The Entrance, March 2013

March 2^nd, Last night I packed up the things that were to travel inside the Van. It rained all night but luckily we had light showers this morning and I finished packing up, so we were able to leave the Park at 11am. We were concerned that a warning light had lit up on the car dash, so we went to Jax’s Tyre centre, with Caravan in tow, to get it checked out. The mechanic hooked up his test box to our Territory’s computer and it told him that we needed to replace the coil pack on #1 cylinder. His suggestion was that we simply buy a coil pack and get any mechanic to fit it for us. He also thought that the coil pack would be $150. So he cleared our computer and said it would be OK to keep driving. We drove down to The Entrance, with a stop for lunch at Macca’s at Williamtown, and booked into Dunleith Tourist Park. With help from the Park Manager and Rob, we were put on site 152 with their Tractor and got everything set ready for our stay. Carole had prepared an evening meal for us, which was very thoughtful, and we finished off our night with a game of Tiles.

March 5^th, The weather has been great since we arrived and we have been quietly settling in, a bit of shopping etc. I took the boat off the top of the car this morning and after setting it up, put it in the lake and chained it up to the retaining wall, along the waterfront. After all the recent rain the water level in the Lake was very high and there was only an out-going current, as the excess water tried to get out to sea. Val wanted to go crabbing, so armed with a flathead head (donated by a lucky friendly fisherman) we took the boat up the channel and Val dangled her hand line, with the head for bait, over the side of the boat, while I fished with my cooked prawns bait. We didn’t catch any crabs but I caught a flathead and a whiting, unfortunately both undersize. We came back in and went to Happy Hour at Carole and Rob’s Van, with a group of Caravanning friends.

March 6^th, I took Rob out with me for a fish this morning but we caught nothing. The water is still very brown and running out. I rang Dianne this afternoon to see if she could get the “coil pack” at Trade Price through Heartland Holden, where she works. She got all the details from me and said she will let me know.

March 7^th, We went to the RSL (Diggers) Club for dinner and raffles, with a group from the Park. Dinner was enjoyable and we did well with the raffle prizes won by our table. Val picked up a meat tray, so easily covered her $10 outlay for tickets.

March 8^th, The fish were still not biting today, so our only highlight for the day, was a game of Tiles after tea, at Carole and Rob’s. Dianne sent me an SMS to say she had the “coil pack” for our Terrritory, at a cost of $44. Wow! A lot cheaper than the estimate of $150 from Jax Tyres at Salamander Bay.

March 9^th, The Park was full today, for the Country and Western Week-end. The music was good, wafting across the Lake, so we went across Town and soaked up a bit of the atmosphere. It was a very enjoyable day.

March 11^th, Rob had given me 2 Mud Crab Pots, so Rob and I went out to put them down and had a fish. We went out the left channel and headed down towards Long Jetty and put our traps down. We fished in the adjacent area and checked the crab pots every 30 minutes. No crabs and no fish, so pulled up the pots and headed back to the Bridge where we fished for a while, before going in to shore. I caught a 44cm Flathead, so the drought has been broken, my first keeper since we arrived here.

March 12^th, I decided to take one crab pot out this afternoon and leave it overnight. The risk of someone taking it was slight and I would bring it in on Friday, before the week-end crowd arrived.

March 13^th, Rob was at a loose end this morning, so he came out with me to check the overnight pot and to put down the 2^nd pot. No overnight crabs, damn! We fished for a couple of hours in that area and finally decided to check the pots, leave them both out overnight and head back into the Bridge for a fish, before going in to shore. Rob caught a 40cm Flathead on live poddy mullet, so a good sign that the flathead are settling back into the Lake. The water level has dropped and is starting to clear.

March 14^th, I got up this morning to find a strong Southerly blowing across the Lake. I swithered whether to go out and check the crab pots, it looked a bit wild on the open water. Eventually I decided to just go out and bring the Pots in, as the weather forecast for the next couple of days wasn’t good. When I got out into the open water the surface of the water was like small bondi breakers and although I followed the line where I had put down the pots, I couldn’t site the pot floats so turned around and came back in. We went to the Diggers Club tonight with the Park Group, for dinner and raffles and Val won 2 meat trays.

March 15^th, It rained all morning and I was told that they were catching heaps of flathead out front but I don’t go fishing in the rain. Val tells me to buy wet weather gear and get her a Flathead, my reply “No Way”. My crab pots are still out, but they can stay there until the weather clears. Val says she doesn’t want to hear about me being rescued on the 6 o’clock news. We played Tiles with Carole and Rob tonight.

March 16^th, I went out after breakfast and “surprise, surprise”, my crab pots were still where I left them, but no crabs. The stench from the pots was beyond a joke, so I emptied out all the rotten fish carcasses and bought the pots in. I need to find a better spot to try for crabs. I went to Canton Beach with Carole and Rob to catch Poddie Mullet, for bait. I was told that the Flathead are biting on them now. Rita and Col (from the Park) joined us as well. I took the trap that Rob gave me last year and didn’t catch any. The trap that was working was the clear container with a flyscreen lid with a 40mm dia. Hole in the centre. Rob caught heaps and so did Col. We went to Joan and Robert’s place, at Cardiff, for a delicious Dinner and played Tiles. Always a good time and we collected our mail as well.

March 17^th, What a lousy day, we had a strong southerly blowing all day. Even the resident Corellas weren’t happy, they kept screeching and flying around in circles.

March 20^th, Thankfully, we are now on our 3^rd day of great weather. Monday I went out for a fish and caught two 29cm bream, Tuesday I caught a 41cm flathead and today I went out with Rob, in his boat with his bait, and I caught 4 flathead (36, 38, 39cm and a throwback) and Rob caught nothing. He claimed that he positioned his boat and drifted over the good spots, just for me.

March 21^st, Robert and Joan dropped in with our mail. Robert brought down a pair of wheels that he was planning to dump, to replace the small wheels I use to move the boat. I had been looking around for larger wheels for the last couple of years. I took Robert out for a fish and we caught a flathead each. We went to the Diggers Club tonight but didn’t win anything, but it’s always a great night to get out with a group of people from the Park.

March 22^nd, I decided to look at how I was going to fit my new wheels to the boat movers. The new wheel rims are very rusty, so I will clean them up, treat the rust and paint them. I knew that they were not a simple replacement and something would need to be modified to fit them. Robert had suggested that he still had the axles that the wheels had come from and we could cut them to length and weld them on. I agreed, so rang him to see when we could do the mods and he said, “come up now”. Val wasn’t feeling up to going so I put all my parts in the car and drove up to Robert’s Place. I arrived there around 3pm and by 6pm the job was finished, so after a coffee, I was on my way home. Sandra had rung, while I was away, so we made arrangements to go up to her house at Blue Haven tomorrow, for lunch and a catch up. Sandra is Val’s oldest and closest friend and they have known each other since our boys played Rugby together, when they were 11 years old.

March 23^rd, We arrived at Sandra’s house just after 11am and had a great time catching up, reminiscing, good food and a few wines. Sandra had a bag of “Westerns” for me, which I always appreciate, as when travelling I have trouble finding them. Sometimes, I have joined local Libraries to be able to get Westerns to read.

 March 24^th, We went down to Sydney today for a Family Lunch at Steven and Ed’s place at Elizabeth Bay. It was just our immediate family and Greg, Dianne, Jessica and Annaliese were already there when we arrived. We had a beautiful 4 course Lunch, good company and a very relaxing afternoon. Dianne gave me the “coil pack” that I needed for the Territory, so now I need to get a Mechanic to fit it for me. This will be the last time we are able to get together with the family, as we are planning to travel right around Australia for the 2^nd and last time before settling down somewhere on the NSW Central Coast.

March 25^th, We drove to Toronto this morning for Val to see her Hand Specialist, and he is doing her Carpel Tunnel operation on Tuesday the 2^nd April. We went to Toronto Private Hospital and booked in for that day.  Val wasn’t happy about filling in all the documentation, but we got through that and then had a light lunch at the Red Cross Café, at the Hospital. Val wanted to go to BigW so we went across to Mt. Hutton Shopping Centre on our way home, then down the Pacific Highway back to The Entrance.

March 26^th, I took Rob out for a fish this morning but we had no luck at all. We caught a few throw backs but at one stage we were positioned near Rita and Col (another couple from the Park), who were pulling in Flatties one after the other on Poddies. We didn’t have any Poddies and couldn’t interest the fish with our cooked prawns. We thought we might catch some poddies this afternoon or tomorrow morning and have a last fish tomorrow, before I pull the boat out of the water.

March 27^th, Rob and myself were both packing up today, so we decided that we wouldn’t have time to go fishing. Rob helped me get the boat out of the water and up on the Car. And it took me the rest of the afternoon to pack up the boat gear and most of the things that went inside the Van and the car. Carole and Rob came down for Pizza’s for dinner and we played tiles till midnight. We both leave tomorrow morning, Carole and Rob for Charlestown and us for Wallamba River, just north of Tuncurry.