Whatever Floats your Boat
It was my idea to hire a boat and go zipping around for the afternoon with some friends and to my indignation they were rather worried the whole idea. Mostly because I insisted on driving. I was offended by their lack of faith on me but I had to admit that I'm no mariner. I could barely get the thing going on my own. And this is not a big boat. It was made of bright yellow plastic and had all the oomph of toothpaste coming out of the tube. Yep, we were out to carve up the waves in what looked a bit like an over-sized rubber ducky. I told them not to worry. It would be fun.
We zipped over to Stradbroke Island and I made myself proud by making a perfect landing on a pristine, secluded beach. We unpacked our picnic lunch and giggled hysterically as we watched a boat full of guys sailing past our spot while pretending to know how to fish. One of them had a strategy of slapping his fishing rod on the water's surface. Maybe he was trying to get the fishs' attention. We were rolling around on the picnic rug in hysterics when we saw the wannabe fishermen zooming past with their lines still in the water. Perhaps they thought fish like to chase the bait.
When we decided to head off we discovered the boat had become firmly entrenched on the sandy shore as the tide had receded. Oops. It took a lot of tugging and we almost flipped the whole thing over but we had one more problem to deal with. We couldn't get the motor back in the water. The latch wouldn't budge and we were quickly drifting into some ominous looking rocks. "Grab the paddle and keep us off the rocks!" I ordered as I began struggling with the stubborn latch. After a fair amount of tugging we looked at each other. "Ok, we need help." We caught the attention of a nearby boatie who told us to lift the engine as we lifted the latch. It worked. Thank goodness. Soon we were puttering around the houses of the extremely wealthy. If houses say something about their owners then these all said LOOK AT HOW MUCH GOOD TASTE MY ARCHITECT HAS. I thought that for all that money their homes had all the personality and homeliness of a car showroom.
As we headed back into the channel we were rocked by the wake of a fast-moving yacht. "Ahhhh!" we all screamed as the water pitched our brave little vessel about. We laughed at each other for screaming like the girls we are...and then we looked for another fast-moving boat. Not before long we were charging into every wake we could find screaming in delight as we got tossed about. People looked either amused or concerned. We would respond with spinning doughnuts. One boat was a slow-moving cruiser with some rather sedate, middle-aged couples aboard the top deck. Disappointed at the lack of turbulence they produced we began multiple doughnuts squealing like school kids. I looked over to my friend who was getting dizzy. My friend at the helm stopped the boat for a moment and then promptly pushed the rudder in the other direction shouting at my friend over her moans, "Going the other way will fix it!"
After almost losing our lunch we headed up to Marina Mirage where my friend decided to suddenly cut across the channel. We screamed in surprise as an enormous yacht roared past our bow. This thing was huge - a 50 foot monster and it had been coming so fast that we didn't hear it until it was on top of us. The wake we drove into was so big I grabbed the rope on the bow of the boat and shouted at everyone to be prepared to go over. "Ahhhhhh!" we screamed in fairly genuine terror but we landed the right way up.
Then we were really hungry for excitment. We lurked by the edge of the channel waving merrily to boaties before charging into their wake. It was cheap thrills and we were getting pretty wet in the process. "Ah guys, we only have a little bit of fuel left." my friend warned. "One more! One more!" we shouted. And then the engine died. "Oh, this is not good." we were about two kilometres from the shore and we had just run out of fuel. A boat came by and the guy asked, "Are you all right?" We hesitated then replied, "Yes, we're fine - don't worry about us." I could tell he knew better but soon went on his way. Hey, we didn't need help - we could handle it. If we had to row ourselves back to shore we would...wouldn't we?
My friend took the fuel container and shook it, "there's a little bit of fuel left!" she announced. "If I tip it up it should work." With trepidation we waited for the engine to splutter back to life. "One more, one more!" my friend shouted. "Are you crazy! We have like a teaspoon of fuel in there!" I protested but there was no stopping us - we made three more wake charges before we finally conceded that we should head back to the jetty ASAP. With such little fuel left our engine was pretty slow. I pulled out the paddles, "We need people power to help out our horsepower." I said and began paddling. In hysterics we took turns, shouting encouragement and singing row-row-row your boat. I stood on the prow with the rope and called out, "100 metres! Come on, we can do it! 50 metres! Come on, we're almost there!" As we grew near to the jetty I prepared to leap onto it but then I realised we were going too fast and froze with indecision. Smack! We collided into the jetty and I fell back into the boat with a yelp. We bounced off and then continued forward into a rather weatherworn railing which shuddered ominously as our prow crunched into it. "Reverse! Reverse!" I yelled. We backed up and this time landed and disembarked safely.
"What's the time?" I asked my friend. "We are precisely on time." she said in amazement. I nodded in approval. I'm never late. And while our boat might have been a tad less glamorous than the one that almost wiped us out but I wouldn't have traded our day for the whole marina : )
We zipped over to Stradbroke Island and I made myself proud by making a perfect landing on a pristine, secluded beach. We unpacked our picnic lunch and giggled hysterically as we watched a boat full of guys sailing past our spot while pretending to know how to fish. One of them had a strategy of slapping his fishing rod on the water's surface. Maybe he was trying to get the fishs' attention. We were rolling around on the picnic rug in hysterics when we saw the wannabe fishermen zooming past with their lines still in the water. Perhaps they thought fish like to chase the bait.
When we decided to head off we discovered the boat had become firmly entrenched on the sandy shore as the tide had receded. Oops. It took a lot of tugging and we almost flipped the whole thing over but we had one more problem to deal with. We couldn't get the motor back in the water. The latch wouldn't budge and we were quickly drifting into some ominous looking rocks. "Grab the paddle and keep us off the rocks!" I ordered as I began struggling with the stubborn latch. After a fair amount of tugging we looked at each other. "Ok, we need help." We caught the attention of a nearby boatie who told us to lift the engine as we lifted the latch. It worked. Thank goodness. Soon we were puttering around the houses of the extremely wealthy. If houses say something about their owners then these all said LOOK AT HOW MUCH GOOD TASTE MY ARCHITECT HAS. I thought that for all that money their homes had all the personality and homeliness of a car showroom.
As we headed back into the channel we were rocked by the wake of a fast-moving yacht. "Ahhhh!" we all screamed as the water pitched our brave little vessel about. We laughed at each other for screaming like the girls we are...and then we looked for another fast-moving boat. Not before long we were charging into every wake we could find screaming in delight as we got tossed about. People looked either amused or concerned. We would respond with spinning doughnuts. One boat was a slow-moving cruiser with some rather sedate, middle-aged couples aboard the top deck. Disappointed at the lack of turbulence they produced we began multiple doughnuts squealing like school kids. I looked over to my friend who was getting dizzy. My friend at the helm stopped the boat for a moment and then promptly pushed the rudder in the other direction shouting at my friend over her moans, "Going the other way will fix it!"
After almost losing our lunch we headed up to Marina Mirage where my friend decided to suddenly cut across the channel. We screamed in surprise as an enormous yacht roared past our bow. This thing was huge - a 50 foot monster and it had been coming so fast that we didn't hear it until it was on top of us. The wake we drove into was so big I grabbed the rope on the bow of the boat and shouted at everyone to be prepared to go over. "Ahhhhhh!" we screamed in fairly genuine terror but we landed the right way up.
Then we were really hungry for excitment. We lurked by the edge of the channel waving merrily to boaties before charging into their wake. It was cheap thrills and we were getting pretty wet in the process. "Ah guys, we only have a little bit of fuel left." my friend warned. "One more! One more!" we shouted. And then the engine died. "Oh, this is not good." we were about two kilometres from the shore and we had just run out of fuel. A boat came by and the guy asked, "Are you all right?" We hesitated then replied, "Yes, we're fine - don't worry about us." I could tell he knew better but soon went on his way. Hey, we didn't need help - we could handle it. If we had to row ourselves back to shore we would...wouldn't we?
My friend took the fuel container and shook it, "there's a little bit of fuel left!" she announced. "If I tip it up it should work." With trepidation we waited for the engine to splutter back to life. "One more, one more!" my friend shouted. "Are you crazy! We have like a teaspoon of fuel in there!" I protested but there was no stopping us - we made three more wake charges before we finally conceded that we should head back to the jetty ASAP. With such little fuel left our engine was pretty slow. I pulled out the paddles, "We need people power to help out our horsepower." I said and began paddling. In hysterics we took turns, shouting encouragement and singing row-row-row your boat. I stood on the prow with the rope and called out, "100 metres! Come on, we can do it! 50 metres! Come on, we're almost there!" As we grew near to the jetty I prepared to leap onto it but then I realised we were going too fast and froze with indecision. Smack! We collided into the jetty and I fell back into the boat with a yelp. We bounced off and then continued forward into a rather weatherworn railing which shuddered ominously as our prow crunched into it. "Reverse! Reverse!" I yelled. We backed up and this time landed and disembarked safely.
"What's the time?" I asked my friend. "We are precisely on time." she said in amazement. I nodded in approval. I'm never late. And while our boat might have been a tad less glamorous than the one that almost wiped us out but I wouldn't have traded our day for the whole marina : )
I really hope you fulfil your wish to be a published writer because the masses are missing out Rachelle!
You had me giggling and gasping and laughing hysterically and thoroughly enjoying the world through your eyes.
...and you...just sound so full of joie de vivre...
Brilliant.
Rugby World Cup 2007
Apologies...I commented anonymously but had voted with my full karma points...