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Report 1 - Richard & Susan Lane Report 2 - Artie & Lisa Philips PHOTOS Friday saw 5 boats arrive and launch at Ballina and we didn't quite make the Whittley raft accross the creek. Our overnight in Emigrant Creek, about 15 minutes run upriver, joined Ande, Monty and Serenity who had decided that it was a better anchorage than Mobbs Bay in the prevailing westerley. They were absolutely right and we had good protection from the wind for probably the coldest night of the weekend. The clear sky gave us an awesome night under the stars. In some cases (as in our 2M ducky) this was a very wet and windy trip. The coffee and banana bread made it worth while and we dried out and had a look around bustling Ballina and Susan bought a fishing licence. Susan managed to catch 1 keeper bream at a cost of $6.00. As usual, Keith had a line in the water at every opportunity and did a little better. Sunday morning was glorious and in clear sunny conditions with the wind having dropped off somewhat, we travelled in convoy up to Woodburn. And you guessed it, after buying the paper and a coffee and muffin, we enjoyed sitting in the sun on the deck of the tourist office which overlooks the river and a marvelous site of 11 Whittleys. The afternoon saw most boats take a run up river from Woodburn to Corakai. Five smaller boats took a pleasant detour into Bungawalbin Creek, ably escorted by Ande.This river is very much Keith and Enda territory. Dinner on Sunday night at the Woodburn pub was most enjoyable with good company,a hearty meal and some liquid refreshment. Some indulged in 3 courses plus coffee before returning to our boats and a very quiet and still night. An 8.00am start had most heading back to Ballina on Monday morning with Graham in Serenity leading the charge. All boats off the plane under the bridges though. It was a very good run and most were out of the water by midday although the 700's needed to wait for a bit more water to retrieve. Graham and Chris made some roadside repairs to Chris' trailer brakes at the ramp. It's amazing what Graham has in the back of his truck. As Cheryl says, he has all, and more, that is necessary to probably rebuild a trailer on the side of the road . Well done guys. I trust the end result was satisfactory. Vehicle and trailer secure parking, which was a 10 minute cab ride to the airport storage worked well.The security was reassuring as the launching ramp did not appear to be so for trailer parking. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and special thanks to Keith and Edna Miller for instigating and organising the new venue for the Club Whittley. Submitted by: Richard & Susan Lane. PHOTOS - Click Here They
scouted around for the best launching ramp, took us to a great first night stop
on a picturesque creek and arranged the Sunday evening function at the Woodburn
Tavern. Later
that day we all motored up to a beautiful creek that those who arrived on the
Friday spent the night in, for the close of Saturday and the beach BBQ. The
drinks were great but the BBQ was abandoned due to the cold weather and also due
to the fact that you can’t get 20 people around a small fire-no matter how
much red wine you consume. Having said that Wayne & Rhonda Jennings were
kept quite warm when they thought that it would be a nice idea to bring little
pooch Arfur to the BBQ to stretch his little legs. Well stretch them he did. No
sooner was he on the ground then he was off. We didn’t see any of them for a
good while. However when they finally did return they all seemed a bit
puffed-not little Arfur though, seems that he led everyone on a merry chase and One
thing I did notice that night when peering out before Lisa and I went to bed was
the peculiar sight of a large bright pink foot in the window of Bill and Susanne
Barrett’s 700. Maybe Bill could enlighten us at the AGM. I’m sure that there
is a story to be told. Sunday
dawned to an absolutely stunning day with no wind and every boat being mirrored
on the millpond on which we were all anchored. 9.00am Keith had us all under way
on our journey to Woodburn. What a sight. Twelve Whittleys on the plane
traveling at about 25 to 30mph spread over about 1 klm. (See pics on web site). Upon
our arrival at Woodburn it was drop anchor, cuppa and explore time. Just prior
to lunch Keith and Edna took Richard and Susan, Les and Sharyl and ourselves off
for a cruise to one of their favourite spots in the district. This turned out to
be a very quiet little creek off the main river. I suppose we travelled another
two or three klms before we stopped and all rafted up for lunch. Amazingly we
were in 4 – 5 meters of water all the way up this creek. This place was so
quiet all you could hear were the birds and our voices echoing up the creek.
Just stunning!! Keith and Susan tried their hand at fishing but to no avail.
After lunch we went a little further up the river to Coriki then turned around
to head back to Woodburn and the Whittley bash. On
the trip back Keith had the inspiration and wherewithal to do a little skiing.
So Edna drove the boat and Sharyl observed. And observe she did. Two klms down
stream our intrepid skier made it head first into the drink. I’ve never seen a
bloke rocket out of the water as quickly as he did. I’m not sure if it was the
cold water that got to him or the snake that swam past. Not bad for a 40
something year old. Dinner
at the tavern was a great time enjoyed by all. Good food, great wine and even
better company. Lots of chatter and laughter was had by all. What a blast!! Monday
came upon us and at 8.00am most of the smaller boats headed back to Ballina to
commence their journey back to where they came, be that Gold Coast, south of
Brisbane, north of Brisbane and even Sunshine Coast. 9.00am the remainder,
mainly 700s, returned thus splitting up the fleet for ease of retrieval and also
tidal influences. Whilst we come from the northside of In
closing I have to say, and I’m sure I can speak for all, that we had a
fabulous week-end doing what we all bought our boats for-and that’s cruising
and having a good time with new and old friends. ‘Till
next time happy cruising. Submitted by: Artie & Lisa Phillips PHOTOS - Click Here |
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