Latest Paddle - 12th April 10
- Details
- Category: Paddle Files
- Published on Saturday, 20 August 2011 07:18
- Written by Super User
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Paddlers - Angus Sprott, Matt Watton, Steve Price
Adventure Bay, Bruny Island to South Arm - 40km - 40knt South Westerly - Large Southerly swell.
Sprotty has to cop the blame for this one as he instigated it and organised his dad Ian to ferry us (literally) to the Island and everywhere in between. Thanks Ian.
What eventually turned in to a fun paddle didn't start out well. The signs were always there we just failed to see them. To begin with the forecast on the radio was one long monologue of gale warnings, flash floods and road advisory messages. Then there was the trip across on the ferry, with substantial rollers making the journey a little more interesting than usual. But the one we really should have seen and taken notice of was the road sign at the top of the lookout that was blown over while we stood there. Needless to say, the conditions were somewhere between dirty and down right dangerous.
When we arrived at the neck we had to unload one boat at a time for fear they would be blown away, eventually after donning as much warm gear as we could get our hands on we were ready to set off. Navigation was a concern as originally we had planned to go around Betsy Island to Cremorne the only problem being that we couldn't see Cape Queen Elizabeth let alone Betsy Island. Paddling off the beach the fun and games started. Sprotty and I managed to make it through through the impact zone, clearing the last wave of the set, just. Matty wasn't so lucky and ended up getting nailed. 5 minutes later though he was back although a little lighter after losing his mobile and beanie in the wipeout.
Heading out towards the cape with the wind on the beam the going was a little slow and precarious as the swell combined with the wind to make the sea a big confused mess. Matt ended up in the drink after being cleaned up from the side by a breaking wave and once he had managed to get underway again I suffered the same fate except I took Sprotty out in the process meaning we were both floundering around. Sprotty donated a bit of his gear in the form of the much valued Fenn water bottle and the much valued bung that stops water getting into the hull!!! Understandably Sprotty was concerned, he had no water and no bung and we still had 40km to go. The only problem was Matt hadn't realised we had both had a tumble and thought we were in front of him and I didn't realise that Sprotty had lost his bung, so I told him to toughen up and keep going and we would give him some water.
We found Matt out off the cape in probably the biggest water we had seen (about the same size as the Pirates Bay paddle). So back together again we set off on a new course deciding that under the circumstances South Arm was a better option as we could follow Bruny's coast until we saw the Iron Pot, then head across the river. Around this time Matt had another swim and while he was remounting Sprotty noticed a foot long crack in his hull near the seat. Thinking the worst we headed to shore to check the damage, luckily the crack was in the gel coat only so after calling Sprotty's dad with the new course details we set off again. Up until now I had managed to avoid all the carnage, that was until after spearing out of control down a huge swell I took a tumble and used the leash to its full extent which managed to ripped the footplate mount from its fastening at the bottom of the cockpit, good one. It was a stupid place to attach the leash so I can only blame myself, luckily it only effected the steering a little and I was able to continue.
The last section to South Arm was lots of fun. You could catch the wind swell from the West then turn onto the big Southerly swell and hold that for as long as possible before trying to link another set of wind generated waves before you lost momentum. This was a full on paddle, but we were well prepared. Matt had an epirb, Sprotty had a flare, we all had leashes pfd's and warm clothing and have all done quite a bit of big conditions paddling, that said there were times when it was looking like we were going to get into trouble and you can never account for gear failure so a paddle like this should only ever be done if you are well prepared and have tried to eliminate as many risks as possible.
14 April - Matt emailed me to say that the Bureau showed 60knt gusts at Bruny while we were paddling, suffice to say that we probably wouldn't have liked any more wind than that.
