‘WHY I DON’T BOAT ON AUSTRALIA DAY’
VETERAN boat skipper Tony Morris no longer ventures out on the Gold Coast waterways on Australia Day and warns fellow boaties to be constantly vigilante.
It is far too chaotic and there is no point tempting fate, the 40-year boating veteran reckons.
Speaking in the wake of revelations the number of marine incidents — mainly collisions — almost doubled on the Gold Coast in 2016 compared to 2015, he said a particularly “crazy” Australia Day a few years ago put him off for good.
“It was total mayhem between the Sundale Bridge and around the Seaways entrance. The incidents I saw that day that were so close were in 100s.
“But somehow no one had an accident. And 2000 jet skis had their own agenda.
“It was mayhem. I said to myself then I’m not doing another Australia Day.”
But it’s not just Australia Day — he had a close call the other night and was almost wiped out when in a small rubber dinghy.
“We were going home and these guys cut the corner — next minute they’re heading straight for us,” he said of the near miss on the Nerang River, near Monaco Street.
“I move to the right, further and further and further. My deckhand was about to jump overboard, we almost got cleaned up by these three wankers.”
Mr Morris said the offenders were in a larger Quintrex and seemed to have been on a fishing trip
“They were not looking and going too fast. They saw us at the last minute and turned off. There are going to be more injuries and fatalities.”