COVID Arrives in a Dinghy?

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Yesterday's wind seems to have abated slightly so we head back down to Cable Beach. It mightn't be as windy, but it seems that the crocs are still here, so we head across to the Town Beach instead. There's no umbrella man here, but it's still very pleasant sitting under some palm trees on the grass above the sand. There are no signs here about the beach being closed, but I wonder how they can be sure that a few crocs haven't snuck around the point when no one was looking and taken up residence in the mangroves that are at one end of it. That looks to us like a perfect croc hangout. I go for a quick dip at the other end, making sure to stay very close to shore.

The young lady sitting next to us has two dogs for company. She’s got her hands full; I think it might be easier keeping an eye on half a dozen toddlers. We ask her where she’s from. She says "nowhere really". Hmmm. She tells us that she travels all over the state looking for farm work, and if she can't find any she just comes and sits on a beach. One of her dogs is nearly sitting on top of her, which looks very cute. He seems to be very reluctant to leave her side for even an instant, unless another dog is involved. We learn that his name is Alfie, although this quickly becomes Alfred if he runs off and doesn’t want to come back. She tells us that he's an excellent judge of character. She says she didn’t rent her house out to one prospective tenant because he growled at them. He then got very chummy with the next set of applicants, so she let them have the place and hasn't had any problems since. It seems that Alfie does get a bit distracted by other dogs and we look on as she has to pick him up and carry him back up the sand from down near the water. Farm work must build strong muscles; he’s bigger than she is. The other dog, Howie, spends the whole afternoon going from person to person along the beach with his ball trying to get them to play fetch with him. I don’t think he’s missed anyone. He’s now completely covered in sand. No problem there however; he's told to ”go and do dog things” and immediately runs into the water and washes it all off.

It's a bit hard not to notice three policemen lurking at the back of the beach for no apparent reason. They then wander down to the boat ramp as a small rubber dinghy makes landfall from a yacht moored offshore. They’re now all wearing face masks as is the dinghy’s occupant. An animated conversation ensues. Dinghy man doesn't look overly happy, and starts waving his arms angrily at the boys in blue. They respond by getting on their radio. We're not quite sure why; there's three of them and only one of him, so I'm not sure they need to call for backup. After further heated discussion, dinghy man reluctantly heads back out towards his yacht. He's clearly not happy. The officers aren't taking any chances that he might come back; they hang around next to the boat ramp until he's well out of sight. We wonder what that was all about. We'd be a bit surprised, not to mention disappointed, if our constabulary's approach to drug smugglers was just to wave them bye bye and send them back out to sea again. Maybe they thought he might have COVID and didn't want him coming into the State. WA must have one of the longest and most remote coastlines of any jurisdiction on the planet, so if they're relying on this approach to keep infections out, well good luck with that. Issy really doesn't want to go home, and I think I'm detecting more than a slight smirk on her face when I air my theory about dinghy man having COVID. I think she's hoping he'll try to land elsewhere under cover of darkness, infect half the town, and we won't be allowed to leave.....

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