Paul Arden | Wednesday, 17 May 2023
Today I’m editing the 70-100’ casting video that I made with Nick. It was supposed to go live today but that will end up being Saturday. I know! How is it possible to be this organised?
I’m sitting in the back of the Battleship with a storm rolling down the lake. The interesting thing about storms, is that I never know how intense they will be. Often they announce themselves in the distance with some rumbling and a few flashes of lightning, but the first thing that descends upon you, is not the rain; it’s the wind.
You never know how strong this wind is going to be! It might be 30mph, it might be 150mph. And the problem is, that you are pretty much committed to staying put once it begins.
Several times now, in heavy winds, my mooring stump has given way. Then I’m not committed to staying put at all; then I’m committed to emergency action! This usually means grabbing hold of another stump as the boat shoots past and attempting to lasso the boat to it. That has actually occurred once here, where I’m currently moored.
There is a large stump in this bay that sees surface for about 3 months/year. It’s well positioned, about about 10 miles from the public jetty, in a remote bay, often with elephants, is sheltered on three sides and gets 4G internet! So last year I tied some thick rope to the stump and added a buoy. Currently the storm is approaching from the non-sheltered side – of course – and probably has a draw of about 5 miles. These are not exactly surfing waves, but they can certainly bounce around!
About 4 years ago, one particularly intense and memorable storm, ripped through camp at millipede island. I had two guests with me at the time, who had both just gone to bed. Tonio, who later got stuck upsidedown in his Lawson Tent Hammock for 20 minutes, with trees falling around him, and Michael who was fortunate enough to be angled feet to wind and stayed there through the whole event. The aftermath was one sunk boat and me guiding Michael for the rest of the week wearing my cycle pants (because my fishing shorts had been drying in the boat at the time when the storm flipped it over).
Since then I give storms their due respect.
Hmmm… this storm has veered off. Time to get back to the video. It’s a good one!
Cheers, Paul