Sectorsteve said..Wollemi said..
I do not know how big your motor-boat is., but have often seen people idle their motor boats on to the beach at Watsons Bay. Why do you need to 'keep an eye on things' ? - I have often parked my $3000 sea-kayak at Manly Cove and walked through The Corso to look at the ocean.
I had my dinghy on the beach upside down and some kid decided to bounce all over it while his mum watched, chatted on the phone. I had to tell him to get off while she said "oh sorry"
Pays to keep an eye if you can and at Watson's bay you can. I've always kept my dinghy on the beach at manly. Sometimes for hours.
Years ago, an elderly friend invited me to leave my sea-kayak in his harbourside backyard - which was fantastic as I did not own a car then, and lived in the Blue Mts. So we get my kayak waterside, and I explored Sydney Harbour and the sea-cliffs, and had many joyful and surprising things occur, setting me up well for the 4x SK crossings of Bass Strait that I later did over a 8 years, and crewing many yachts.
One morning, as I pushed off, and wigggled around in the cockpit, fitting my spraydeck, I watched a little boy hold his father's hand and jump three times on every upturned boat before jumping to the next one, at the N end of Watsons Bay. I cried from 30m offshore, 'Hey - you can't do that; stop your child doing that - you are damaging other peoples tenders - rowboats'. Immediately, this chap (yes, of the ethnic appearance described at this thread previously), threw his child's arm down hard, and ran, fully clothed deep into the water. Instinctively, I back-paddled hard, listening to him shout that I had no right to tell him how what to do with his kid.
I stayed out to dusk, as it was as equally frightening then as the night I bivied by my kayak on a tiny beach, within a secluded SH bay, only to wake and watch a large transfer of many oversized flour bags from sloop to motorboat...
