Main Day at Shaggers

Saturday 26^th August 2017

Today is the main day of the Shaggers Rendezvous, with the “Hands Across the Blue” dinghy raft up in the form of the Prostate Cancer emblem first up. Dinghies are asked to appear the designated spot from 11 am, and a series of temporary “moorings” have been set up to form the shape.

First up in the morning, we headed ashore at 8.30am to restock on perishables. The proprietor of the Dingo Beach store has bought around a selection of goods, eggs, bread, milk etc and has set up a stall from 9am.

We had a cup of coffee on shore with Sue and John before taking out purchases back to the boat. The early morning Tai Chi classes were under way on the beach.

The wind is blowing pretty hard and the wind waves are building. Getting back on the boat was a bit hard on Peter’s knees as it was pitching in the waves. We decided that he and Carole would stay on board, whilst Sharon and I too the dinghy to the raft up. It was a bumpy ride over there and general chaos prevailed as the temporary moorings dragged and Marshals towed “rafts” back in position and most people set anchors.

We ran into some friends from Akuna Bay

After some time the job was done to the satisfaction of the organisers and the official part of the function began. The owner of Abel Point Marina, brought his very large motor boat, Norseman, up for the function and it became the platform for speeches and entertainment.

Everything is in place and the speeches begin

Peter Dutton flew in as a guest speaker, followed by a Professor representing Prostate Cancer Research where all of the funds from this function are donated.

After the official speeches a drone was flown over to film the raft up, and live music provided as entertainment. The raft up started to break up pretty soon after the official part, as the wind was increasing and everyone was getting bumped around.

Tonight is the main dinner held at the Eco Resort and dining is in “shifts” to cater for the massive number of people. There was a dress up theme for those into that sort of thing, “What you were wearing when the ship went down”. There were some pretty creative outfits.

Sue, Carole, Sharon , Peter and John having a chat after dinner

There were raffles and auctions, another couple of speeches and more live music.

It was getting pretty smoky at the venue, as there has been a lot of burning off going on here in the last few days, and today the wind is blowing right at us. The fire is quite visible coming down the hill near the resort, and whilst they seemed calm, there was a bit of concern.

We didn’t hang around for too long as the smoke became quite oppressive.

The fire is not far from the back of the resort

Sadly the blocked toilet is still not resolved and will be a major focus tomorrow. The water was too rough to be alongside trying to free it from below the waterline. The problem is clearly a blockage in the holding tank outlet.