# Cat on the rocks: Videologger



## mbianka

Came across a video log called Sailing into Freedom a few weeks ago. I turned it off after a few minutes as it just seemed to be another Australian bloke sailing around with a good looking female crew. Fellow seemed a little cocky (no pun intended) and video not too interesting mostly babes in bikinis. Well apparently he hit a rock a few weeks ago. Though he did video some of what happened that night. Looks like his sailing days are over for a bit. Thought he handled it well. Shows what happens after the grounding. Looks like another case of an uncharted rock ending the fun.


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## capta

An uncharted rock or reef in the 1400 miles of Great Barrier Reef? Who'd a thunk?
This is why one should only move when the sun is behind one's back in poorly charted areas.


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## mbianka

Here's another video update as this fellow tries to save his boat and trying to avoid hitting the EPIRB button. Got to give him some respect for that and also taking full responsibility for his situation:


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## ianjoub

mbianka said:


> Here's another video update as this fellow tries to save his boat and trying to avoid hitting the EPIRB button.


Can we assume that there is a delay in video publishing? If he can upload videos, there shouldn't be any reason to 'hit an EPIRB button'.


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## Ilenart

capta said:


> An uncharted rock or reef in the 1400 miles of Great Barrier Reef? Who'd a thunk?
> This is why one should only move when the sun is behind one's back in poorly charted areas.


He is a long way from the Great Barrier reef, on the other side of Australia. About as far away as Miami is from New York 

Ilenart


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## mbianka

ianjoub said:


> Can we assume that there is a delay in video publishing? If he can upload videos, there shouldn't be any reason to 'hit an EPIRB button'.


Yeah, I think it's safe to say they are back in the land of WIFI. So what is shown has happened is in the past. But, so far in the videos he has not hit the EPIRB at least not yet in the Vlog. Like a good movie or book I don't want to know how it ends yet. When I first came across his Vlog I thought he was just a cocky drunk guy with a bevy of bikini'd women on board. So I did not waste my time to follow his Vlog. But, You Tube posted his hitting the reef video for me to check out one day. He sobered up quick and took responsibility for his mistake and now is trying to save his boat while not hitting the big red button just yet. Good on him as they say in Australia.


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## capta

Ilenart said:


> He is a long way from the Great Barrier reef, on the other side of Australia. About as far away as Miami is from New York
> 
> Ilenart


I'm not sure where you got that, but I missed it completely. Appreciate the head's up.
However, it still does not excuse running w/o proper visibility, especially when you only draw a few feet. When I was sailing in that part of the world, if commercial shipping didn't travel there frequently, the charts were poor to nonexistent and w/o sat based navigation, all we had was our eyes. I guess that was good, because we could not be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking what we were seeing on the chartplotter was reality.
If nothing else, this incident should impress on each of us how relying on electronics, instead of our own senses, is foolish at best and potentially disastrous.


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## mbianka

capta said:


> I'm not sure where you got that, but I missed it completely. Appreciate the head's up.
> However, it still does not excuse running w/o proper visibility, especially when you only draw a few feet. When I was sailing in that part of the world, if commercial shipping didn't travel there frequently, the charts were poor to nonexistent and w/o sat based navigation, all we had was our eyes. I guess that was good, because we could not be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking what we were seeing on the chartplotter was reality.
> If nothing else, this incident should impress on each of us how relying on electronics, instead of our own senses, is foolish at best and potentially disastrous.


Very true. I am amazed at how often this happens after so many lessons from other incidents. I read a book several years ago called Black Wave chronicling a cruising family on a Catamaran hitting a Pacific reef at night. While trying to deal with the grounding problem the rigging failed and severed the fathers leg. Talk about situations going from bad to worse. This also happened at night during a change of watch with no one at the helm. Seems night sailing is a common denominator in a lot of these accidents and the lesson to be learned is be extra vigilant during that time. Here is another recent Cat on a reef incident. Again it happened at night too:


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## mbianka

Well here is the latest video and it's not a happy ending for the boat. They tried to save the boat but, it was not to be. They got picked up and taken to Darwin but, they never actually had to use the EPIRB. Got to give the fellow credit he tried.


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## OleBlueNose

He tried a lot harder than a lot of people I know would have. At least he's got a story out of it!


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## mbianka

OleBlueNose said:


> He tried a lot harder than a lot of people I know would have. At least he's got a story out of it!


He sure did. I was wondering if he could have gotten back with some inflatable pontoon bags and placed them under the bridge deck and lifted the boat enough to drain the hulls and patch things up. He then might have had a chance to sail again and bring it to Darwin for full repairs. But, that would be a tough journey and then come the $$$ repairs and refitting. So he probably made the right call in the end.


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