Kayak Trip Update

Strong wind warning for the north east today, 25kn headwinds, so we have left our cosy campsite just north of Cosy Corner and hitched into St Helens for shopping, lunch and surprisingly the Online Centre is open.

We left Huonville on Feb 9th and this is the first time we have been held up by the weather so we are doing pretty well. It seems finally our fitness has caught up with our aims, we are not waking to stiff back and shoulder muscles quite as much as the first week when it felt as if a truck had been driving backwards and forwards across our shoulders.

Am trying to upload some photos but they are being blocked by some program or other this end, I am trying one at a time, which seems to be working.

So far the highlights have been.

- simply leaving on the trip after the madness of the preceding couple of weeks, just too many jobs to tidy up including installing a new solar water heater on the roof.

- Crossing Storm Bay from Adventure Bay to Safety Cove (Port Arthur) discovering first hand why Storm Bay and Safety Cove are so named. For most of the crossing we had at least the forecast 25kn SSW winds so simply flew along with only one sail up. We averaged 10kph for the 50km crossing and the GPS recorded our maximum speed as 18kph! As the seas built towards Cape Raoul the double seemed to alternate between being a submarine with just two conning towers above water or a surf ski.

-We also had a great days sailing with a ESE breeze from Fortescue Bay to Maria Is. Working on the theory that if the going is good, keep going, we travelled nearly 60km and caught a big feed of Flathead for dinner too.

- Louisa and Megan drove all the way to Bicheno to meet us on Weds 17th, for two weary kayakers their energy and big smiles were very invigorating. They also brought loads of fresh vegies from the garden, beer for lunch and news and gossip from the outside world. It was very good to see them. We had a meal in the pub then they set off home for college and uni the next day.

-Not so much a highlight but significant none the less is the marine VHF handheld purchased for the trip.
http://www.icom-australia.com/products/marine/marine_ic-m35.html

Access to the coastal waters forecasts broadcast by Hobart Coast Radio four times a day is invaluable. We finally came up with a call sign the other day "Double Trouble" and called St Helens Sea Rescue for the forecast as we were not picking up the Hobart Coast Radio broadcast on the upper east coast. Then discovered I had not set it to scan the Hobart Radio channel in the NE!

We have also seen loads of seals and dolphins, the seals basking, seemingly asleep with flippers in the air, presumably for cooling purposes. We have been able to get very close before they become aware of our presence and all disappear in a swirl, only to pop up all around us to check out what has disturbed their reverie. The dolphins have escorted us for hundreds of meters, swimming around and under the boat.


Campsite on Butlers Point at the northern end of the Friendly Beaches. We thought this corner would be sheltered from the surf which for the east coast and a 2m swell was quite big. It wasn't, and the beach was littered with kayak unfriendly rocks too; luckily a couple of reefs just outside the break line provided enough shelter for us to land comfortably.

This is on our long day to Maria Is, lovely ESE breeze pushing us along all day. The new sails (slightly bigger than and not stretched like the old ones) and heavily laden double have transformed our sailing ability, even making good progress with the wind well forward of the beam with no excessive leeway . This enabled us to sail much of the way the next day from Maria Is to Schouten Is with a ENE/NE wind.