How to heighten the tension in memoir writing
Writing your memoir is not just about chronicling a life event. You can add passion, intrigue, and in this case, tension to your story. In an extract from his memoir, The Right Break, John Abernethy sets the scene for a dangerous and daunting sea adventure.
Australia’s Bass Strait goes from safe to suicidal in hours. A bad weather front was forecast this fateful day, but constant changes in our region meant it could blow itself out well before it reached us, or simply change course and go right around us. We lived with this, but with a careful eye on the barometer (‘the Glass’). Should it start falling steadily, get home fast. Or don’t leave port in the first place.
It was a typical weekend charter, out Friday evening, back Sunday afternoon. This time it was three VFL footballers from Colac. As a sponsor of Port Fairy Football Club, the big burley Colac ruckman was a familiar sight. For the next 48 hours, as the angler on charter, we would need his brawn to stay with a couple of thousand pounds of angry shark, if we were lucky enough to hook one.
While I was up on the flybridge taking us out to Lady Julia Percy Island, my mate and crewman Phil Wik or ‘Dip’ as he was more affectionately known, made our new clients comfortable below. Tricks of the trade to avoid sea-sickness included sorting out their sleeping arrangements, priming them all with alcohol and a deck of cards, and laying out who would be in the game fishing chair should a big fish strike.
It was cold and wet. No one came up onto the bridge until we were inside the lee of the island. The westerly horizon was growing darker and bleaker by the minute when we set anchor for happy hour, a tradition once we were in place for the night.
Inside the warmth and comfort of the saloon, I made for the Glass and gave it a tap.
The needle dropped like I had never seen a needle drop before. I tapped it again, and my blood ran cold. I just couldn’t believe it.
In seven years at sea I had never seen the Glass this low. The wind was picking up, and a storm cloud was bearing down out of the south-west.
I felt sick. This was shaping up to be the worst weather I had ever been out in. Small ships don’t survive this weather in Bass Strait.
We had no time to out-run it, and darkness was closing in.
John Abernethy
Author, memoirist and raconteur. John’s memoir, The Right Break, is available from most major booksellers and the BGP Bookshop.
All proceeds from the sales are donated to the Joel Abernethy Advantage.
