Choppy ending: Abrolhos long lunch guests and staff forced to boat home due to soured weather conditions

Some guests at Shore Leave Festival’s Abrolhos long table lunch were left temporarily stranded after weather conditions changed suddenly and flights were forced to be cancelled. Charter flights were not able to land on East Wallabi Island for the lavish ticketed lunch event to bring guests back to Geraldton when the wind picked up in the afternoon. Many guests had left on planes before then, however remaining staff and guests were forced to venture back via boat and endure a bumpy ride. Jay Cox of Eco Abrolhos helped pick up the pieces, adding 24 passengers on his boat at 4pm, when he initially took over nine. Mr Cox was at capacity coming back to Geraldton. “It wasn’t a pretty trip — I’d prefer not to have done it, but what are you going to do? There isn’t any accommodation there so you can’t just leave people on the beach,” he said. Mr Cox said a usual trip to the Abrolhos takes about three hours at 15 knots. “We dropped it down to nine knots to make it more comfortable so it ended up taking around four hours,” he said. Mr Cox said he hoped the ride didn’t spoil the trip for anyone. “I bought blankets to wrap people up in, and pillows,” he said. Event organisers were contacted for comment.