Squall in a Wineglass
The last update was from Bicheno, where I stopped for lunch for Mum and Dad who’d just flown in from NSW. I was really excited about paddling down the Freycinet Peninsula, and indeed that afternoon’s paddle past the Friendly Beaches, under the lighthouse on the Cape Tourville’s imposing cliffs and into Sleepy Bay was majestic. Even though it was almost 70kms for the day, the gentle tailwind made paddling a pleasure, and the scenery passing by on the starboard side was ample distraction.
As I rounded Cape Tourville two sea eagles broke from the rock that sits off the Cape and flew right above me, the white of their wings contrasting with the blue of the sky, the red lichen on the orange granite, and the water deep and inky black below. Sleepy Bay is a great little spot with a gravel beach, and in return fir Mum and Dad shouted us dinner the night before, Emi and I cooked up a huge Tuna and Vegie Curry on the tailgate of the ute.
A squall passed through the night but by daytime had cleared to scattered cloud, and I packed camping gear into the kayak ready for an overnight stay on Schouten Island, then paddled the short distance to Wineglass Bay to meet up with Mum, Dad and Emi for the morning.
I had a feeling that the weather would turn nasty again in the afternoon, but I’d raved about Wineglass to Emi, and Mum and Dad had come such a long way, so I spent the morning lazing around on the sand. It was a picture perfect morning and completely worth it to see Dad go for a swim in the bay. Dad turns 70 in 5 weeks time and he still swims around like a teenager – what a legend.
Then Emi and I lazed around in the sun for a while, and I have to tell you that in addition to this being an physical adventure and an environmental campaign it’s also becoming a love story. What an incredible woman. I finally tore myself away around 2pm with about 20k to paddle to Schouten.
I would have loved to stay the day (and as it turned out I probably should have) but with my arrival in Hobart scheduled for the 21st, I have to make tracks.
No sooner had I pulled out of the shelter of Wineglass Bay when a 30 knot Southerly buster hit. There was already a metre of Easterly Swell and about half a metre of Westerly chop from the morning’s offshore wind, but the Southerly brought with it a good 2-3 metres of swell and chop. And as if that wasn’t enough it was all ricocheting off the sheer granite cliffs of the Hazards, confronting me with a series of churning walls of water coming from all directions. I was soaking wet within minutes as wave after wave broke over the deck, and the temperature plummeted as low cloud whipped over Mt Freycinet. Luckily my guardian angel Grant at Sydney Harbour Kayaks had donated a cag (waterproof kayaking jacket), and I got that on just as I was starting to shiver and lose feeling in my fingers and toes. Having dodged hypothermia, the next thing I saw was a big white shape in the water heading straight towards me at speed. For a second I thought “that’s the end of me” but as it neared I saw that it was round rather than pointy. As it neared the surface it let off an explosion of bubbles then disappeared. I think it was a very big dugong? What else it big, white, roundish and mammalian?
After that, well it wasn’t good but it was better. The wind backed off to a more reasonable 20 knots and the ricochet effect died away as I got further out to sea, though the swell persisted. I plugged away into it until, finally making the shelter of Schouten Island as the sunset, the hardest 20k of the trip, and way harder than the 60k+ from the day before.
