THE DRUG BUST

We were up on the hard stand, antifouling.  Moonraker was propped in a steel cradle, balanced on her keel, feeling queenly. We were fully overall-ed, masked and gloved, paying homage to the queen with barnacle scrapers and paint brushes.

Then, to the astonishment and delight of all in the marina, Australia’s biggest drug bust (according to Channel 9) dramatically unfolded.

The actual drug boat, a nice Beneteau, had tied up feet away from us just hours before.  The police had to pass almost under Moonraker to get through, and aboard her, 12 feet up in the air, we had pole position. 

There were literally dozens of federal and local police, customs and homeland security folk swarming the fingers, many with thick flack jackets and huge automatic, weird-shaped  machine guns. There were three police boats blocking the harbour, one a Darth Vader affair: black, fast, big and inflatable  with chunky men on board. A huge van and lots of four wheel drives disgorged wave upon wave of armed personnel. Disappointingly, there was no helicopter or submarine.

The really scary guns (carried by what looked like a rugby team) were camouflage-coloured, but they stood out like elephants, especially as the rugby players were initially kneeling down, taking careful sight and aiming the guns at people across the water, while their colleagues shouted instructions at the people they were aiming at.

Very CSI.  I noticed that the riflemen had a medical person trailing them so I think they were serious.

The official bustle went on for two days. Around the marina, it will be a point of analysis for weeks if not years. People earned brownie points for being the first with tidbits of news.  Dean got a scoop by being driven by the taxi driver who actually knew the taxi driver who has given the perpetrators a lift.  Wow! TV news covered it a day or so later and we (the marina collective) were all riveted by the 30 second grab.

I am now confirmed in my view that we should decriminalize the drugs to get criminals out of it. But, I guess it would disappoint our law enforcement team, who appeared to be very professional and very expensive.  And quite enjoying themselves, as were we.