This is Perpendicular Point at the entrance to Camden Haven

We are safe and sound in Laurieton which is a town about 2nm up the river from Camden Haven. We experienced our first river bar crossing in Aus. On the east coast of Aus. there are few natural harbours and there are lots of rivers that have been used to access the ocean. Unlike the west coast of the US, in the places we stopped, the bars here are fairly narrow. The river entrances have break waters to facilitate the entrance of boats and I think some have to be dredged on a regular basis. When you have big ocean swell breaking or even just piling up because it is shallow it can be a real challenge to get across these bars. Once you are committed to the entrance your boat can begin to surf down the waves and if the waves are too steep or close together you can easily loose control. Cat’s-Paw IV handled this bar without any problems, we had a benign sea condition and hit the tide at the correct time. We kind of gulped after we were through, knowing we had to plan a good time to get out of the river as well, I guess it would not be so bad going out because you would never be surfing down the waves, just bashing into them and Cat’s-Paw seems to bash with the best of them, thank goodness for a good seaworthy boat!
We have not been ashore yet but the setting is quite lovely. I am not going to take a picture now because it is raining and dreary out there. I am looking forward to exploring this town and maybe taking a bus to look at other towns up the coast. There is a very large hill called Big Brother (you can see it in the picture) that is climbable apparently, that may be a good activity!!