Last night Avril, Allan, a number of Power Equipment Staff and another 800 guests attended a Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony at Melbourne’s Crown Casino Palladium Ballroom.

The event; titled “The Best of The Best, Premier Regional Business Awards, Platinum Year” was arranged by the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce, and was to celebrate the 20th year of the Regional Business Awards.

And the overall winner of the Award “Best Of The Best” in the Small Business Category was Power Equipment, Allan's business. 

It was Thursday and the Gippsland Lakes were calling.

As a prelude to a future sailing trip to the Whitsundays we hired a yacht out of Metung and took to the wide expanses of the Gippsland lakes. First impression was that a caravaning holiday would be more spacious but then the excitement of racing across King Lake at 20 knots was very enticing.

As it turned out, we had a great adventure with many highlights.  A bit of good sailing on day 1, a lot of challenging (Marg would say be-calmed) sailing, wonderful national parks stop off points (including those drop toilets) and even enough sunshine.

As you can see below we all had a go at the helm and Norm had me scurrying all over the boat as we set sail, tacked and battled fickle winds (as I have come to respect now)

Room was tight below deck with the toilet/shower virtually an impossibility for Norm and I.  Thank goodness for shore leave.

The finale on Sunday was to wake up down Bunga Arm, moored off shore, to the sound of heavy rain.  After negotiating the hour to cruise out into the lake proper, we were faced with a grey-out (no differential between sea and sky) with visibility of a hundred metres at most.  Not enough to see land nor markers.  We stopped 500 metres from shore as it turned out when we ran aground. 

So what more could we ask for in an adventure holiday that included guiding in the rescue vessel via my GPS on the phone and being pulled out of the sandy bay sideways.

A great adventure that we will do again...probably in the Whitsundays or the Greek Isles.