right after they cop a severe thrashing. He not right about the haircut though...everyone likes Gandalf the Grey !!!;D

Yeah, good onya Razgo....you did real good ,mate..http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/cool.gif
I agree with Timi about the sterilization but as far as the hair is concerned I think Timi is just jealous because you are a handsome man and he is not.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gifhttp://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/grin.gif

Don't let anyone convince you to cut those locks ..you are a gem of a human,mate.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif....stay cool and stay yourself.http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gif

Scott

[PinHead]

There are some classics that get out on the water. When we had our previous boat at Horizon Shores, we had some great people next to us. They sold the boat and then this small house boat moved in. They would arrive on a Friday afternoon and hit the turps immediately..around midnight the abuse and bashings would start...from both him and her. The language would make a bullocky blush.
Saturday morning about 8 am they would wake and armed with drink in hand..untie the boat and head off somewhere.
Some weekends the rellies would turn up and kids running everywhere...rods leaning against my boat..marked the gel coat a bit..crab pots tied under the stern of my boat with rope just floating on the surface...would have been nice if I had reversed out.
I moved to another berth...passed them down the Pin a few months later..being towed back in and both obviously drunk as usual. I would not have gotten on that boat if it was flaoting i na swimming pool it was such a heap of junk.
Just shows the standards of some on the waterways.
Well done Razgo...if it was my previous neighbours I would have left them there.

[Razgo-]

well I will count myself lucky then my boat isn't berthed beside the ones i towed in. My berthing neighbors are excellent. In fact the whole arm i am on seems to be very good so far. I am led to believe that the marina used to have boats all over the place and was quite often in a mess. I think they must have cleaned up their act a lot with all the new expansions going on.

[GBC]

Great, my 3 y.o. watched that vid over my shoulder and is now running around the house telling everyone that santa's delivering us a new boat!!!!!!!!!;D

[Razgo-]

Great, my 3 y.o. watched that vid over my shoulder and is now running around the house telling everyone that santa's delivering us a new boat!!!!!!!!!;D

lol, that cracked me up ;D

[SgBFish]

Well done Razgo. Who knows how that could have ended.

Scott

[wilcara]

Good job Razgo, well done.

Beautiful boat too mate! Hey, if your gonna do vids, get a haircut you hippy!

(Only joking)

[oldboot]

I continue to be gob smacked about this " drunk in charge of a boat" thing.

So these people have enough money to own a " significant marine assett" one asumes they would then have some sort of fancy ( or not) vehicle.
Do they think they wont get caught or don't they realise they will have every licence they have suspended. No only wont they be able to use their boat but they will be getting around on public transport for quite some time and if they are a repeat ofender.... they will be permanent pedestrians.:-/

So what do you recon they got zipped for...... DUI... yeh... now life jacket on a child times 2, you can bet there would have been other safety issues.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a cool $1000 in fines on top of the DUI.
With a penalty unit at $75... it all adds up quickly.

Anybody got a list of marine fines handy?

cheers

[Razgo-]

The coppers told me he got DUI and she got a ticket also but i didn't ask what the ticket was for.

[TimiBoy]

I continue to be gob smacked about this " drunk in charge of a boat" thing.

So these people have enough money to own a " significant marine assett" one asumes they would then have some sort of fancy ( or not) vehicle.
Do they think they wont get caught or don't they realise they will have every licence they have suspended. No only wont they be able to use their boat but they will be getting around on public transport for quite some time and if they are a repeat ofender.... they will be permanent pedestrians.:-/



Trouble is, a lot of these folks really don't care. They may pay the fine, but just as likely not. Then they will drive/operate the boat regardless, and whinge at the pub/BBQ that the Coppers are against them, Man.

My VERY personal view is that for say 0.08 and above, or repeat offences, a 6 month jail term should be imposed, suspended on the basis of a say 2 year very constraining set of parole conditions.

We are way too easy on repeat offenders. Bring back the days of town squares, stocks, and tubs of rotten fruit and veg for us to chuck at the baddies. Maybe some civil obedience and respect might start to drift back into society. It's certainly up the sh!tter right now...

Cheers,

Tim

[oldboot]

On the news the other night, they had a story on the coppers waiting outside the southport court house booking those convicted of DUI, having lost their licence getting straight back in their cars.

aparantly they booked several on one day.::)

Now you would have to be a bit silly..............So there are a string of DUI hearings........ the hearing will be convieniently spaced and it would be pretty easy to know when an ofender is comming out......you could stand at the back of the room, hear the verdict, then follow the ofender to their car........hell money for jam................the copper could even be in full uniform, because court houses have uniforms walking in and out all day.

And why not.;D

cheers

[TheRealAndy]

I am happy to have a rum or two on the water, it’s a must. But to get smashed is just plain stupid. To get smashed when you have kids in the boat is beyond stupid, it’s totally irresponsible and unforgivable. If the cops put that guy in jail then I would not give a shit, if they drowned him there and then I would be happy. They guy does not deserve to have children and IMO should be put down. This shit makes me so angry.

Razgo, good on you for helping out. You are a better man than I because I would have got the kids on board and let the parents float and called up the police to get them.

[Razgo-]

9 months later I get a phone call Monday from the arresting copper. He said he has had a hell of a time with the courts trying to charge them with DUI.

What happened was the woman decided to confess to being in charge of the vessel being at the tiller. But for some reason the magistrate did not believe her story and wouldn't allow the DUI to stick without further evidence.

So they have been trying to track me down for a while since i left horizon shores last January they had trouble tracking me down.

So ok I agree to make a statement and provide the video i took of the incident.

I thought they were gold coast water police as they asked to meet at morningside police station yesterday morning for convenience for me.

No problem off i go and do the interview and provide the video. They were happy because even though i stated he was at the tiller and she never moved they also noted that i threw out the tow line to him which he tied off. hey said that means he was in charge of the vessel as well.

Anyhow they were thrilled i helped them out.

The good news is through out the course if the conversation I asked where abouts was their station down the coast. And they said no we are from Redland Bay Police.

And i am like well i am on my way down their now to pelican slipway. And they said thats where there new swish police boat is. I said yeah i had seen it there and also saw them go flying past vic point the other day in it.

They said is does 46knots!! which is like 85km/hr!

So long story short they said next time they see me down there they will offer me to come for a ride in her :)


It looks like a stabi craft but isn't. I just might have to be there everyday now :)

[Angla]

Sounds like they might just get what is coming to them after all. Good on you for helping to keep the waterways safe from drunken jerks.

Also sounds like a thrill ride the coppers have now, then they do need to be there as quick as they can.

Cheers
Chris