SHALLOW Inlet was the scene of an unusual salvage operation last Friday morning after a mishap involving four people on a fishing trip in the area a week earlier.
But all’s well that ends well.
According to reports, the group of friends were scoping out the best way to cross back over the notorious Sandy Point bar when they got too close to the breaking waves, ultimately with the boat being washed ashore, about one kilometre east of the Shallow Inlet entrance.
The survivors were picked up from the beach by the police airwing, but their boat remained on the beach, well above the high-tide mark, undamaged but in a very remote location.
Enter highly-experienced diving and marine services expert, Johno Rudge of Kina Diving.
“We got a call from the insurance company and went down for a look. It was pretty obvious to us that you couldn’t tow the boat back down the beach or try to relaunch it and come back in over the bar so we decided to lift it,” said Johno Rudge this week.
“We’re pretty well connected into aviation as well and got on to a helicopter dedicated to commercial work, but boats aren’t really designed to be lifted.
“The helicopter had a 1.2 tonne limit so we had to strip all the equipment, the batteries and the fuel out of the boat to get weight down but thankfully, we were able to leave the 200kg outboard on the boat.
“We lifted all the equipment off first, in bulk bags, then came back for the boat and it lifted up perfectly first time with only one wriggle to get the cables right. You don’t want to drop something like that.
“We got it back to Shallow Inlet and basically put it back on the trailer and towed it back to the owners in Melbourne. They were ecstatic. It was a pretty new boat and miraculously didn’t have a mark on it.
“We do a lot of salvages where the boats are wrecked and just have to be taken off the beach but it was great not to be covered in diesel and muck for once.”
The boat, high in the air, on lifting cables, suspended from a helicopter made quite a sight as it was flown back into the inlet and landed on the edge of the beach at about 11am last Friday morning.
The fishing group was safe at home and the boat back as good as new but the whole experience offered another salutary tale about the dangers that exist at the Sandy Point bar.