Marian and David Paul on board their racing yacht with their Canadian flag, which was attacked by a crocodile in Escape River. PHOTO: RUSTY TULLY
A couple of yachties anchored in Escape River, near the tip of Cape York in far north Queensland, had a close encounter of the crocodile kind when they were woken by a large crashing sound in the middle of the night.
Canadians Marian and David Paul woke with a fright at 1am recently thinking they had been run into by a large boat.
“We went straight up in the air from the shock,” David recalls.
“This is not what we ever want to hear when asleep on the boat. We hit all our outside lights and to our relief there was no other boat around but we did not know what the heck hit us.”
The pair, who were en route to Darwin to take part in a cruising rally to Indonesia, had anchored their catamaran Kilkea II overnight in Escape River, near the junction of Riflebird Creek, on the east side of the Tip south of Bamaga.
And in the dark of night, their minds started ticking over, wondering just what had caused the crash.
“At that point we started to wake up and thought that maybe it was a crocodile,” David said.
The pair were not prepared to take any chances.
“Just in case, we shut up the companion way and the aft window,” he said.
“We were not going to look over the side just in case it was a croc and he was interested in another bash
at us.
“After first light we were up on deck and very happy to find everything in good order. Then Marian looked at our Canadian flag. Two thirds of it were still attached to the flagpole, but the outer red panel
was torn right off!”
The pair say they now believe the flapping movement of their flag attracted a saltwater crocodile.
“The salty probably jumped up at the flag and then hit the boat,” David said.
But it was when they saw the teeth marks on the transom that they realised what a good idea it was to
batten down the hatches.
“We looked at the stern of Kilkea II and saw that the port corner was bashed ,with bits of gel coat and
fiberglass on the swim steps,” David said.
“Checking this out we found that there was a quarter-of-an-inch deep cut about the size of a loonie (a
Canadian dollar coin) on the corner of the hull, with cuts under the hull where the monster mouth tried to eat the boat.”
Rusty and Bronwyn Tully, who run Torres Pearls on Turtlehead Island in Escape River, said the incident was a warning to other boaties in the area about crocs jumping in the rivers along the Cape.
Rusty said he first heard of the croc attack when the visitors came ashore to look at pearls.
“This is obviously very concerning for us as pearl farmers with lines in the area, but also concerning for the many local fishermen who enjoy fishing the area in their tinnies,” Rusty said.
“We have not had reports of this kind from our river before, although people have mentioned that a croc has bumped the bottom of their boat during the night and they could see a large shape underneath them on their sounder.”
If Marian and David had been looking on the sounder at the time, they might have spotted a very “large
shape” too.
“Their flag flies about three metres above the water,” Rusty said.
“They figure the croc jumped up at the flag, then had a bite at the boat as well. We have reported the incident to the Rangers on the Cape and will continue to monitor and warn people as they come into the river.”
And what have Marian and Paul learned from their close escape on Escape River?
“Now we know why Aussies rarely fly a flag – or a least not a big one – on their boats!” David said.
