TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

We left Yamba at high tide carefully following the leads to avoid any more sandbanks, through the "Hole in the Wall" and up the Clarence River to the Harwood Bridge. Here we anchored until 4pm for the bridge to be opened. This bridge is part of the main north south Pacific Highway and the bridge operator travels 1 hour each way to open the bridge for yachts on demand! We motored through and on to Maclean where we tied up at the Public Pontoon – right in the centre of town with free water and electricity! We just squeezed on next to an elderly gentleman called Andy on his yacht "Invictus" with a couple of friends. We invited them for drinks and spent an enjoyable evening chatting. Next morning we woke to a rainy day, so stayed put and had a lazy day, then a walk to the lookout (about 3 km up the steep hill behind town) with splendid views towards the coast and inland.

On Tuesday we left Maclean on the incoming tide to reach the shallowest point of the river at Lawrence after mid-tide and on to Grafton where we anchored just before the Grafton Bridge in time to watch the Melbourne Cup!! This is as far as one can sail up the Clarence River.

Next day after watching the American elections live on TV, we took a walk into town. Unfortunately we missed the Jacaranda Festival by a few days, but the trees were still a picture!