In this post…

1.  Captain Cool on the Mona Roma Ferry – WHAT THE..?!

 

 2. Mona Roma Ferry Ticket Tips 

 

3.  We encounter Boobarella on the Mona Roma Ferry – WHAT THE..?!

 

 

1. Captain Cool on the Mona Roma Ferry

The MR-1 Mona Roma Ferry sped across the water towards us. We were waiting for her on the Brooke St Pier, Hobart, which is a floating four storey boat-building.

As the camouflaged-coloured catamaran came closer I held my breath.

The reason was that the Mona Roma Ferry showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, she was flying towards the docking terminal!

I was expecting a collision, but to my amazement the captain lined up the burly MR-1 alongside the jetty with the precision of a surgeon, while casually chatting and looking the other way! It seemed he was so experienced that he could more or less dock with his eyes “closed” and without so much as a bump or a scrape!

Now that’s what I call a cool captain!

MR-1 flying in to dock at Brooke St Pier, Hobart…

 

2. Mona Roma Ferry Ticket Tips

 

• The MR-1 Mona Roma Ferry ticket officer told us that we really needed to book and buy tickets for The Posh Pit or Standard ride the day before if we wanted to sail between 9-11am. 
• There is much greater availability for rides after 12pm. The ferry sails to MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, Berriedale, pretty much every (business) hour. 
• Passengers tend to go down to the Brooke St Pier Ferry Terminal early on the day to hopefully book their seats for their preferred departure time. Then they have to return to the Pier Terminal at the booked departure time. However, we were able to book our seats from our hotel reception (MACq 01 Hotel).

Reception gave us a receipt and we picked up the tickets at the ferry terminal desk just before we boarded. See if you can book your Mona Ferry seats and MONAentry tickets from your hotel reception to save you having to go to the Pier twice.

 

• You must book each way (return) in advance to ensure your seats, but you can update the time that you wish to depart from MONA at MONA Reception if you realise you would like to leave earlier or later than your nominated time.
• It’s best to update your departure time as soon as you can gauge how long you need/want to spend at MONA because you can only board at those times when spots are still available.

3. Boobarella on the Mona Roma Ferry

 

We were waiting at the end of a long queue to board the MR-1 Mona Roma Ferry to MONA – Museum of Old and New Art.

Then I saw her.

She was a young, petite medium-brown-skinned woman walking towards us with a young man, down past the queue.

I jolted and blinked. My senses stood to attention.

I tried to look away, but my eyes kept swivelling back to steal glimpses of her. Well, actually of her chest.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one. The queue rippled with jolting heads, hush hush, and stealthy looks as she approached.

The young woman wore a black jacket over a see-through blouse with large, black polka dots. I blinked again and smirked.

The blouse was presenting to the public a titillating optical illusion. Were they two perfectly placed polka dots or…

I blinked again. Hang on. They had to be her nipples. There was no evidence of a bra upon her.

But this would be an act of exposure that was outside the socially accepted box! 

Actually, could this be illegal?

 

Imagine a top like this, but with larger, less dots and nothing on underneath…

The young woman and her male friend kept giggling. Now and then she would pull the jacket across to conceal her breasts as if she knew she was creating a stir, but was unsure whether she could follow through on it.

She came closer. Her jacket parted. I tried to stop my eyes from widening, like you do when you see a celebrity…or two.

There was no mistake. The two polka dots in front of her breasts were two dark brown , protruding nipples on the ends of natural-looking, swooping breasts!

This young woman was boarding MR-1 Mona Roma Ferry and heading for MONA effectively topless! Jim and I looked at each other.

“Boobarella,” murmured Jim.

We boarded the ferry…

The Mona Ferry crew, dressed in military mission-style onesies, handed each of us a glass of sparkling wine as we stepped into The Posh Pit, i.e. the exclusive lounge, bar, and deck area at the front of the camouflage-coloured MR-1 catamaran.

The Posh Pit accommodates about 30-40 people so you can only book for a time slot provided it hasn’t been filled. We could have opted for Standard, sit on sheep (statues) and purchase drinks from the bars out the back for $22 return, but we went straight for The Posh Pit with complimentary drinks, canapes, and table service for $55 return.

We found a cosy spot – on the window lounge with roll cushions and a small round table for two.  The Mona Ferry staff were very hospitable, professional, and obliging. They kept topping us up with as many bubbles as we could drink in the 25 minute (approx.) ride.

The canapè platter, which included prawns, was delightful both in taste and presentation. (On the way back we had a gorgeous little delicate selection of sweet desserts and again all the sparkling we could drink in about 25 minutes.)

We were also enchanted by Boobarella’s manouevres during the trip and the wonderfully strange effect she had on innocent, vulnerable passengers.

Boobarella makes a move…

At one point, Boobarella stood up and removed her jacket. It seemed she’d shed her inhibitions and had built up the courage to fully release her exhibitions. Eyes darted back and forth across The Posh Pit and glasses paused mid-air.

I turned and locked eyes with the woman sitting beside us. We were complete strangers, but for a moment we became bosom buddies; the blatant boobs made us grin and snuffle at each other and then take another sip of sparkling.

The crew managed to maintain their indifference and kept pouring, but there was no escaping the taboo-bs on board.

I was sitting in the box seat with a complete view of The Pit. Passengers of different demographics couldn’t help, but steal glimpses of the booby prize.  It appeared that the magical mammilla had a magnetic effect on the human eye.

People who thought they were behaving in a perfectly clandestine way were in fact acting perfectly clumsy and conspicuous.

Jim and I got back to talking and taking in the pleasant, oncoming view. The Captain had been speaking over the mic along the way about the various historical sites that we could see and some of the events that had occurred there.

We passed the amazingly industrial and unlikely site of the Nyrstar Zinc Smelter plonked on the coastline, like out of some strange dystopian movie, and were surprised to learn that it was the fourth largest zinc producing mine in the world!

Here in “remote”, beautiful Hobart? WHAT THE..?!

 

Then Boobarella upped the ante…

She glided out of The Posh Pit, giggling with her friend, and headed for the deck situated at the front of the vessel, entirely visible through the wide front window which was eye-level to the passengers in The Posh Pit!

Boobarella sat on the deck lounge in front of the window and leaned back on one hand. The wind was blowing. Her blouse and breasts were freewheeling. The view from The Posh Pit was boobs ahoy!

The passengers in The Pit were privy to an elegant display of side-boob, while Boobarella sipped her sparkling. Only three passengers ventured to join her on deck. It seemed that most people preferred not to risk accidentally talking to the breasts.

And strangely enough, I don’t think that any passenger struck up a conversation with her during the trip.

The whole scenario was both intriguing, amusing, and socially educating to watch.

There was a large, bald, middle-aged man sitting silently with his wife in The Pit. His whole body remained side-on to the front deck, except for his popped eyeballs that were more or less permanently swivelled in Boobarella’s direction.

It seemed that the boob effect was just too strong for him. Evidently, he couldn’t pull away and was doing his best not to let his wife catch on.

“Why don’t you get a photo with Boobarella?” asked Jim. “She’d love it.”

“No way,” I replied. “She’ll know it’s just because of the boobs. Why else would a complete stranger ask her for a photo?” Also, something in me didn’t want to condone her method of attracting attention.

 

Boobarella’s mischievous toplessness on the Mona Roma Ferry riggered many questions:

• Was Boobarella committing an act of public nudity that was punishable by law? If so, what was the penalty?
• Had she considered that she may have been indecently exposing herself to the children who encountered her on the way to Brooke St Pier and those boarding the ferry?
• What’s the real reason why it’s socially acceptable for men to expose their chests in public (in many instances), but not women? If it was the norm for women in Australia to get around topless like men can do at times, what level of attention would Boobarella have received on MR-1?
• Does wearing a transparent blouse – that uses large dark polka dots to imitate the concealment of nipples – count as wearing a top?
• Was it the exposed breasts that captivated the passengers…or that a person was acting outside of the social boundaries?
• Why didn’t anyone complain or ask her the reason for dressing that way? Why didn’t I?
• For what reason did Boobarella want to attract this type of attention? Were Boobarella and her friend conducting some type of offbeat university social study on human behaviour? Were the passengers in The Posh Pit guinea pigs?

 

Boobarella’s potential reach expands…

 

We approached the MONA jetty. I smirked. A large cross-section of people were waiting at the pier for the return sail to Hobart. More pending victims of sweet, petite Boobarella who was still lolling on the front deck lounge. They must have been rubbing their eyes the closer the MR-1 came! Not only that, but it was peak season and the museum was filled with unsuspecting visitors.

It wasn’t till I decided to write this blog that I realised drats, I should’ve listened to Jim and gotten a photo with Boobarella or at least one of her from inside The Posh Pit while she was outside in front of the window. Then you would’ve “been there” and be able to better visualise how this wonderful WHAT THE..?! played out. (You can see the deck lounge in the ferry photo at the start of this post.)

Also, I have since looked up a number of Acts that could apply to Boobarella’s public partial nudity, but I’m not much closer to confirming whether or not she was breaking the law.

 

Do you think Boobarella broke the law on the Mona Roma Ferry?

Most of the Acts specify indecent exposure as exposing “one’s person” – specifically referencing genitalia, i.e. breasts don’t appear to be categorised as “one’s person (perhaps one’s persons or people in Boobarella’s case?). I find the legal term of calling a person a person and then one’s genitalia “his/her person” is somewhat strange, don’t you think? Sounds like everyone’s carrying around a person they own in their pants.

If you would like to post your personal thoughts on this WHAT THE..?! or you can clarify/shed some light on Boobarella’s position with regards to the law, I’d love to hear from you in the Comment Box below the post.

Also, if you were on the 12pm sail to MONA on 4th January 2018, please use the Comment Box below this post to verify this incident and send me any photos of Boobarella that you might have taken!

Please see the following somewhat conflicting info I’ve found on Australian public nudity offences below:

From Armstrong Legal Canberra...

The info above it appears that Boobarella committed an offence.

From Wikipedia…

The info box above suggests that Boobarella didn’t commit an offence as it only refers to the exposure of genitals, which aren’t breasts.

From Go to Court Lawyers…

In “The offence of ‘obscene exposure'”, whether the exposure was witnessed by a child is a significant part of the offence.

In “What does the offence cover?”, it’s confusing as to whether Boobarella committed an offence as “It is unclear whether exposure of…female breasts would be sufficient to make out the offence”.  Also, I wouldn’t say that her partial public nudity was conducted in an obscene manner, but it was wilful (definitely not a wardrobe malfunction)!

From Tasmanian Consolidated Acts website…

“…indecent or offensive in all the circumstances,…” is up to an individual’s personal perception,

which seems to mean that if anyone found Boobarella’s partial nudity offensive then it’s prohibited behaviour.

WHAT’S YOUR RULING?

I’d love to hear what you have to say on this. Please comment in the box below!

If you’d like to find out about our experience at MONA, click here.