A blooming good time Rivieras cruise to Grafton’s Jacaranda Festival

A sea of purple flowers welcomed Riviera owners as they joined in the festivities at Grafton’s annual Jacaranda Festival held recently in the New South Wales town.

Riviera’s R Marine led a fleet of 10 vessels with 33 people on board from the Gold Coast seaway to Grafton for its annual Grafton/Jacaranda Experience, but for Riviera 47 Enclosed Flybridge owner, Joe Green, it was an emotional journey cruising into his hometown.

“It’s special for us because we can go back and see some old friends,” he said.

“This is the second time my wife, Elizabeth and I have done the Grafton Experience and the Jacaranda festival is just sensational.

“It’s interesting to see a country town that is maintaining the longevity of such a festival, there is always the heritage to keep it going.

“It’s a very pretty town on a bend in the Clarence River about 42 nautical miles up from Yamba.  The Clarence has the greatest outfall of water of all the rivers on the east coast of Australia and it’s up to 500m wide in places and believe it or not has 99 islands.

“It was a lovely Experience.  When we left the Southport Seaway, the R Marine lead boat was the first out and they called back a warning on the VHF radio that there was a whale in the Seaway.

“The whale submerged and then reappeared about two metres away from our port bow – she was huge.  Once clear of the Seaway and we set our course south.  Cruising at sea is so relaxing and it’s great travelling with a fleet of boats.”

Joe said he had been on about 20 R Marine Experiences over the years and loved every minute of every cruise.

“We just love to cruise off the coast on the deep blue ocean, it’s a sensational feeling of freedom – we just can’t live without it,” said Joe.

“These Riviera Experiences give a lot more people the opportunity to do something really different and challenging with their boats.  Every time we have been on an Experience event there will be at least one boat that hasn’t been out to sea.

“People can learn about navigation, anchoring and how to raft up properly, they can get their friends involved and basically learn how to enjoy their boat to the fullest, instead of being stuck in the Broadwater or on Moreton Bay.  It gives them real security with other boats looking out for them as well as having people there with navigational skills.”

The voyage to Gafton included a stop over at Yamba where the fleet stayed at Peter Sutton and Kay Cottee’s (the first woman to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world) Marina for two nights before cruising up the pristine Clarence River to Grafton.

The annual Grafton Jacaranda Festival is a week-long floral festival with more than 100 events including the Jacaranda Ball, Dragon Boat Races and Jacaranda Fun Run.

“After two nights in Grafton the group went to Harwood where they enjoyed lunch at the Harwood Hotel, which is located on the banks of the Clarence River at Maclean, also known as the Scottish Town in NSW.”

“Because of the town’s Scottish heritage, R Marine organised for a bagpiper to entertain the Riviera team.

“The next day they cruised down the river to Iluka where they had a 10 boat raft up which was very enjoyable and certainly one of the highlights of the trip, before returning to the Gold Coast the following day.

R Marine Queensland will conduct a Jacaranda Experience in the 2010 cruising event calendar.”

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