Of Naked Sailors and Peeping Toms

by Nancy Knudsen on 3 Mar 2006 It was in the newspaper, so it must be right…A yachtie pleaded guilty and was recently put on a good behaviour bond for sailing naked at Kangaroo Point in the Brisbane River in Australia. But there was something strange about this story, and it wasn't the sight of the naked sailor. For those of you who don’t know, the Brisbane River is a fairly narrow river, which is not very suitable for sailing unless you’re a dinghy sailor, and Kangaroo Point is the very middle of the city.

‘Serves him right.' remarks the Skipper,half asleep, ‘What is a yachtsman doing parading around on his yacht in a narrow river in broad daylight in the middle of a city of a million people?’

‘Wait a minute’, I say, reading on, ‘it says the time was 7.30pm, so it wasn’t broad daylight at all.’

‘Maybe it was daylight saving’

‘Nope, it says they had to use a torch to see him’

Now this gets the Skipper’s attention.

‘A torch? They were shining a torch into the boat? Who was?’

‘Wait a minute’ I say, ‘I’m still reading’

‘Hah! That’s funny!’

‘What’s funny?’ Now he’s sitting up.

‘Well, the magistrate said sailing naked was like going naked in the kitchen’

‘You mean the bedroom’

‘No, it’s here – like going naked in the kitchen she said – she said that makes it not so serious’

‘What does sailing naked have to do with going naked in the kitchen?’

‘Buggered if I know, but it was a ferry load of people’

‘What?’

‘A ferry load of people had to shine a torch onto the boat to see the yachtsman naked’

‘And they arrested HIM?’

‘Yup, called the police, and now he’s on a ‘good behaviour bond’ for six months, and he’s not allowed to sail or anchor near the ferry route.’

‘Well,’ now he’s puzzled, ‘If I shined a torch on someone in their kitchen, I reckon it would be ME who would be arrested’

‘Mmmm… maybe.’

‘Where did that happen again?’

‘Queensland, Australia’

'O well..'

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