When Luck is on Your Side

Some days at sea remind you just how thin the line is between smooth sailing and disaster. On board Lyndy, our trawler working the Hawkesbury River for squid, I had one of those days.

The morning started like any other. The Gardner 6XLB engine hummed away, the winch lifting gear from the depths without complaint. First haul came up fine — I brought the codend in with the lazy line, then dropped the net back into the water, ready for the second lift. That’s when things shifted.

The lever that engages the capstan suddenly wouldn’t bite. At first, it felt like a small mechanical hiccup, but a glance into the bilge told me otherwise: the duplex chain on the front end assembly had snapped. That chain drives the winch — the very thing that lifts the gear off the bottom. And without it, the whole operation grinds to a halt.

I stood there thinking about timing. If that chain had broken just five minutes earlier, the gear would have been down, locked to the riverbed. With no winch, I’d have been forced to try to haul everything up by hand — a difficult but not impossible task in the depths we work. Instead, luck was on my side. The gear was already up, the nets safe. The damage was serious, but manageable.

It’s moments like these that remind you how unforgiving commercial fishing can be. The machinery is old but trusted, and every moving part carries the weight of your livelihood. A single failure at the wrong time can turn a normal day into a nightmare.

On the Hawkesbury, chasing squid with Lyndy, I got a reminder that sometimes the sea cuts you a break. That day, the chain didn’t beat me. It waited until the nets were clear. Five minutes made all the difference.