River Pirates.
20 April 2017 | Clarence River, Maclean, NSW
Cam "H"
We spent two very peaceful nights anchored in Iluka Bay, we were planning to head further North to catch up with some of the Go West Rally participants up at the Gold Coast, the organizers John and Leanne Hembrow had invited us all to meet the Go East Rally participants but the conditions on the bar and the forecast conditions for the Gold Coast were for dangerous surf, so we decided to take a cruise up the Clarence River.
This River system is nothing short of amazing, there is plenty of depth under our keel so long as we pay attention to our charts and the many leads that have been placed along the way. We had the chance and took it to have the Harwood Bridge opened to allow us to pass through. The Harwood Bridge is part of the Pacific Highway and this now adds to the many bridges we have either sailed through or under over the last 5 years.
The traffic on the river consists of a few fishing trawlers, the odd hire house boat and an occasional cruising yacht like us. The interesting part of cruising up a tidal river like this one is the current we have to push into makes for a very slow trip, even though the tides are only around 0.75 metres, it creates a flow of 2 to 3 knots and when it is against you, it seems to take forever to get anywhere.
As I write this blog, we are anchored on the opposite side of the river to the town of Maclean, we still have about 0.5 to 1 meter of water under our keel and our Mantus is buried into the mud, we have heard that there is a very rocky bottom on the town side and there have been many an anchor left there as they become wedged between the rocks and no one swims or dives here as they say it is bull shark central, who wants to test the waters here to see of it is true, I don’t.
Maclean is a Scottish heritage town and most of the power poles have the tartan and the name of the different Scottish Clans on them. On the advice of Craig the Harwood Bridge contact we went to the Maclean Hotel for lunch as he recommended we try the rump steak and at $8.00 for steak, chips and salad we were that impressed, we went back for dinner with the crew off Seawindow, Sherill and Dave, we would be hard pressed to cook our own meals on board Annecam for that amount and we have no dishes to wash, that is a bonus.
The photo is our track heading up this amazing river.
In life instead of wishing that you were someone else, be proud who you are. You will never know who has been looking at you, wishing that they were you.