Iluka, 2010

June 26th, This is a great Caravan Park, right on the Clarence River, clean amenities and has its own boat ramp. I won’t be using the boat ramp, as it is far too steep for me and there are other places close by to put the boat into the River. We spent to-day checking out the local Shops. No big Shopping Plaza s in this Town, still they have all that’s necessary, 2 Supermarkets, Bakery, Servo and Bottle Shop, which covers our necessities. We were recommended to visit the Marina, as the seafood is fresh local caught and delicious.

June 27th, I decided to design a hitch for the front of the tinnie so that I could use the car to get the boat out of the water. I noticed 2 boats, like mine, that had clamp on wheels and had made up a towing bar using the standard trailer hitch. I priced a trailer hitch at the local Boat Shop and they were $50. By the end of the day I had a rough design that I thought would work and should be cheap to make. My problem would be finding material locally, so that’s a task for to-morrow.

June 28th, Went to the local Hardware Store looking for anything that I could make my boat towing hitch from and did see a large shelf support bracket, made of flat bar material, a bit narrow but had possibilities. Then I went to the Chandlery and was unable to find any suitable material but his trailer hitch was only $30. A thorough search of the shelves could not locate the one the computer said was in stock. After discussing the problem with the Chandlery Guy and showing him my sketch, he suggested a search of the old workshop out the back to see what we could find. Lo & behold, he found a strip of scrap 3mm thick aluminium, long enough to make up my design and we agreed that it would be strong enough to meet the towing requirements. After passing over $1.45, all the change I had in my pocket, I rushed back to the Caravan Park to begin moulding my design into shape. After a trial tow around the Caravan Park, I was happy but needed to make some minor improvement to my hitch design.

June 29th, I went back to the Hardware to buy some more bolts to finalise the boat towing hitch. All up cost was now around $4. I completed the modifications and fixed the clamp on wheels with screws that located in holes drilled through the rib along the side of the boat. This was necessary to ensure that the wheels could not twist while being towed. I drove to the little beach area at the end of the Park and put the boat in the water. The towing hitch passed the test with flying colours. I set off to locate the local fish population, my new fishfinder was working well, with water depths up to 40 ft in places and plenty of fish on the sonar screen. I did catch 3 flathead and a couple of bream, but all babies. Disappointing not to get anything to take home. I had 2 problems with getting the boat in & out of the water. The sandy bottom in the water was too soft and the wheels kept getting bogged, making it difficult to maneuver and it was impossible to re-fit the wheels to the boat while still out in the water, due now to the need to position the locating screws into their mating holes. I have decided to try leaving the wheels on the boat to avoid the refitting problem.

June 30th, Went out fishing, leaving the wheels on the boat and it did not make any difference to the way it performed, so, happy with that solution. Took a cut lunch with me to-day, at Val’s suggestion, so I could stay out as long as I wished. Great Idea

but still didn’t help me catch “keepable” fish. Disaster struck as I was trying to drag the boat out of the water on to the beach ready for hook up to the car. The wheels had buried themselves in the watery sand and as I wrestled to free them, the boat moved forward sharply and knocked me back to fall into the shallow water, never a dull moment with me. Of course I had an audience, two other boats were coming in at the same time, so, wet to the waist, gumboots full of water, I carried on hooking up the boat and heading home. Yes, I did have my wallet in my back pocket, will I ever learn!

July 1st, It’s overcast and bitterly cold to-day so I’m giving the fishing a rest. I have decided to use the concrete boat ramp down at the other end of the Park, next time I go fishing. It will be a lot safer. Val is busy patchworking with her last “Spotlight” purchases.

July 2nd, Rained all day and was very cold.

July 3rd, To-day we moved from site 6 to site 40, on the waterfront, for our last 3 days. We would have stayed at Iluka longer, as we do like this area and it’s a nice Park, but it meant moving to another site and that’s a lot of work. It is School Holidays so I wasn’t surprised. We went into Maclean for lunch and to do some shopping, Val needed some patchwork supplies. We were pleased to find that they were having a Scottish Tartan Day Celebration and watched some dancing & pipe band music. I finished setting up the Van when we returned to the Park.

July 4th, Cold southerly winds all day which made the river too rough for fishing. I likened it to the surf at Bondi.

July 5th, It was overcast and cold but I was determined to go out fishing, even though rain was threatening. This is our last day as we leave in the morning for Tweed Heads. So with my cut lunch on board, I set off at 11am to try my luck. As you can imagine, we did get a shower of rain but I had taken my trusty umbrella, which must have been a strange sight to the other fisherman out there. I arrived back at the Van at 3pm and my only catch for the day was a Stingray, very disappointing. A quick coffee and I packed up ready to leave in the morning.