Great Sandy Straits and Tin Can Bay Event  

By Chris & Kaye Debnam – “Reel Time”,

June 12-14, 2010
 
   

Another great Whittley outing,  great people, great boats & a great location what more could you ask for ? Some boats arrived on the Friday & some on the Saturday, Reel Time & Huston arrived at the launching site in Carlo Creek late Saturday morning, Judy & Owen were already setting their boat up ready to launch when we arrived. After launching & parking trailers we headed out of the creek in very shallow water, it was too late to meet up with the others at Kauri Creek so we decided to anchor just below Carlo Island for a late lunch.

This was quite a pleasant  stop, and during lunch Huston called & told us (Reel Time) that he would have to put his dingy in and rescue a lost fender, being a good friend I told him not to worry as I was only in about 500mm of water & would walk to the shore & retrieve the fender for him, I had not allowed for the fact that the 500mm was below the bottom of the boat & I would also sink in the mud a further 200mm, thus I found the water a bit cool on the upper parts of the body. With fender retrieved & Betty getting knot tying lessons we headed off to meet everyone else a Garrys Anchorage.

What a pleasant place. We all went ashore for the usual happy hour, Keith made a short speech & welcomed our new members along – Super Fun & Knot @ Work . A very calm night was had by all, Sunday morning we had plenty of grey clouds & a bit of light rain but this did not deter most from  cruising up to Kingfisher Resort for lunch, we arrived  at the bay in front of the resort about midday on an outgoing tide, the question was asked  “How much water do we need to allow under us now for the tide ? “ Trust Me replied if you have 2 metres  under you it should be OK. Once every one had anchored we went ashore & carried the dingys up the beach to be safe ??   We were allocated a spot outside on the veranda for lunch this was OK but after lunch every one went back inside for a bit of warmth. 3-00pm saw us heading back to the boats in between showers, for some reason the beach had grown while we were away, we had to carry the dingys  100 metres  plus to get to the water and your feet sunk into lovely black mud as you walked out. Once hitting the water it was only a short run to the boats. I could have walked to Reel Time, as could a lot of others & for some reason the stern was higher than the bow? Reason being the leg was sitting on the bottom & holding the boat up. Trust Me was no better as were a couple of others. After pushing my boat out into deeper water (another cool dip) I handed a rope to Trust Me & towed them to deeper water, so much for 2 metres  being enough , another learning curve, but at least we were sort of floating.

Once clear of the shallows we headed South, had a good run until we got to Sheridan Flats where we negotiated a short section of very shallow water, some were lucky & found the deep section straight away. Arriving back at Garrys Anchorage it was too late & too wet for happy hour on the shore so Wayne & Ronda kindly offered their new boat “Plan B” to everyone , it is certainly a big boat with plenty of room, many thanks to Wayne& Ronda.  There was a slight slop on the boats as well as a bit of rain during the night but not too bad, the next day (Monday) the wind had picked up a bit so most headed off early back to their trailers. All in all it was a great weekend, well organised by Bill & Susanne Barrett, a job well done and thanks from all who attended for what you did.

Photos - click here