Looking back at where I took the last pic on Dee Why Headland from South Curl Curl

#Straya #cosophotography

Looking south from Dee Why Headland

#Straya #cosophotography

More toggle switches.

#CosoGuitar

All the nicest amps have my favourite old-school toggle switches.

#CosoGuitar

Toggle switch = best switch.

If it ain’t broke…

#CosoGuitar

Note: It's only "proposed" because the rightist opposition wants so desperately to please their bosses Gina Rinehart and the Murdochs despite the fact that every single person who actually knows about this stuff says that renewables are a far better solution.

There will never, ever, ever be a nuclear plant there.

Update:

This reminds me of those old illustrations from the 19th Century of Moby Dick-style whalers, except these heroes are working to save the whale and not to turn it into lamp oil.

The moment they cut the rope:

Update:

This is the moment after they cut the rope when they were checking the whale to see if they got everything off it.

Update:

They got a nice shot of the rescuers (well, except for the one with the GoPro on top of the helmet who's blocked by the bearded bloke's melon 😂 ).

Heroes, every one of them 👏

Update:

Confirmed. The whale's free!

Note: I'm told this is a different Jessica Fox and not the Olympic gold medallist one 😂

.

Update:

They had a good look with both an underwater camera and Mark I eyeballs, and are now going home.

Heroes.

Update:

THEY DID IT!

The whale's just having a bit of a rest and a bask in the sun now, and the rescue crew's just checking to make sure they got all the rope. They seem bullish.

Update:

They're starting another try. They pull themselves up the fishing gear rope hand over hand. It must be exhausting.

Update:

No luck! The tail's just moving too much.

It looks like the fishing gear is trailing about 30-40 metres back from the whale and they've attached some kind of sea-anchor to the far end of it, with the second Zodiac adding extra drag to slow the poor whale down. It's harsh, but the sooner the get the rope cut, the sooner the whale can go back out to its mama.

Update:

Yup. They're about to have a go at it.

Update:

The rescue team can clearly see the problem now and they were just pointing and talking it over to make a plan.

It looks to me as if it really is only one loop of orange rope.

Now they've dropped back to get a long pole from the other boat.

Update:

Very close now. They're dropping back down the rope to bring up another buoy.

Their tactic seems to be to leapfrog them up to the whale's tail.

Update:

Okay, they've got 6 buoys attached now and are working their way up to try moving the rear-most ones up closer to the whale. It's still swimming energetically.

Update:

The Nine chopper's been refuelled and is on the way back to the scene 👍