Nicky and I had planned an overnight trip from Harwood to Iluka for ages, we even treated ourselves to one of the Beach House units temptingly close to Sedger's pontoon. The question was would the weather be favourable as it was hard for us to shift the date. On the days leading up to departure the forecast was ideal - gentle breeze and fine.
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| Pam and Nicky |
I was really spoilt, John Woods volunteered to drive to BRSC to reverse us down the ramp on the pretext of exercising poodle Ted. Thanks John so much. An even bigger thank you as he offered to reverse the trailer again on our return. I still struggle with reversing and it takes all the stress away.
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| The mainsail not yet flaked but glorious pre sunset light. |
Before we left there was far more than a gentle breeze, so we reefed. The Yamba observations showed it had been gusting 22 knots SE. It was a lively but enjoyable sail and on arrival in Iluka Bay we tied up at Sedger's pontoon ready for dinner at the pub.
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| Little Dragon on Sedgers pontoon at sunset |
The following day we had one of those inevitable setbacks. When we prepared to sail off the pontoon the mainsail jammed 3/4 up. The problem turned out to be the top lug had broken and jammed in the mast track. It was our lucky day, a sailor who knew me from the Bay to Bay race showed up and in no time he and his crew helped us lower the mast, replace the broken lug (luckily I carried spares) and get the mast up again. Like backing the trailer we could have done it ourselves, but it would have taken much longer. Thanks fellas.
The return upriver to Harwood was with the tide and a very gentle SE breeze and again warm and dry, none of the excessive heat of midsummer. We both relaxed and thought that life was pretty good, so good that we started planning another trip to Jumpin Pin after summer when it's cooler and the sandfly season is over.
