This is not a story of gone by days but still happening right now.
Just thinking about that, getting goosebumps, perhaps a lesson to be learn.

Facts : after some struggle to help them self, food and water getting low,
EPIRB was activated.
1st of May....in the morning.
40' steel ketch is high and dry on the beach, 2 ladies sailing from FNQ to South,
Location is Island Head Creek...S 22*32'...E 150*46' , simply miles from anywhere.
1/ SAR informed Police and they informed Coast Guard.
2/ Coats Guard visited site, offered rescue sailers /was denied by ladies/
3/ Ladies request was food drop off and towing.
4/ Food drop off was arranged next day,
5/ ladies still waiting / 17 days / high and dry with no food and water again

A post on Skipr about a week ago requested help for a yacht aground in a creek in Island Head Creek.

Request was for help to get her off around the 15th this month.

OH, AND PLEASE BRING SHOVELS!

What are the chances of getting her off?

Need a couple of run abouts with big outboards to flush a channel up to her, would take a bit of fuel
and maybe damage to the water cooling of the outboards let alone the props.

Then a larger BIG motor cruiser [15 ton] to tow her off.

Just my thoughts.

Where is that location?
Google Maps says those co-ordinates are just south of Marquis Reef ... goo.gl/maps/Nqtk7 .... nowhere near land

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LooseChange said...
Where is that location?
Google Maps says those co-ordinates are just south of Marquis Reef ... goo.gl/maps/Nqtk7 .... nowhere near land

www.thecoastalpassage.com/IHcreek.html some where near ere

no one i know would even contemplate using a outboard to make a channel it would destroy it

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aus005 said...
no one i know would even contemplate using a outboard to make a channel it would destroy it

one large pump to wash a trench

Ok, found it, now that's just a stupid place to have a bit of land sticking out into the ocean, boats could run into it if they weren't careful.

High volume high pressure pump to blast a channel to refloat it.

just a thought..
clear the keel.
kedge anchor from mast head to bring her over, then kedge anchor set again (or 2) to windlass, set on an angle (i.e. not straight out forward) to drag her out when she is half floated. hand dug channel would be nice. tides there are usually pretty high up there.

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saltiest1 said...
just a thought..
clear the keel.
kedge anchor from mast head to bring her over, then kedge anchor set again (or 2) to windlass, set on an angle (i.e. not straight out forward) to drag her out when she is half floated. hand dug channel would be nice. tides there are usually pretty high up there.

I would even add as many tractor tubes as I could under her may help at high tide and take as much gear off her as possible
Or I think the army do firing range Practice around there a few slabs and you might be in luck if there aim is good to make a channel .

If you pull her from the top of the mast she will float in inches of water seen it done in Port Phiilip bay when a huge yacht washed ashore at Saftey beach

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BORNFREEE said...
If you pull her from the top of the mast she will float in inches of water seen it done in Port Phiilip bay when a huge yacht washed ashore at Saftey beach

Been there myself but had 3 ft to play with on a 6 ft draft

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saltiest1 said...
just a thought..
clear the keel.
kedge anchor from mast head to bring her over, then kedge anchor set again (or 2) to windlass, set on an angle (i.e. not straight out forward) to drag her out when she is half floated. hand dug channel would be nice. tides there are usually pretty high up there.

Or water ballast bags[drums] from mast head so the vessel can float on her side. Use the kedge to pull herself clear.


Its easy from the arm chair!

Very easy Ramona, especially as the nearest shop is Yeppoon or Plum Tree in Thirsty Sound.

There is nothing there at all. Poor phone coverage as well, I only got incoming very short texts there, couldn't even make an outward text.

Right about the poor reception...went up there once and came out just in time to hear over the radio that the army exercise was over and the area reopened. Nice spot to spend a bit of lost time in however.

Does anyone know if they are still aground. We are heading that way in the near future

I was thinking about this today and wondered if you had a lot of sand bags would it it be possible to make a sort of dam come funnel so after high tide the sea water was directed to a tapered funnel via the sand bags and the sea water flow going through the funnel would push the sand out with the extra current flow making a channel . I probally should have been focusing on my work it instead of this

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Crusoe said...
Does anyone know if they are still aground. We are heading that way in the near future

good one ! Hope you can help them out.

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HG02 said...
I probally should have been focusing on my work it instead of this

Yep good idea HG02

I would put my money on Bornfree's idea of getting the boat off the mud/sand/beach, IF IT IS STILL THERE. When I was a kid I never had much luck digging holes in sand and having them stay that way when the tide came in. From the pictures, the boat looks near a 40ft er, out of steel (maybe 12 tonne displacement) and with a forward mast of about 12 meters (above the deck which is 1m from the water line). If it has draft of 1.8m and we assume that the pivot point was the water line, and the center of effort for the weight below the water line was 1.5m then we would need to place a weight of about 923kgs to lay the boat on its side. The boat may not even need laying over this far to release it from the beach.

923 kgs it a lot of gerry cans to dangle off the mast. Anyone got any ideas of how to add weight to the top of the mast. And I would gladly accept anyone's idea of a more accurate guesstermation of the weight required on the mast to lay the boat over. Hopefully they come up with a smaller figure.

Maybe
9 fat sailors (I hope that's not political incorrect, maybe I should have wrote heavy displacement instead of fat)
Aluminum Dinghy full of water
A few anchor chains (with anchors)
A 1000 liter water bladder would be nice to have.

Any ideas Cisco? I always appreciate your input to these discussions and the girls on the boat at Island Head Creek would too.

Looking at the piccies, why can't I see a keel stub? If you follow the centerline from the rudder you would think that some of the keel should be visible, or is it now buried to the full depth?

Yes LooseChange, there would certainly be some digging involved prior to laying the boat on it side. Lots of fun to be had.

I just rang the Yeppon VMR to get the latest on the yacht and it's still there but the crew have been taken off and they are arranging salvage. Looks like it'll be a problem for someone else and $$$ out of the sailing kitty.

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Crusoe said...
I would put my money on Bornfree's idea of getting the boat off the mud/sand/beach, IF IT IS STILL THERE. When I was a kid I never had much luck digging holes in sand and having them stay that way when the tide came in. From the pictures, the boat looks near a 40ft er, out of steel (maybe 12 tonne displacement) and with a forward mast of about 12 meters (above the deck which is 1m from the water line). If it has draft of 1.8m and we assume that the pivot point was the water line, and the center of effort for the weight below the water line was 1.5m then we would need to place a weight of about 923kgs to lay the boat on its side. The boat may not even need laying over this far to release it from the beach.

923 kgs it a lot of gerry cans to dangle off the mast. Anyone got any ideas of how to add weight to the top of the mast. And I would gladly accept anyone's idea of a more accurate guesstermation of the weight required on the mast to lay the boat over. Hopefully they come up with a smaller figure.

Maybe
9 fat sailors (I hope that's not political incorrect, maybe I should have wrote heavy displacement instead of fat)
Aluminum Dinghy full of water
A few anchor chains (with anchors)
A 1000 liter water bladder would be nice to have.

Any ideas Cisco? I always appreciate your input to these discussions and the girls on the boat at Island Head Creek would too.

roughly 1 liter of water weights around 1 KG so 5 205 liter Drums drums would be over 1000kg

Take 6 drums just to be on the safe side we all do yoga in seabreeze and are vegans no fat sailors here

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Crusoe said...
Any ideas Cisco? I always appreciate your input to these discussions and the girls on the boat at Island Head Creek would too.

Not really. That is a big lump of boat to be stuck way up Island Head Creek.

Pulling her off by the mast head sounds like it might work but will most likely need outside support.

It is a tough one and I am sure there is a really simple solution. None of us have seen it yet.

Edit:- She must have floated up there on a tide so you would assume there will be another tide that will float her off. Might have to wait a month or might have to wait a year.

Ladies pursued all available avenues, including kedge the anchors .
Guess lines broke and they claim they lost both anchors.
On Monday they been taken to Rockhampton.
Boat is still waiting to get some water under keel.

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Charriot said...
Boat is still waiting to get some water under keel.

Or to be ransacked which is what most likely will happen. This video taken by the RACQ rescue chopper crew shows lots of valuable and attractive items aboard.

For their sake I hope they can return to the yacht with supplies ASAP to prevent the yacht being stripped of anything of value.

I wonder when the next king tide is up there ? Bornfree's idea of ballast off the mast's would do the trick she'd need a tow by the look of the Rudder
www.msq.qld.gov.au/Tides/king-tides.aspx

Looks like the rudder is snapped

This sounds a bit weird. Boat is facing up the beach on the first photos but has turned about in the video with a bent rudder. Has there been an attempt to drag her off or is this just the tide? She is definitely well down the beach now and has no kedging anchor out in the water. Good high tide and a trawler she would probably come off now she is facing the right way.

I have a feeling this vessel may have insurance.

Friday 13 Island Head Creek.
5 people on the beach and twin screw ketch " Coral Adventure " attempted to refloat
" Pingvin ". Coral Adventure got stuck for a moment an nearby beach.
Pingvin is still stuk on the beach.

They have the New Moon tides coming up on the 27th.

If they can't get her off then, the next bigger tides will not be until the 12th of next month.

I wish them luck and hope they get her off.