strakeryrius
Well-Known Member
And we had ring-side seats.
We’d been to Worbarrow Bay on Saturday and SWMBO didn’t want to go as far yesterday – I agreed as the forecast was for the weather to close in later in the afternoon, so we headed out through the 10:30 bridge and headed for Studland Bay.
We followed out a very nice Princess V48 and were followed in turn by a Sunseeker Camargue 54 with a canary yellow hull. They both headed for Studland too and rafted up about 100m West of us.
I anchored about 20m outside the Voluntary No Anchor Zone, as I find that way I didn’t get surrounded or hemmed in by too many other boats when it gets crowded there. And very crowded it got as more and more boats arrived for lunch in the sunshine.
Within a few minutes of arriving the skipper of the SS unloaded a Seadoo type jet ski out of his tender garage, and proceeded to buzz all around the anchorage at very high speeds, despite the buoys prohibiting speeds above 5 knots. He wasn’t the only one, there were lots of other jet skis, ski boats, and hobie cats flying around across the anchorage taking advantage of the strong breeze to get up to well over 20 knots. The trouble was the jet skis were generally going North-South because of the light chop, whereas the sailors were going East-West to get onto a beam reach.
About 2pm we were finishing off a lazy lunch and I spotted this character heading out towards Old Harry with a child on the back, far too fast. SWMBO remarked a few moments later that it seemed far too dangerous to be going that fast with a child passenger. We looked away and back to our Sunday periodicals. About 20 seconds later there was an almighty BANG and when we looked we could see the jet ski about 200 m away to the East unmanned and very close to a blue-white trimaran, with a couple of heads bobbing in the water. Two RIBS set off very fast from the two rafted vessels and a motoring yacht started circling the jet ski.
After a couple of minutes the two riders got back aboard and headed back towards the rafted boats at very high speed. He passed only 3m or so from my starboard side. They both jumped off, the child into the water and the rider onto the bathing platform of the Princess. We could see blood leaking down onto the platform from his leg, which was apparently badly gashed
There then followed a very unedifying few minutes; a young lad – sounded like he was about 14 or 15 got onto the VHF and called the CG. He had no training at all and was in a high state of panic. He kept calling Solent Coastguard when they repeatedly told him that it was Portland CG responding, and kept demanding that they send the air ambulance “right fookin now!” ignoring their repeated requests for the name of the vessel and some sort of location. Eventually, just as I was about to call, another boat was able to get in and gave the CG a Lat and Long which helped settle things down tremendously. But he still kept calling demanding to know how much longer it was going to “fookin be to get here”.
The drifting jet ski was blown down towards us, and was only recovered by a passing RIB when it was about 5m off our bow. We could clearly see the blood streaks all down the port side of it.
The Helo arrived in about 15 mins, and with the Westerly wind, and us being 100m to the East of the rafted boats, it took up station almost directly over us. It was chaos – papers and lunch stuff flying about in the cockpit, and a couple of seat cushions dislodged too, which I managed to catch before they went over the back. The worst was that the downdraft was so strong it caused my anchor to break out, and in the rush to recover and reset I didn’t get a chance to take any photos until the drama had moved on.
The Bay was so crowded that the pilot asked the two boats to move out towards Old Harry so as to give him room to get lower without the risk of fouling a yacht’s mast. They moved off smartish and we could see the casualty still on the back of the princess with his leg swathed in a makeshift bandage of a sheet or similar.
The helo dropped his winchman, who had to have a stretcher sent down as the casualty couldn’t sit in the strop and after what seemed like an eternity the guy was winched up and away, whereupon the helo headed off in the direction of Poole General pretty sharpish.
Only a few moments later we heard the Poole Lifeboat called out to the trimaran which had lost either steering or engine, or both, and was in the channel near the Chain Ferry. They were safely towed back in.
Later still a Police RIB turned up visiting what boats remained there looking for witnesses. We told them we had only heard the accident not seen it and they went on their way. Later there was byplay between the CG and various vessels involved as they tried to find out what had happened to the jet ski.
Drama over, the anchorage seemed to empty by about 4pm as a few clouds came over from the West, but the forecast bad weather never materialised and we came back through the 18:30 bridge bathed in glorious sunshine.
Then I “lost” reverse gear (the clutch wouldn’t engage) on the port engine while reversing into my berth. Fun when the wind is blowing right across you and the tidal current is going the other way.
So much for a relaxing day’s boating.
Edit: Yes that is one of the VNAZ buoys that the boat in the foreground had moored to for a lunchtime BBQ
We’d been to Worbarrow Bay on Saturday and SWMBO didn’t want to go as far yesterday – I agreed as the forecast was for the weather to close in later in the afternoon, so we headed out through the 10:30 bridge and headed for Studland Bay.
We followed out a very nice Princess V48 and were followed in turn by a Sunseeker Camargue 54 with a canary yellow hull. They both headed for Studland too and rafted up about 100m West of us.
I anchored about 20m outside the Voluntary No Anchor Zone, as I find that way I didn’t get surrounded or hemmed in by too many other boats when it gets crowded there. And very crowded it got as more and more boats arrived for lunch in the sunshine.
Within a few minutes of arriving the skipper of the SS unloaded a Seadoo type jet ski out of his tender garage, and proceeded to buzz all around the anchorage at very high speeds, despite the buoys prohibiting speeds above 5 knots. He wasn’t the only one, there were lots of other jet skis, ski boats, and hobie cats flying around across the anchorage taking advantage of the strong breeze to get up to well over 20 knots. The trouble was the jet skis were generally going North-South because of the light chop, whereas the sailors were going East-West to get onto a beam reach.
About 2pm we were finishing off a lazy lunch and I spotted this character heading out towards Old Harry with a child on the back, far too fast. SWMBO remarked a few moments later that it seemed far too dangerous to be going that fast with a child passenger. We looked away and back to our Sunday periodicals. About 20 seconds later there was an almighty BANG and when we looked we could see the jet ski about 200 m away to the East unmanned and very close to a blue-white trimaran, with a couple of heads bobbing in the water. Two RIBS set off very fast from the two rafted vessels and a motoring yacht started circling the jet ski.
After a couple of minutes the two riders got back aboard and headed back towards the rafted boats at very high speed. He passed only 3m or so from my starboard side. They both jumped off, the child into the water and the rider onto the bathing platform of the Princess. We could see blood leaking down onto the platform from his leg, which was apparently badly gashed
There then followed a very unedifying few minutes; a young lad – sounded like he was about 14 or 15 got onto the VHF and called the CG. He had no training at all and was in a high state of panic. He kept calling Solent Coastguard when they repeatedly told him that it was Portland CG responding, and kept demanding that they send the air ambulance “right fookin now!” ignoring their repeated requests for the name of the vessel and some sort of location. Eventually, just as I was about to call, another boat was able to get in and gave the CG a Lat and Long which helped settle things down tremendously. But he still kept calling demanding to know how much longer it was going to “fookin be to get here”.
The drifting jet ski was blown down towards us, and was only recovered by a passing RIB when it was about 5m off our bow. We could clearly see the blood streaks all down the port side of it.
The Helo arrived in about 15 mins, and with the Westerly wind, and us being 100m to the East of the rafted boats, it took up station almost directly over us. It was chaos – papers and lunch stuff flying about in the cockpit, and a couple of seat cushions dislodged too, which I managed to catch before they went over the back. The worst was that the downdraft was so strong it caused my anchor to break out, and in the rush to recover and reset I didn’t get a chance to take any photos until the drama had moved on.
The Bay was so crowded that the pilot asked the two boats to move out towards Old Harry so as to give him room to get lower without the risk of fouling a yacht’s mast. They moved off smartish and we could see the casualty still on the back of the princess with his leg swathed in a makeshift bandage of a sheet or similar.
The helo dropped his winchman, who had to have a stretcher sent down as the casualty couldn’t sit in the strop and after what seemed like an eternity the guy was winched up and away, whereupon the helo headed off in the direction of Poole General pretty sharpish.
Only a few moments later we heard the Poole Lifeboat called out to the trimaran which had lost either steering or engine, or both, and was in the channel near the Chain Ferry. They were safely towed back in.
Later still a Police RIB turned up visiting what boats remained there looking for witnesses. We told them we had only heard the accident not seen it and they went on their way. Later there was byplay between the CG and various vessels involved as they tried to find out what had happened to the jet ski.
Drama over, the anchorage seemed to empty by about 4pm as a few clouds came over from the West, but the forecast bad weather never materialised and we came back through the 18:30 bridge bathed in glorious sunshine.
Then I “lost” reverse gear (the clutch wouldn’t engage) on the port engine while reversing into my berth. Fun when the wind is blowing right across you and the tidal current is going the other way.
So much for a relaxing day’s boating.
Edit: Yes that is one of the VNAZ buoys that the boat in the foreground had moored to for a lunchtime BBQ
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