Harwood to Iluka and back next day is becoming a favourite jaunt

Helen Tom and Valentine Sowenko

Helen, Val and I have been friends since the late 70s in Central Australia. Back then we spent our weekends camping in dry river beds - the antithesis of the Big River. Helen and Val flew up from Bendigo to experience a couple of days on Little Dragon.

The tides were favourable for my favourite overnight jaunt. We were able to sail downstream from Harwood to Iluka on an afternoon ebb tide and back again the following morning on the flood. I was so pleased that The Northern Rivers, which has had more than its share of wind and rain this year, was on its best behaviour for my interstate guests. Dry and light winds.

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Helen and I have sailed together before in the Whitsundays but it was all a new experience for Val who is more frequently to be found playing his classical guitar. However the conditions made it easy for me to hand over the helm to both Helen and then Val. I just said things like "pull it towards you a bit more" then "no, too much, now push it away a bit". All went well until we hit the large red navigation mark near Iluka - the only obstacle for hundreds of metres in any direction. I will draw a discreet veil over the exact sequence of events. Suffice it to say that this mark is new and unlike the old marks turns out to be made of plastic. So we just bounced off totally unharmed, the only dent being to our pride.

Off to Koala Cottage which is close to Sedgers Hotel. We rented it through Iluka Wombah Real Estate and happily recommend it to others.

Helen and I have signed up to crew on a friend's catamaran from Tonga to Fiji in October. So we put in some practice on rope work, tying bowlines and attaching lines to a cleat and suchlike. Not much similarity between a 19 metre ocean going catamaran and my Farr 5000 but these basic skills could come in handy.

Finally the pack up and long haul home