Essentials for Fishing! - Guest Post by Nathan

So we took the boys fishing whilst we were up in Brisbane.  Uncle Noddy had been extremely excited by the idea and bought the boys some rods for the occasion.  The boys were equally excited by the idea too!!

But there is one thing you must know about Uncle Nod.  He loves a joke and a good prank. So of course as we drive up to the marina, he points out every multi-million dollar boat in the harbour and says to the boys "You see that really big, flash blue boat, well..... that's not our boat. Oh! Oh! See that other sleek fast looking one over there..... that's not our boat either."  Of course this went on for another dozen or so boats because it was equally funny the 12th time as it was the first - or at least for Uncle Nod it was.

So we had our safety brief for the boat, and the boys got their life vests and finally the owner gave Nod a lesson on how to operate the boat, with particular attention on the ignition system and a special safety catch that needed to be hooked in for the boat to operate.

Finally, we head off with Nod at the wheel, putt-putting our way out of the marina - past the really expensive boats.  Just before exiting the marina the engine konks out and of course everyone was eager to point to Nod and figure out what he was fooling with now - Nod was looking as surprised as everyone else.... After judiciously checking the safety system, key, and then tracing everything back to motor at the back Nod stands up with the fuel line...... And nothing connected to it.

Apparently one of these red things are important. Who would have thought it??? So embarrassingly we had to row our boat along side some of the expensive boats and call back to the owner asking if the fuel tank was extra?????  Needless to say, however embarrassed we were paddling our boat along side the other boats, it was not nearly as embarrassed as the owner was when she had to putt-putt her own way around to find us and give us our fuel tank...... An important essential for fishing!!