“We came to the North Coast in the early 70’s and Dad bought a little fishing trawler. He was a tiler and didn’t want to do it anymore. Back then it was a bit crazy and the local river rats started sinking the boat, ripping the winch off and doing nasty stuff. It was pretty hard as a kid at that time. Dad ended up going back to tiling but I always loved the ocean growing up. Wind surfing, sailing, surfing and kite surfing.
When I was older I had friends who worked on trawlers so I’d go out with them on the weekends to work. I met up with an old school mate called Charlie. We had similar childhoods and he asked me to be a deckhand on his boat called the Sea Rogue. We went out off Byron Bay for 3 days at a time and anchored off the bay. We’d trawl at night then come in and anchor off Byron opposite the pub during the day. I’d train on the beach, friends would swim out and we’d have seafood. I loved the job.
In 2008 Charlie, JJ and I had one night trawling, went in and rested for the day and went back out that night. JJ was Charlie’s friend. He’s an Aboriginal guy, bit cocky as I was the new kid on the block. He was helping out as Charlie didn’t let on that he had been sick and I think he was in remission from cancer.
That night we were trawling 16 kms off Byron. We had just finished cleaning up the decks. We mad a cuppa and at 1am I went down below to have a sleep. The guys were at the top just having a chat. I was asleep and Charlie was turning the boat to go back down the coast. I heard a big bump and woke up just before the boat flipped. I was down below the wheel house. As it flipped I instinctively dived through the wheelhouse as everything was falling. I liked my music so there were PA systems, everything falling. My mates had stuff falling on them and I was standing on the ceiling of our upturned 100 ton trawler. We still to this day don’t know what we hit. As we turned the nets caught and flipped the boat.
It was dark, the water’s rising and I saw Charlie trying to get out. I slid open a small window and pushed Charlie through. The water was pouring in, he got stuck and would have got water in his lungs. I went to get through and the suction was pulling me back but I finally got out. It was so weird floating back up to the surface. Everything slows down. When I reached the surface I was hyperventilating, swimming around in circles. I’d just woken up and I was spinning around. We couldn’t see JJ and we thought he had gone down with the boat. Suddenly he appeared with a red tub. It was the only tub that didn’t have drainage holes in it. We had nothing. We had paddle boards and stuff on the boat but when the boat flipped over it took the lot down with it.
It was the start of a new moon so it was so dark. The three of us hung onto that red tub and thought we were going to be eaten by sharks. The water was full of fish and bait from the boat and we had cuts on our legs. My legs were gashed going through the window. JJ was kicking as he felt something big bump his legs. Maybe the diesel protected us. We were freezing but I meditated to warm myself. I learned a lot about the power of the mind through doing karate. I only had a singlet on. I thought no-one knows that we are out here. I would try and send Mum a message to get her out of bed. She told me later that she did wake up and was going to call the police and thought, No don’t be silly. Mum and I have always had a connection. Dad said he woke up too. He dreamt that something had happened but thought Charlie would know what to do.
We had to wait for the sunrise, moment by moment thinking you are going to get eaten or drown. The sun came up and we could just see Mt Warning and the lighthouse in the distance. There were no other boats anywhere to be seen. I suggested that we all start kicking and trying to get in somehow. Charlie wasn’t a strong swimmer but he tried and went back to the tub. JJ hurt his back on the boat and he said he couldn’t and didn’t want us to leave him. I’d been swimming all my life so I decided to try to swim in.
As soon as I started swimming I felt good, I felt euphoric, I was singing, I was loving it out there on my own in the beautiful ocean, I wasn’t scared. I don’t know why. Who knows! By the afternoon my body was hurting, I had been swimming for 14 hours. I was near Julian Rocks and I did a little panic swim to reach it but it wasn’t going to happen. The waves and the tide kept pushing me back out. I kept going and I was really aching. I saw this chopper coming from the Gold Coast way flying low. I lifted my arm up trying to wave and it flew straight over the top of me and kept going. So hilarious really that they were so close and didn’t see me. I thought I’ve just gotta keep going. My body was in pain, I was going from this stroke to that stroke, blue bottles were wrapping around me from head to toe but the adrenalin kept the pain away. The choppy ocean looks like shark fins. My mouth is dry, my eyes are burning but I know I can’t stop.”
When I was older I had friends who worked on trawlers so I’d go out with them on the weekends to work. I met up with an old school mate called Charlie. We had similar childhoods and he asked me to be a deckhand on his boat called the Sea Rogue. We went out off Byron Bay for 3 days at a time and anchored off the bay. We’d trawl at night then come in and anchor off Byron opposite the pub during the day. I’d train on the beach, friends would swim out and we’d have seafood. I loved the job.
In 2008 Charlie, JJ and I had one night trawling, went in and rested for the day and went back out that night. JJ was Charlie’s friend. He’s an Aboriginal guy, bit cocky as I was the new kid on the block. He was helping out as Charlie didn’t let on that he had been sick and I think he was in remission from cancer.
That night we were trawling 16 kms off Byron. We had just finished cleaning up the decks. We mad a cuppa and at 1am I went down below to have a sleep. The guys were at the top just having a chat. I was asleep and Charlie was turning the boat to go back down the coast. I heard a big bump and woke up just before the boat flipped. I was down below the wheel house. As it flipped I instinctively dived through the wheelhouse as everything was falling. I liked my music so there were PA systems, everything falling. My mates had stuff falling on them and I was standing on the ceiling of our upturned 100 ton trawler. We still to this day don’t know what we hit. As we turned the nets caught and flipped the boat.
It was dark, the water’s rising and I saw Charlie trying to get out. I slid open a small window and pushed Charlie through. The water was pouring in, he got stuck and would have got water in his lungs. I went to get through and the suction was pulling me back but I finally got out. It was so weird floating back up to the surface. Everything slows down. When I reached the surface I was hyperventilating, swimming around in circles. I’d just woken up and I was spinning around. We couldn’t see JJ and we thought he had gone down with the boat. Suddenly he appeared with a red tub. It was the only tub that didn’t have drainage holes in it. We had nothing. We had paddle boards and stuff on the boat but when the boat flipped over it took the lot down with it.
It was the start of a new moon so it was so dark. The three of us hung onto that red tub and thought we were going to be eaten by sharks. The water was full of fish and bait from the boat and we had cuts on our legs. My legs were gashed going through the window. JJ was kicking as he felt something big bump his legs. Maybe the diesel protected us. We were freezing but I meditated to warm myself. I learned a lot about the power of the mind through doing karate. I only had a singlet on. I thought no-one knows that we are out here. I would try and send Mum a message to get her out of bed. She told me later that she did wake up and was going to call the police and thought, No don’t be silly. Mum and I have always had a connection. Dad said he woke up too. He dreamt that something had happened but thought Charlie would know what to do.
We had to wait for the sunrise, moment by moment thinking you are going to get eaten or drown. The sun came up and we could just see Mt Warning and the lighthouse in the distance. There were no other boats anywhere to be seen. I suggested that we all start kicking and trying to get in somehow. Charlie wasn’t a strong swimmer but he tried and went back to the tub. JJ hurt his back on the boat and he said he couldn’t and didn’t want us to leave him. I’d been swimming all my life so I decided to try to swim in.
As soon as I started swimming I felt good, I felt euphoric, I was singing, I was loving it out there on my own in the beautiful ocean, I wasn’t scared. I don’t know why. Who knows! By the afternoon my body was hurting, I had been swimming for 14 hours. I was near Julian Rocks and I did a little panic swim to reach it but it wasn’t going to happen. The waves and the tide kept pushing me back out. I kept going and I was really aching. I saw this chopper coming from the Gold Coast way flying low. I lifted my arm up trying to wave and it flew straight over the top of me and kept going. So hilarious really that they were so close and didn’t see me. I thought I’ve just gotta keep going. My body was in pain, I was going from this stroke to that stroke, blue bottles were wrapping around me from head to toe but the adrenalin kept the pain away. The choppy ocean looks like shark fins. My mouth is dry, my eyes are burning but I know I can’t stop.”