Meet & Greet 2012 (I spy something starting with a “?”)
Well it would seem that since this is my first trip actually owning a Patrol, that I have been tasked with writing the trip report.
Firstly I'd like to thanks Ropes for a great day out (even though he is bagging me with the trip report) and for the guests that came along. Even though it wasn't a hard day of off-roading, it ended up being beautiful weather for a nice day run on the beach with I think was 17 Patrols for the day. All the kids had a great time and hopefully the guests did to.
We met at the Mandurah Forum parking lot (~0900) for a nice easy kick off at about 0930-0940, with everyone airing down just before the White Hill Beach entry point.
Then we entered the sand and started our nice leisurely drive down the beach. Surprisingly there were very few people on the beach for such a nice day. There were a few people doing some fishing, but they must not have been having any luck with the winds the way they were.
From a personal perspective the Patrol drives totally different from the Jeep. With the Jeep, for sand driving I would just point and it would go, but with Patrol I was initially fighting it to keep from swinging around. Mike (XLR8) gave a great tip to just let the Patrol do its thing and follow the ruts. So I just let go of the wheel and it just went along after that. So much to the point that I would roll smokes, play with the radio and almost take a nap as it just went on its merry way. Thanks for that tip there Mike. Every trip is a learning experience.
As everyone must know, driving on the beach is typically pretty easy but it can also be a bit of a bore when there is not much to do. So someone started a really nice game of “I spy” and to my surprise we have some real “I spy” masters out there. We spied things starting with “P” = Patrol, “S” = Sand, etc. So any following trips will be just a hoot as soon as we start a new game.
Our first stop was a quick head break at the Preston Beach car park, with everyone continuing down the beach a bit (only about 5-6km) further for our lunch break. Now here is where the real fun started and only bit of damage for the day (As far as I know).
While setting up their new Fox Wing awning [Bevan (1BBQ) & Lina (RUN-UP)], the wind grabbed it and pushed it right back. Unfortunately breaking a couple of poles in the process; basically making it unusable. Bevan did a better job than I would have of keeping calm about it (I would have scared the kids with some very new choice words).
Events during the lunch break:
Recovery demonstrations:
1. Mike (XLR8) bogged himself for Matt (MyTroll90) to conduct a snatch recovery.
2. Craig (Ropes) showed everyone how to properly connect two snatch straps together.
3. Matt (MyTroll90) bogged himself to show how to use the Max Tracks.
Sand Castle Contest:
Lina (RUN-UP) donated a nice MSA bag with beach towel as the prize. And I gave a larger box of candy (the one that you take when you’re told not take anything) as bit of the consolation prize. (Basically every one of the kids hopefully got some of the candy), but I don’t remember who won the sand castle contest. I think there was a bit of boy vs girls thing with Joe (TurboJoe) as the judge. So maybe he can pipe in and clear this one up.
About 1430 we packed it all up and reversed track and headed back to the Preston Beach car park to air up, finish out the trip and head on home. Bottom line is that no one got stuck ‘unintentionally”, there was no damage to vehicles, we met some great new friends and everyone had a great time.
Attendance List–
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Members:
Craig (Ropes) – Trip Leader
Craig (Ozmerican)
Rob (RobsGQ) – Tail end Charley
Ian (Iffy)
Jon (TheFlyingBadger)
Joe (TurboJoe)
Bevan & Lina (1BBQ & RUN-UP)
Matt & Graham (MyTroll90 & Howezit)
Mike (XLR8)
Guests:
Dale & Tanya (4Btrekker)
Chris (Chrisgq)
Matt (Matty101)
Ian & Rachel (pupnreg)
Richard (Woodsy)
Mark (Wong)
Micheal (Ledge)
Phil (GQPhil)
If anyone has any additional photo's please upload, the above one was the only one that I personally took on the day.
Craig
