Boat-related Excitement on Wallaroo Waters

 Morning coffee at The Shores Eatery is never dull.  Last time we were there we were privy to the saga of the men in wet suits working to remove some unidentified but obviously well-buried item from the sand at the bottom of the swimming enclosure.  This time around we sat outside with the brunch crowd, minding our own business and commenting on how every weekend brings more people to Wallaroo as the summer gets under way.  Prawn trawlers and crab boats littered the far horizon of the bay, the pre-Christmas prawn season having started a couple of days ago.

My resident Man With Binoculars keeps a close eye on the working movements of the prawn trawlers.

As we sipped our coffee (in my case, tea) it became clear that one of the trawlers was motoring purposefully toward the jetty.  The brunch crowd perked up and, as one, shuffled their chairs around for a better view, because the prawn trawlers usually headed over toward the marina which was nowhere near the jetty.

"It's definitely getting closer!" The brunch crowd began to postulate wild theories: a runaway boat, out of control and about to crash into the jetty; a rogue captain; hijacking by zombie prawns; murder on board with the perpetrator overwhelmed and the necessity for the boat to hightail in to the jetty to deliver said murderer to the authorities...

The boat continued directly toward the small side jetty.  There was a flurry amongst the fishermen who realised that their lines and crab pots were in the way of the trawler and it showed every intention of making contact with the jetty.  The Eatery chair-shuffling continued as everyone ensured maximum viewing angles and forgot to eat their bacon.

In an anticlimactic display of boat-handling, the trawler nosed into the jetty with nary a fisherman being squashed or a line being tangled.  A young man jumped onto the jetty, and the trawler promptly reversed away and headed back out to sea at a pace that suggested no time would be lost in getting back to trawling business.

The brunch crowd resumed eating their bacon whilst speculating breathlessly on the reasons for a prawn trawler to jettison a young man in the midst of a workday.  The young man blended into the fishermen and none of the brunch crowd could pick him with certainty from the mob of ordinary people wandering on and off the jetty. We added the event to the list of mysteries observed while eating at the Shores Eatery, finished our cups of tea, and jumped on our bicycles to head home.  We were distracted, however, by compelling drumbeats and bursts of cheering as we pedaled past the tavern. Curious, we took a detour on the boardwalk behind the tavern and discovered the exciting world of dragon boat racing.

It was a bit confusing at first: they seemed to be following each other in circles, which didn't fit my definition of racing.

The boats were stylish, though.

We settled on the seats to watch and gradually all became clear.  We had, by happy accident, sat ourselves right behind the finish line with a grand view as the boats raced toward us and then back-paddled frantically in order to stop before they crashed into the stone wall below us.

The dragon-boat drummer has the best role: you get to sit down on the job, bang a drum, and yell at people.  That could be fun.

We watched for a while and then, saturated with boat-related excitement for the day, headed home to watch the sunset.  

There's never a dull moment on the water around Wallaroo.