POLY TUFF OR JUST SILLY STUFF (Stories from the Cape)
During our recent trip to Cape York, Myself and a good mate Gary got to talking about what we could achieve with the 3mt Poly tuff tender that we carted up to the cape from Bundaberg.
During a night at the Bamaga pub and after many, many of the bears in a can one of the group piped up and why don’t you do something really silly like motor the poly from Siesia to Somerset which at that time seemed like a really good idea, Until the next day when myself and Gary got together and worked out that it would be around the 51nm in a 3 mt boat with a Honda 15hp on the back and no padding on the seats, But after being dared the night before and agreeing to it the plan was hatched to proceed that was the incentive that we need to make a silly trip in a little boat ( The thought of the song from the famous Gilligan’s Island theme can into both our heads and goes something like
Just sit right back
And you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip,
That started from this tropic port,
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
The Skipper brave and sure,
2 passengers set sail that day,
For a three hour tour,
A three hour tour.
“AND SO ON !”
The first thing that was on our minds at that point was safety, safety , so we gathered all the safety gear, flares handheld hf radios, and loaded it into our little boat that we thought would be our new home for the next 5hrs or so we thought we also made sure we had enough food and water for the trip.
We had also organised one of the guides up past Siesia to stay on the radio just in case things went belly up.
The guide was Bat from Punsand bay we told him we should have enough fuel to last us the trip but just in case have some more standing by, we only loaded 2 x 10 lt tanks into the boat and we new that the new Hondas would not use that much but we had to account for the 7mt runs in the tides going around the tip of Cape York.
We left around 10am and the wind was already starting, Gary managed to find some old foam rubber from god knows where but the thought of the pounding on the rear ends I didn’t care where it came from (I later found out that Gary had torn it from my mattress in the rear of the ute that had been my bedding well it turned out I didn’t really care as the pounding from the waves would have had us not being able to sit down for a week as we were just about to find out how bad this trip was going to be.
We were right to go out past the red island Warf heading north along the beach for our first stop was to be the Punsand Bay.
It was a bit a bit rough but manageable as we travelled the sea got smoother which was a good thing we were making fairly good time, Past Loyalty Beach in through Possession Island the we rounded the we rounded the corner of Peak Point travelling so far was about 45 Minutes.
The wind had changed direction and the tide was pushing out at a great rate of Knots! I was now wet as a shag and Gary was to busy bailing out to worry about getting wet we ploughed down the waves keeping our wits about us , the boat was doing alright, as we rounded a small out crop of rocks we saw the calmer waters of Punsand bay as we entered the bay it calmed down and allowed us to empty the water from the Poly we came to Bats shack in the bay and ran the poly straight up onto the sand in just under an hour, ringing wet but happy with the effort, we sat quietly on the beach and had a bite to eat and a drink (which was not salt laced) as we sat there the rest of the crew arrived via road to Bats shack , they were going to drive from there to Summerset Bay which takes about an hour via 4x4 tracks from Seisia.
We could have pulled the pin on the trek and put the boat back on the trailer … but we decided to keep going on (the seas were not going to beat us into submission.
After we set off after lunch we decided to deploy some rather large high speed skirts to see if we could manage a few fish for dinner once we got home, we trolled past a little inlet just past Punsand Bay and one of the rods went screaming off in the opposite direction to where we were travelling I cut the engine to try and grab if from the rod holder I asked Gary to pull the other in out of the way and as soon as he picked up the rod and started winding his too went of in and almighty screaming run lines crossed over , Gary started screaming Shark and I started screaming “big Spanish mate” and Gary yelled not for long as both of the lines started to chase on another Gazza had hooked the shark and I had the spanyid for about 10 minutes or so we watched and pulled the lines closer to the boat until I saw the size of gazza’s shark with nearly the hole Spanish in its mouth and trying to shake the Skirts loose this was a no win situation so I managed to find the Knife and cut the Spanyid loose but gazza was determined to geta good look at the shark it got with 20ft of the boat and gazza yelled knife mate cut the bloody thing loose it’s HUGE it made the 3mt Poly look like a toy boat so I cut the thing loose started the engine and motor as fast as I could away lest we say the skirts were put away for later. Mind you we did have to re rig them for the next attempt.
Heading up toward the cutting between Albany and the Tip Of Cape York we had to stop and take a few shots of us going are the tip in the Poly for Prosperity sake.
Then down towards Somerset …now this is where we got a little bit anxious the coastline looked all the same ! So we just kept motoring mostly at half throttle as the waves and wind prevented us from going any faster. All of a sudden the motor stopped and we were very close to some rock and I looked down at the fuel tank “Dam Dry” as I grabbed the other tank I noticed that the connection to the tank was different to the first this would mean I would have to change the fitting quickly and reprime it before we went into the rocks “ Gazza Gerbers were are they Holy Shit I don’t know” well after a frantic search found them changed the fitting and reprimed and away we go just in time.
It seemed like an eternity and the landscape didn’t look familiar , time was getting on we had been on the water for some 7 ½ hours now , Tired , Burnt and wet, we were doubting ourselves and saying how dumb we were to even attempt this, but we were already in over our heads just when things looked grim , Gazza spotted a familiar landmark “A Huge palm tree swaying in the breeze on to of Summerset’s old homestead site.
This palm is one of the tallest both of us have ever seen.
So worry had to turned to relief as we were well and truly stuffed by this time and finally got some protection from the relentless wind and tides and were able to get to the beach under full throttle, the boat is quite comfortable at 30 klms and hour considering all the weight that was in the boat as well.
The Tuff Tender was driven hard up on the beach and we let out a YEE HAAAAA and we had beaten the rest of the crew … they had finished doing all the testing and were sitting up on the hill watching us and drinking COLD BEER !!!! how rude is that ! We risk life and limb in the name of adventure and all they could do was site up there and have a coldie .
Quite bizarre really … so there you have it nearly 50 nm in 8 odd hours and 12 litres of fuel not a bad effort.
I don’t believe anyone else has ever attempt this before.
So now we can say we have achieved this !
Thanks must go to Bat for being there just in case and to Gary for being just as stupid as me for attempting such a trip in the first place
“Remember these things” “this place is Tough and rugged lots of things live and lurk in these tropical waters , Tides and winds are totally unpredictable sea’s can be your undoing so always be prepared for the worst.
Till Next Adventure
Tight Lines ,Braid Burns and sore bums.
Maddog Morgan
Midaga Ultimate Fishing
midaga@aapt.net.au
www.midagaultimatefishing.com.au
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Poly Tuff Or Just Silly Stuff
Hybrid Mode
