Mongrel water + boaties

[Raesen]

Hi all

I went to Dohles Rocks on Sunday morning for a drive to see how dark the water was and how chocked it was with junk.

Water brown as (as you have probably seen on another post) BUT the thing that surprised me was not necessarily the water colour nor the amount of floating junk brought down with the floods (dam release) but the amount of water craft on the river.

More to the point the speed that these boaties were doing..... What about floating logs etc ??????? I couldn't believe it. Full throttle on the plane and I'm sorry you can't tell me that you can see a log a few centimetres under the water in the river at the best part of full speed...

I even saw a fibreglass speed boat (approx 80HP) setting up to do a trip with 4 persons and wave boards (I am sorry but I think that is the terminollogy) to tow people behind.... You have got to be kidding in this area at the moment.

If they get in trouble (hope they don't) but they expect emergency services to help. Aren't the Emerg services busy enough already....

I must just be getting old and a whimp I suspect.

Any how enough of my bitching I just hope things settle down for all in water ravaged areas.

Cheers Pete

[marty666]

if you went down the pine where all the water skiers are they churned it all up and there was not much up there i only saw 1 telephone pole floating down the river

[Raesen]

Thanks Marty I suppose I should with draw my post.

Take it easy
Pete

[marty666]

no not really there is a lot of debris in the river and some people were going way to fast for the conditions

[nigelr]

Holiday madness, common sense (and manners) goes out the window!

[fat-buoy]

Not just during holidays!.. on the Sunshine Coast I see it every single weekend.

Sometimes it is nothing less than amazing that some of the drongos out there don't come to grief the way they carry on.

[smclaren]

Speaking of drongo's ... we rescued some woman on a stand up paddle board who was getting pulled out from Cotton Tree towards the Maroochy bar.

They were a group of three .... obviously tourists on hire boards. The bloke made it back ... another woman bailed out and abandoned her paddle board and swam for it ... making it back to the shore. The other chick was left with hers and her friends paddle board to make it back to shore.

She was obviously unfit, inexperienced, overloaded, struggling, fighting a fast outgoing tide, and heading out to the bar ... fast. We motored around her ... asked twice if she needed assistance ... she said she was OK.

5 mins later we didn't ask .. we threw her a line which she greatfully accepted. Chriso pulled the second paddle board onboard. We towed her back to shore. Nice and slow so everyone could see that people were getting in trouble.

It wasn't a rescue ... more of assistance just before a rescue was needed.

I was pretty unimpressed by the fellas anchored in tinnies at the mouth who made no effort what so ever to offer assistance.

Poor form boys ... even if they are ######## tourists, you still have a responsibility !

[Jackinthebox]

They were a group of three .... obviously tourists on hire boards. The bloke made it back ... another woman bailed out and abandoned her paddle board and swam for it ... making it back to the shore. The other chick was left with hers and her friends paddle board to make it back to shore.

Stupid woman, why is it that people abandon their flotation devices when in trouble in the water? Those standup boards are so bouyant, if she had a brain, she could have laid down and paddled the board like a surfboard three times as fast as you could ever swim against any current. (And not left her friend to try and deal with both boards, thus handicapping her ability to get out of the situation)

Also, could someone please explain the craze that is happening with these standup paddle boards at the moment. I understand that it is trendy and supposedly for fitness but you can barely drive 50 metres in currumbin creek at the moment without running into a bunch of gumbies wobbling along trying not to fall off.
If you grew up surfing like I did, it seems like a pretty boring substitute.

[Chamelion]

I've been down that way land based a couple of mornings of late and it's not uncommon for the tourists to have no idea just how hard the current runs there.

They jump on their board down around cotton tree or in front of the caravan park in the eddies where it's quite calm and mistakenly believe that the entire river will be behaving as such.

EDIT: Were they the people on their stand up paddle boards out playing around the breaking waves over the sand bank between cotton tree caravan park and goat island on the incoming tide?

[smclaren]

Were they the people on their stand up paddle boards out playing around the breaking waves over the sand bank between cotton tree caravan park and goat island on the incoming tide?

Same area mate ... but it was an outgoing tide. Bloody idiots, hey !

I'm surprised there is no Surf Lifesaving set up at Cotton Tree. When that tide whips out, it can be pretty dangerous. Lots of people swim there ... lots of kids.

Its not dissimilar to Bulcock Beach in Caloundra which has a Royal Lifesaving club. Flat water, fast current, deep water, and a surf bar to spice things up for the floaters !