Janet here. We backtracked from Ulmarra to Maclean, where we spent an extra night as they would not close the Pacific Highway for us exactly when we wanted it.... Despite the opening having been booked for 9.00 the next morning the operators kept us waiting for an hour, milling around burning diesel and trying not to get swept by the outgoing tide into the bridge. Apparently scheduled repairwork will see the bridge closed for about six months early next year, so we are lucky to have gotten up and down the river and not locked in. I must say I could think of far worse places to get stuck.

We arrived back in Iluka (across from Yamba) yesterday afternoon and were tickled to see another Petersen in the bay moored 40m from us, with the owners now having lived on her for 10 years. Today we investigated the Iluka and Yamba mooring facilities and will probably leave Rebel in the Iluka fishing boat harbour in June while we are in SA.