Loud doesn't quite cover the noise they make
.
When I was 21 I was at sea on a large trawler just west of Wessel Islands NT it was beauitful calm day. We were heading for Darwin to unload a full freezer. The auto pilot had failed so we had to hand steer which was mind deadening task.
The trick was not to continually watch the compass and adjust the helm with small flick every now and again, but also it was also a bit of a game being on watch with the straightest wake.
I was on watch and had checked the radar and then the wake went down to the galley and made a coffee. The rest of the crew were asleep as we had been working the vessel 24hours. I got back up to the wheelhouse level turned around and checked my wake nice and straight.
Put my coffee on the helm and backed up to the Skippers seat and sat down grabbed my coffee, and the noise that come from behind was absolutely terrifying, the boat had both booms out that are roughly 5 – 6 metres from the surface, on both sides two F18’s (I’m told) flew under them. The fighters had their own wake in the water they were that low.
They flew directly past us and both spiralled around ahead and headed straight back under the booms I could see the pilot on the starboard side give me the thumbs up you can imagine my reply , by then I was out at the bow rail. You could almost reach out and touch them
The look on the crews faces as they did not see a thing only heard them.
It was certainly an impressive sight, but I have often wondered how it would be on the wrong side of one.
