6th November Maclean to Iluka 12nm

Today is Robert’s 61st birthday but he is not one for celebrating birthdays so we did not have any big celebrations. After breakfast I left him to do more computer work and I took the dinghy to shore and walked up the steep 2.5 km hill to the lookout which overlooks the Clarence Valley. It was worth the walk for the exercise but unfortunately the cloud cover did not present the spectacular view you are supposed to get.

 You can just see Billabong anchored in the Clarence at the township of Maclean

Back to the boat there was just enough time for bacon and eggs and we raised the anchor in time to make the 2pm opening of the bridge that we booked.

Again we stopped all the traffic on the Harwood Bridge and motored down river with the current to the town on the opposite side of the river to Yamba – Iluka. We anchored in behind the training wall and headed off in the dinghy to explore the town. We had an hour to explore before we were invited to 5 o’clock drinks on Stolen Kiss. We met Peter and Cheryl Ainsworth at Maclean and we said we would come to Iluka so they invited us for drinks.

We quickly found there was nothing to see in Iluka except the Heritage Rainforest walk to the Bluff.

 Birthday boy Robert at the Bluff. Access if via the rainforest walk from Iluka

That was 5km round trip so we had a very fast power walk and got back to the boat just after 5. It did not take long and were sitting on Stolen Kiss having a beer celebrating Robert’s birthday. Peter and Cheryl are from Fremantle and spent many years racing on Hitchhiker a well know racing boat in Perth that is still competing. We had lots to talk about. They left Fremantle 10 years ago and have cruised to the Kimberlies in Western Australia and bought their current yacht in Mexico and had a few years there and sailed back across the Pacific. Robert also had mutual acquaintances with them from his travels.

We said good bye and agreed we would catch up with them in Port Stephens in a few days time as they were staying there and we would be back home by then.

I had to cook 3 meals as we were departing tomorrow for Broken Bay which we figured we would be at sea for 2 evening meals.

We had a roast lamb dinner for Robert’s birthday and I also cooked enough chicken pasta for 2 evening meals. The dishes were washed and put away and the yacht was readied for a 6am departure and we retired to bed.