We arrived at the Clarence River at 1630 and anchored off the township of Iluka putting out 20 meters of chain into thick mud. Iluka Bay is shallow, so shallow that we’d require high tide to leave. Iluka reminded us of Lakes Entrance with the bar crossing, fishing boats, caravan parks and surf beach. There is an excellent surf beach where vehicles are allowed, we did not have to wait long until we saw a 4WD get bogged in the sand. After covering a lot of ground over the last week, and with all the stress involved with watching the weather, sea conditions, port requirements, Mark really needed a break, Iluka was a good place to rest.
Georgie had been saving her Birthday and Christmas money to pay half cost of a mobile phone. So, along with the money that she had saved with our grocery budget (project teenage boss), the time had finally arrived in Sydney for us to purchase the phone. We set some ground rules and after careful consideration of the colour by Georgie, we bought the phone and purchased a mobile plan in Sydney.
Georgie’s herb garden is doing well, we have been making basil pesto paste, the rosemary has been great on baked vegies and lamb, the parsley and spring onions are picked daily to accompany bolognaise sauce, salads, egg & bacon rolls etc. I am still making our sour dough bread and was quite pleased when on a menu board at a café noted that a slice of sour dough bread with jam cost $7, I did not realise that we had such a gourmet menu.
We went for a dinghy ride over to Yamba and went for a long walk along the foreshore with a course deviation to Clarence Filters so that Mark could pickup some replacement water filters for the water maker.