We almost ran into the monster, whilst cruising on shallow seas through short steep waves. It was at a time when adventuring yachties and readers of the novel 'Moby Dick' still believed that whales were angry monsters that would attack and smash a boat to pieces and around the time Sikaflex was invented . It happened two years before Greenpeace launched its first anti-whaling campaign and it was still four years until the National Geographic would publish and introduce the world to the plight and ‘ Songs of the Humpback Whale’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WOjJIynHgM The north-west-coast of New Zealand was poorly charted back then, maybe it still is. Our charts were notarized with comments from early explorers warning of shallow seas and shifting sandy bottoms. The Admiralty Pilot Books which we carried also had little information. It was a time when most cruising yachties still navigated with paper charts, Walker-Logs and sextants in wooden boats fastened with copper na

The lifeboat style craft was anchored astern and to port of us. We were hunkered down in Valhalla’s cockpit and into our second or third coldie, watching the gale tear at the canvas cover of the Ranger’s boat, exposing the small single piston engine of the 18ft dory. Suddenly we heard yelling, carried on the wind from behind us, from the direction of our bow. My mate Rastas and I were sheltering from the 25-knot northeaster. Our 60ft ketch securely anchored in Pittwater, off  The Basin Campground, a popular weekend destination in the early 70s. With anchor chain taught, she hung parallel to the shore and adjacent to a great big yellow sign, warning of a submarine cable. If you’re a Sydney-boatie, you’ll know the spot. We stood up, turned and peered over our cabin roof to see what the fuss was about, to discover a forty-foot fly-bridge-cruiser, a Hawksbury Halvorsen rental, sprinting into The Basin at about the same speed as the northeaster, 25-knots.     For those readers who know