The only way to get out through this tickle is to stay to the left and stay as close to shore as possible. Then head straight ahead for Double Island. The next shoal you have to pass is called Sparky. You have to stay well outside this one. Next there is a shoal called Mad Mall. This is the biggest shoal down in Murray's Harbour. It is a beautiful shoal to watch break from on land, but it's a scary sight when you have to pass along by it in boat. The next Shoal is called Jumping Rock. You have to give this shoal a big berth. Further up is another shoal called Paddey's Bank. The last shoal you see before you reach Spear Harbour is a shoal called Big Bank. This shoal breaks in towards Spear Point, but not all the way to land. There are many dangerous shoals around Murray's Harbour. Each shoal has the power to swamp a boat, turn a boat upside down or even break a boat in half. That day we left the harbour through the big tickle. Dad was the lead boat and he stayed to the far left of the tickle. Me and Uncle Nelson followed close behind him. That was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and there was not a draft of wind but there was some swell on in the water. I remember dad's motorboat would go down in a swell and disappear. Then a few seconds later the boat would appear again. That was a scary sight! It was a funny feeling to go up and down in a swell. You would go down into it and all you would see is the sky and water all around you. Then when you came up out of the swell it seemed you could see for miles around, you were that far out of the water. I tell you that day would have tested any man's stomach.

We made our way up towards Spear Point with shoals breaking all around us. There was banging and crashing sounds everywhere. It was like we were in a thunder storm. We made sure that we stayed well outside the breaking shoals. Sure enough when we got to Spear Point, Big Bank was breaking. We did not go out around Big Bank. Instead we went between the breaking shoal and Spear Point. What a frightening ride that was! A huge wall of water would rise out of the ocean and head straight for us. As the wall of water got closer and closer it got smaller and disappeared into the ocean where it came from. Anybody who has ever went around Spear Point in a sea knows full well how rough that place is. I tell you there was some backwash corning from Spear Point that day. Backwash is when waves hit the land and create another wave coming from the land. The backwash coming off Spear Point that day made our ride into Spear Harbour even worse. Now we were being hit by waves corning from two directions.

We managed to get into Spear Harbour and pick up the women. That day in Spear Harbour there were 4 long liners tied up. They were waiting for the sea to go back so they could go to Fox Harbour. We told them that we were going to Fox Harbour and they thought we were off our heads. To us the worst part of our trip was over. We left Spear Harbour and continued on our way. It was still a bit rough going, but it was nothing compared to what we just came through. When we got to Black Point it was like we were in another world. There was hardly any sea and it was like riding in a piss pot the rest of the way to Fox Harbour.