The Steamtug Blog

Having a boat doesn’t mean you need to kill fish. Afterall, it’s a “beer drinking” boat! Nobody has ever fished from Adaqua. I dont want fish guts all over my aft deck. But when my mate Steve told me that his son Alex wanted nothing more than to go fishing for his birthday, and asked if we could arrange a weekend away fishing, I saw the opportunity to get out on the boat for a few days and have with me some passengers who could not escape until I decided it was time to go back. And Alex being such a great guy, how could I refuse?

So a plan was hatched for us to meet Saturday afternoon for a 16:30 departure for Portarlington where we would meet up with the land lubbers who wanted to celebrate Alex’s birthday with dinner at the golf club. Alex’s older brother James was onboard too, and as he was a good buddy of my son Mitchell, Mitch took the unusual decision of coming also. (He hasn’t taken much interest in the boat since growing to a height of 6’7″ and is too tall to stand up in any place inside!)

6 brave souls set out that night for “a 3 hour cruise” (insert Gilligan’s Island theme music here). The Dads Steve and Mark, Mitch and James and Alex and his school buddy Jessie who is an experienced mad keen fisherman. We arrived after pleasantly sailing with the sunset at our backs, did the Golf Club bus thing, dinner with everyone coming back aboard for the birthday cake etc before the land lubbers left and the crew settled into their bunks while we rocked gently beside the Portarlington pier. I had made Alex the Captain for this trip, so he and Jessie slept in the captain and mate’s bunk down below in the pointy end of our ship. James slept down aft, while Steve and I each had a setee in the pilot house. We also had a laugh at Steve’s expense as according to the crew list I had made, he got the position of “Peggy” (tea lady/galley girl)!

We set out early next morning, while our Peggy cooked us breakfast and anchored off Governor’s reef off shore from Indented Heads. I had planned earlier to have a swim, but being a little cool had chickened out. Meanwhile the boys were having fun casting their rods with the hope of catching something, until Jessie caught a small shark.

After the boys got tired of fishing, Jessie said he wouldn’t mind having a swim. “Yeah?” I said… and with that ripped off my clothes and I was over the side and in! Brrrrr… it was damn cold, but soon adjusted to the temp and it was fine. James and Alex put the outboard onto the dinghy and were mucking around while Jessie and I swam around for a bit. I could not believe the visability; it went on for miles as the water was so clear! I got my snorkle, mask and fins and snooped around on the bottom where I saw lots of interesting things and wished I had brought my scuba tank. I also checked the anodes under poor old Adaqua and noticed it was time she was slipped.

After the swim, I noticed Steve staring at the land in the distance with that “I wish I was there” look. So we pulled up anchor and cruised over to St Leonards pier. James followed us in the dinghy, determined to prove it was made for long distance cruising afterall. We had to wait for him a couple of times, but he made it in the end. We tied up, and Steve was so happy to have his feet on dry land! We went for a walk around the main street and brought a pie for lunch, then went back and settled in to a relaxing afternoon. The boys were frantically trying to catch a fish from Adaqua until Alex had a brilliant idea. They jumped into the dinghy and Alex steered over to the nearby shallows while Jessie trolled behind. The soon returned excited to have caught a good sized Australian Salmon. They brought it back and headed out again, repeating this until we had enough to feed the whole crew! Well done boys!!!

I could not let them have all the fun and put my mask and fins back on to impress them by  catching fish “African” style. Using an old Tarzan technique taught to me by the Nigerians, I hovered over a fish until I caught it with my bare hands! Now I will not go into details as to how I did that, for fear it would ruin one of those legendary stories you pass down to the grandchildren, so only the crew know the secret of how this was done… what happens on at sea, stays at sea!

The weather bureau changed the forecast and predicted the possiblity of 35 knot NW winds which would have made it quite uncomfortable for the trip home, so we decided to head back to Portarlington and stay overnight.

Our Peggy cooked us up the fish with some scalloped potatoes washed down with a few beers before we settled in to watch a movie fit for the occassion… “A fish called Wanda”. I woke up at 5am the next morning, started the engine while everyone stayed asleep, let all the ropes go and steamed back through the morning darkness into a big rain storm with lightning over Geelong in the distance. With faint light appearing in the sky we passed Point Henry and into Port of Geelong waters before arriving safely at 7am. The crew awoke and crawled out of their bunks as the engine revs changed just in time for our arrival. All were happy to be home after our grand “boys own” adventure.