This is my shore catch comp write up. Its a long-winded read, but well worth it!

It happened to a mate on a trip we had to Gnaraloo 2 years ago. Names have been changed to protect the retarded.…

A mate (Jimmy) towed his 8m jackman, with his 100 series Brunswick 6.4L landcruiser to gnaraloo. We met up at the start of the king waves kill sign, but as my boat was lighter to tow, I ended up leaving him behind, and it took me approx. 2 hours from there to the 3 mile, where I would be based for the next 2 weeks. 4 other families were with us, and most (jimmy included) were only there for 1 week. Jimmy’s misso has a ball to attend the following Saturday in Perth, that she has organised…

As he pulled his big Jackman through the camp a good 2 hours later, he managed to shred the side of one of his trailer tyres on the rocks on the driveways. No big deal, shit happens… everyone sets up camp, and we crack a few beers, and settle in. weather looks good for the next few days.

A couple of days later, he takes his boat out with some of the fellas, and I take the misso and kids out in my boat a few hours later. We bump into him on the water, when he asks if I have any fresh water in my car. Turns out his radiator on his cruiser has sprung a leak, and is losing water. We cruise back together, and due to approaching bad weather over the next few days, I retrieve my boat. We try pull the big jackman out on the trailer, but she’s too heavy on the sand, and the cruiser is losing water fast out of the radiator and cooking. I disconnect my boat, and give the jackman a pull, no good…… Another car strapped to mine, still no good…. 3 cars, 2 hours, multiple bog matts, and a lot of bystanders helping later, we get the big jackman onto the high and dry. No big deal….. Shit happens.

I hook up my boat and head back to the 3 mile. Jimmy hooks up the jackman, and slowly cruises to the homestead, to ask for some radiator water… he returns to the camp a good 3 hours later, cruiser hissing and blowing steam. He dropped the boat up in the main carpark. We let her cool for a bit, and pull the radiator out. She’s got a mysterious gouge at the top….. No big deal, shit happens….. Luckily, one of the boys is leaving the next day, and offers to take it to Carnarvon to get repaired.

Next day, STRONG northerly winds whip the camp into a dust storm. Our mate leaves Gnaraloo with the radiator to get repaired. We all start on the beers early, as there is not much to really do otherwise. Throughout the day, the wind picks up even more, and one by one, the camps start packing up, anticipating a big storm approaching. We hit the sack early (after day drinking all day from 9am), and Jimmy opts to not sleep in his dodgy tent, and sleep in the cabin of the boat…… a good move….. The storm hits HARD that night. I had to readjust guy ropes and tie the tent to the car all through the night, as 100km/ph gusts and 100mm of rain tear through the camp. Jimmy’s tent gets flattened and essentially destroyed, and the next day he removes over 100L of water from inside the tent. All his and his misso’s belongings, bedding, clothes, etc are saturated. No big deal…. Shit happens. We all spend the next day recuperating, and repairing our camps. Jimmy erects his shelter, but will sleep in the boat from now on.  

We also start wondering about how Jimmy’s radiator is going, as we had not yet heard from our mate that took the radiator to Carnarvon. The pay phone at the 3 mile camp wasn’t working, and there was no internet available. No big deal… shit happens….  We drive to the homestead to try their phone, and after many attempts at contact, we finally get an email from him…… The radiator is irreparable, and as its not a standard landcruiser’s engine (it’s a Brunswick diesel), will require a new one from perth. Our mate has secured the correct radiator (the last one available in Perth apparently), and its on a truck to Carnarvon, available the next day! Bewdy! Could things be getting better….. like fark will they…

One of the other boys agrees to drive jimmy to Carnarvon the next morning, to collect his radiator, but they return 30 minutes later….. Turns out  the shire of Carnarvon has closed the main road, due to the amount of water on the road from the storm! A possible $1,600 fine if you’re caught driving on the closed road…. Shit happens, but this is starting to become a big deal……

Discussions that day, the boys opt to leave in the dark of the next morn, and run the risk of the fine. Jimmy has to leave by no later than the next day, as his misso has the large Ball she organised and has to attend. They make their getaway, and return around 5 hours later with the radiator, and also a replacement spare tyre for the trailer (that he shredded on day one). The radiator fits like a glove, and gets plumbed back in. just before they are about to give her a test start, one of the fellas spins the fan by hand to check its clearance, and thank golly he did, as one of the fan blades was ROOTED. It was bent, and it was the one that caused the damage to the original radiator. It would pass on the wrong side of the shroud, and gouged the top of the radiator open! We trim the blades and start her up, and she purrs like a kitten. They throw all their shit in the boat,  we fare them well, and they leave to trek back to Perth.

my trip gets remarkedly better from here. The weather turns it on for us, and I catch BULK fish and drink heaps of cold beer, with just the misso and kids, and 1 other mate and his family. We obviously don’t have contact with the other guys, as there’s no internet, etc at gnaraloo. Its not until we get into Carnarvon a week later, that we find out the rest of jimmys trip disaster…..

as he left the 3 mile, he shreds his brand new replacement spare tyre on the trailer. No big deal…. Shit happens….  He swaps it out, but crawls back to Carnarvon to get another spare tyre. Once at the tyre shop, the mechanic informs him that every single one of his trailers hubs are rooted, and he urges him to fix them before driving back to perth. Jimmy does not have time (or after the week he’s had, the patience) for this, and tells the mechanic to swap the tyre only, which he does.

Jimmy decides to not travel too fast with potentially dodgy hubs, so the 9 hour trip from Carnarvon to perth takes closer to 16 hours…. and as he approaches the great northern hwy intersection at Muchea at around 2am the next morning, he starts to see the end of the disastrous week he’s had, and starts to see the light…. Although it turns out its not quite the light he first thought it was…..

Another car approaches them from behind, flashing his lights, and bleeping his horn. They pull over….. turns out one of the wheels had fallen off jimmy’s trailer about a kilometre before, and has smashed head on into this guys car! No big deal…. Shit happens…. Except THE GUY IS AN UNDERCOVER COP…. Ouch.

They exchange details, and the cop leaves his car there to be collected by the tow truck. Jimmy is well over everything now, so opts to leave the boat where it is, take the misso home, and collect it later that morning.

As he unhitches it, a banged up, piece of crap car pulls up to him, and the driver with his finest meth-fuelled tone, asks “whats going on mate”? Jimmy hesitates to try and explain whats going on, but captain meth-head is already beaming his glass-barbie eyes onto the $100k boat, loaded with quality fishing and camping gear, and trailer with the missing wheel being stranded on the side of the road. Methy mc meth-meth starts to ring his methy mates…. Jimmy can not leave this boat here……

He calls his dad and brother in law, over 1.5 hours away, and now around 3am. They drive with a trailer to Jimmy, and unload everything they can into the trailer, to lighten the boat trailer’s load. They then take his misso back home, and Jimmy CRAWLS back to Perth on 3 wheels and at 40kmph. He arrives back to his house approx. 7am. They sleep, and then attend the ball later that night. it is here jimmy’s story ends….

except it starts back up again, when a month later he spends close to $2,000 repairing his trailer....

no big deal.... shit happens!

jimmy and his misso are still together. they will never camp again.  

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