Up the coast for a quick surf

I had to sneak an early paddle in on Saturday this weekend due to a list of jobs at home that has started to seriously affect my lifestyle!  An early start and an hour or so later I had the kayak in the water at Mooloolaba with a plan to do a short paddle around Point Cartwright to find some surf along the open beach at Kawana.

There wasn't a lot of wind around so we had glassy conditions on the water and fat meter of swell running on the open beach.  The waves were dumping onto the shore break, but were forming enough on the outside bank to pick up and surf through to shallow water.

We only ended up with about 15 kms paddled after returning to Mooloolaba to practice some rolling and balancing (well attempting to balance).  The lazy surf must have been enough to prepare me for some serious gardening (and not of the rock variety!)

I finished the garden off on Sunday so it is all planted out.  On to the next thing on the list - retaining walls that need replacing...:-(

Some video footage shot around Point Cartwright.

Salt Water Injection

I've just come off the back of a busy week finalising a tender response, getting two large scale software development projects ready for implementation and basically staring at the walls of my cubicle going slowly insane.  The murky waters of the bay weren't going to cut it this weekend.  I needed an injection of deep blue water that only ocean kayaking can give you.

With perfect conditions predicted, we took off from Mooloolaba to paddle out to Mudjimba (Old Woman) Island which is a 20 km round trip if you stop off for a surf along the way. 

We took off at the top of the tide to head out to the island with a plan to do some rock gardening and surf into a rock lagoon which is sheltered behind a rocky outcrop on the north-western corner of the island.  If you can make it in behind the rock wall then you have access to the island.

The island is surrounded by a rock reef which is one of the best reef breaks on the East Coast when the swell starts to wrap around the island.  The swell that was running today was missing the island and building onto the coast which gave us a somewhat easy access into the rock lagoon.

The Shearwaters (Mutton birds) have been in residence, clearing out their nests ready for their nesting season.  You can only walk around the rocky edge of the island as the middle of the island is a mine field of Shearwater nests.  After visiting the island residence, we did a walking circumnavigation before jumping in our boats and heading off for a surf on some north shore beach breaks.

We had a great surf on the way back with some very nice peaky waves forming on the outgoing tide.  I had a first today as I slotted my sea kayak through a barrel that was forming, prepared my high brace for a thrashing, but somehow came out the other side of the barrel onto a clean wall - should of towed my surfboard along!

Thanks to Gaza and Jonathan for keeping me company - we were like stoked grommets by the time we headed in for lunch!

Where did the wind go?

A bloody headwind slog today with the promise of a downwind paddle for the trip back that failed to deliver.

Winding the clock back to last Saturday, I stood on a razor clam when walking the kayak over a shallow weed bank.  These clams are well named and I ended up with a deep gash across the ball of my foot.  A doctor visit, some antibiotics and a taped foot saw me out of action for a week - for those who know me you should take pity on the people who have to put up with me when I am house-bound...

So I may have been a little stir crazy so didn't mind a slog into a 10 knot headwind for 17 kms with the promise of a 10 knot tailwind for the trip back.  It wasn't until I jumped in the boat and found I couldn't use any leg drive with my injured foot that a headwind slog started to look a lot more daunting.

Anyway, propped up on some caffeine and a mix of other sports additives I slowly made my way across to Mud Island where we found a shallow rock inlet which had a sand bottom surrounded by coral banks. There was a high sand bank in shade of some trees that we made our way towards before being monstered by a few thousand midges.  We beat a hasty retreat to the coral bank where we setup for morning tea in the sun, but with a lovely breeze blowing on our backs.

You can see the wind on the water in these photos - it was a 10 knot easterly which would have been a perfect tailwind back to the Yundah Street boat ramp.  We shortened our break so we could catch the wind.  The tide was on the way in and it has risen sufficiently so that we could paddle out over the coral bank which was now covered by a foot or so of water.

The wind was pushing our boats around as we got ready to depart, gusting in every now and then and filling our sails. 

So with this promise of a fun paddle/sail home we took off...and then the wind dropped away.  Our sails hung limp and dejected.  Jono took the direct line back whereas I went wide hoping to pick more wind and swell up.  We met back together near the airport on the other side of the shipping channel to have a depressing discussion on the lack of either wind or swell for the next 8 km slog back to our put in point.

Still, it was better than being house bound for another day!

34 kms.

Down wind paddling in Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay is a shallow body of water for the most part, which creates a great environment for down wind paddling with wind against tide conditions.  Our usual down wind paddle is in the southern part of the bay, where you can get a good meter or so of swell pushed along by a strong southerly.

With a 25 knot southerly blow predicted, spring tides and two meters of swell in the bay, we opted to do a down wind paddle at the top end of the bay, taking off from where we usually finish our down winders at Oyster Point and heading out wide to come in at the Redcliffe Peninsular.

Two meters of swell running in the bay can get a bit scary with wind against tide conditions!  The top end of the bay has a long fetch with 25 knots of wind to whip up some some large swell with great holes to drop into.  As the waves are close together, you drop into a hole and bury your kayak bow into the wave in front as the wind drives you through it into the next hole.  Not much control when you are travelling at this speed - I even had my sail going neutral on some of these 100+ meter runs.

Coming into Redcliffe was a bit daunting with the waves being stood up higher over the rock reef so you were free falling into some deep holes as you came over the top of the wave in front.  Discretion was the better part of valour as on a few of them I hip flicked the kayak to run along the wall rather than the endo option with sail deployed!

The only negative thing about a down wind paddle is the car shuffle.  To minimise the traffic hassles, we opted to put in at Oyster Point. Unfortunately you have to beat your way into the wind to follow the channel out to deeper water, or skirt across some very shallow banks.  We regrettably took the shallow bank option with not enough water so we ended up walking the kayaks and playing with a few shovel-nose rays.

I ended up standing on a razor clam and slicing my foot open.  I didn't realise what I had done until we were underway and I was complaining about my foot sticking to the foot pegs.  Anyhow, I will be hobbling around for a few days whilst that heals and I avoid the doctors and another set of stitches.

Taking off from Wellington Point or even Manly Boat harbour at low tide would give you a better angle to head out towards St Helena and then Mud Island, but then you face more traffic hassles and a longer car shuffle.

I didn't have my Garmin with me, but I believe the paddle was around 28kms and including walking the kayaks we were on the water around 2:00pm and off a bit before 5:00pm.

We didn't see much boat traffic on the bay apart from one container ship leaving the Port of Brisbane. We surprised a few large sea turtles that were on the surface but the sea birds and rest of the wild life had made themselves scarce as they took cover from the blow.