Could it be that police were catching a few waves in Newcastle Harbour?
More likely the police boat wanted a close-up look at the action, which Gustavo Rojas captured last Thursday.
Gustavo, of Merewether, reckons the police were "checking out the waves".
"Maybe to see if someone was in danger or something, but nothing more than that. Just patrolling as they do, like with their cars."
Gustavo is Brazilian, but has been in Australia for a decade.
When we saw his photo on social media, we contacted him for a chat about it.
He sounded like a pretty cruisy dude. He had that chilled Brazilian vibe.
"I'm a surfer, but in my spare time I take some photos of surfing," he said.
He took the harbour photos from Stockton because "you can see inside the barrel".
"On the Newcastle side, the photo would be back to front. It's not a nice angle. I parked my scooter on the wharf and got the ferry to the other side. When I was getting there, the police boat was patrolling."
He was happy to have "all these elements in my photo - the police boat, the breakwall and the surfer in a barrel".
He said the harbour wave was breaking last Wednesday, too, but the "wind was not quite right".
"Thursday was the best day."
Gustavo would have surfed the harbour himself but was short on time that day, as he had to work.
Last Friday, he became an Australian citizen.
"I'm 100 per cent happy as Larry," he said, showing he's well and truly picked up the lingo.
He's lived in Newcastle for four years.
"I came to Australia to learn English and never left."
The Southerly Buster
We had a yarn about stormy weather last week with Elermore Vale's Alf McDonald.
He recalled a storm in 1949.
"I was 7 year old. It was very, very fierce. We lived on a hill in Wallsend. You felt the house was gonna go. It was an old miner's cottage," Alf said.
His grandfather lived with the family.
"Us three boys had to sleep on the veranda. The only thing between us and the storm was lattice work and canvas with green and white stripes," he said.
"Luckily the way the wind was blowing, we didn't get wet."
Alf said the fiercest winds back then were the southerly busters.
"We don't get many of those now. We get a southerly change, but it's not like the old days."
A Grand Stand
While we're with Alf, he has a suggestion to improve the eastern grandstand at McDonald Jones Stadium.
"You could spell out the word Newcastle on the seats," Alf said, saying Liverpool and Manchester United in England did so on their stadium seats.
