Beneath the tempestuous surf of Taieri Mouth, Davy Jones lurks. He's waiting for an unsuspecting, overkeen boatie to come along and fall into his locker. Lately, he has nearly nabbed a couple, as John Lewis reports.
Former boatie Mark Madgwick sits on his empty boat trailer looking forlornly off into the distance. Five words are cast adrift from his mouth: "Hindsight is a wonderful thing."
Just weeks ago, the 36-year-old North Taieri man and two companions almost died when his boat was rolled by sea swells at Taieri Mouth.
One of them was taken to Dunedin Hospital's intensive care unit with hypothermia.
It can seem an insane risk to take, braving the Taieri Mouth bar for a couple of fish. But then, to the inexperienced eye, the bar can appear a somewhat innocuous prospect.
As it did on a recent day, when I went to see what the fuss was all about, accompanying an experienced boatie who knows the bar well.
It's a sunny day, the skies are blue, there is a gentle breeze and the scenery is idyllic. A perfect place for fishing.
But as we bobble our way out towards the notorious sand bar, the danger quickly becomes apparent.
Even though the weather is good and the swells are a little over a metre high, an army of thrashing white waves can be seen barrelling between us and the open sea.
My trusted courier tells me the mistake many recreational boaties make is to plough head-on straight through the waves.
Many end up flipping backward as the waves unexpectedly "stand up" in the water.
Others are rolled as they chicken out at the last second, try to turn around and are broadsided. You can see how it might happen.
The temptation is to push on quickly across the short span of roller-coaster water to the fishing grounds beyond.
Mr Madgwick didn't get that far, though on the face of it, he gave himself at least some chance.
He says he completed a skippers course through the Coast Guard and has been boating for about a year on lakes and rivers.
He had also made it successfully across the Taieri Mouth bar on one previous occasion, before coming unstuck on the second attempt - only his second time at sea.
He is one of four boat owners who have required rescue by emergency services at the river mouth in the past five months.
Nearly every week, someone comes to less serious grief on the bar.
That is, they get their boat grounded on the bar and a kind commercial fisherman has to come out and tow them off.
Local fishermen say the day Mr Madgwick and his friends tried to cross the bar, the waves were up to 4m high and it was "straight-out suicide" to cross them.
But Mr Madgwick reckons the conditions on the day in question seemed safe.
The skies were clear and the waves on the bar appeared to be only about a metre high.
Looking back, he says he may have underestimated the potential for danger.
"I got halfway through the waves and I thought, `OK, I shouldn't have done this'. It was a bit rough. But at the time, I thought we would be OK.
"Unfortunately, the motor died and the boat got swamped by a big wave. It rolled."
Mr Madgwick and his companions managed to hold on to the overturned boat, but when it hit the sand bar and the heavy, frigid waves began to pound them, they lost their grip.
"We started to float out towards the sea. Towards the end, I started to think `here we go - we're going to die'.
"Thirty seconds later, I heard the helicopter and I thought `thank God'. I've never been so pleased to hear a helicopter in all my life.
"The worst part was that we were floating around out there and we didn't know if anyone had seen we were in trouble.
"It's only the fact that the locals were watching us that I'm here today. I'm glad they were watching."
Looking back on the situation, Mr Madgwick says he should have used his VHF radio to let the locals know he was going out across the bar.
"Maybe if I had done that, someone would have come back and said don't do it - it's too dangerous. I would have listened for sure. I probably would have taken the boat and played in the river instead."
Taking an emergency position-indicating radio beacon to put in his pocket would also have been a good idea, he says.
Had he had one, the emergency services would have been able to pinpoint his position on the globe within seconds of him hitting the water.
Perhaps he and his friends would have been rescued from the icy drink sooner and maybe his friend would have avoided a stay in hospital recovering from hypothermia.
Mr Madgwick says he will wonder for a long time to come whether the whole incident could have been avoided if he had just thought to warm his boat's engine.
"There was nothing mechanically wrong with the motor. It was just that the fuel wasn't going through the engine properly.
"If I was going to go out again, I would warm it by going for a spin up the river or something."
Unfortunately, his boat was not insured and it will cost about $25,000 to replace. Mr Madgwick still counts himself lucky.
"I think I was very lucky. I only lost my boat. I could have lost my life - or worse, my mates' lives. I couldn't live with that."
Dsepite the number of calls emergency services get to fish boaties out of the mouth, Search and Rescue officer in charge Senior Sergeant Brian Benn says he never tires of it.
It's what he's trained to do.
Ever the diplomat, he was reluctant to criticise boaties for going out across the Taieri Mouth sand bar - lest it cause them to avoid calling emergency services when they really need help.
Nevertheless, he believes Taieri Mouth is one of the most dangerous waterways on the Otago coastline and he recommends people use other - safer - boat ramps instead.
"Taieri Mouth is a very well known hazard. We've been very lucky not to have lost some lives there this season.
"We're waiting for the day when we are going to have to fish out dead boaties. We're not looking forward to telling their families."
There are alternative boat ramps at Karitane and Port Chalmers. If you have the right boat and a four-wheel-drive vehicle, you can also launch from Brighton Beach.
But Snr Sgt Benn says the safest is Port Chalmers.
"There are some good safe launching spots at Port Chalmers - particularly at Back Beach. When conditions aren't suitable for boating at Taieri Mouth, people can go to Port Chalmers on almost any day.
"Launching at Port won't get them to their intended fishing spot at Taieri Mouth, but they should just change their plans."
