Our grumpy post about the raft-up last week has been vindicated - but we got it wrong.
You'll recall we likened a raft-up to conditions on one of the notorious sheep ships: bodies packed together, hot hot hot, distressing noise...
There's an excellent report in today's West on a Boxing Day raft-up at the beautiful island's Parakeet Bay: "WA Police have expressed grave concerns about the safety of "raft-ups" - when boats are lashed together for a party - after an event involving hundreds of revellers on Rottnest Island descended into drunken chaos and caused several injuries."
Hundreds of pissed punters on about 30 boats - it's a powder keg, as our favourite Rotto policeman was paraphrased as saying (yes, you can have a powder keg on water).
Where have we heard this terrible tale before? A tragedy of a mass of seething humanity on a hurriedly-constructed raft...shocking things happen before the rescue...those who survive endure starvation, dehydration, cannibalism, and madness...it becomes an international scandal...
The waves of the bay gently rock the makeshift raft...some of the men stare into their Lemon Russkies in utter despair...one young woman holds back the hair of another who was her bridesmaid only last week...bodies litter the poop deck...the horror...it is Gericault in the West Aussie sun.
I was thinking more of Torrentius and his friend Jeronimus Cornelius. Now those guys could run a raft-up.
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