Endless Summer

Summer has certainly made its presence felt this year with water temps sitting around 26 degrees Celsius with weeks of northerlies pushing in hot and humid conditions.  To escape the heat, we have been getting on the water early, though you need to be on the beach by 4:30 am to catch the sunrise.

A southerly change had come through overnight, though lighter inshore, but with a promise of up to 20 knots.  A small car shuffle was in order to extended the downwind run from the Port of Brisbane to Redcliffe.

We spent the first hour paddling into the headwind, hugging the coast and winding our way in and out of the mangroves exploring a number of inlets up to the Port of Brisbane.  The wind was building but only got to the 10-15 knot range as we headed out to the "Coffee Pots" (a name for a set of the channel markers outside the Port of Brisbane) for a tailwind run to Redcliffe.

We saw a lot of bird life along the foreshore leading up to the Port, including a colony of Bee-Eaters which make a stand of Casuarinas home.  The inlets were protected from the wind and the incoming neap tide allowed us to wander our way through the mangroves.

A change of pace, but we were looking forward to another down wind run!  I will get around to editing some of our downwind run footage but I have been a bit pushed for time lately with the run into Christmas.  We are doing the extended family Christmas at our place this year so I might have to do some mowing and yard work that I have been putting off! 

Downwinder with wind and a swim

Its time to get out the lawn mowers in BrisVegas with plenty of summer storm activity producing rain, hail and the humidity to make mowing a weekly affair.  The weekend saw the wind swing to the south to bring in some cooler weather with 20-30 knots of southerlies to herald the change.

With that sort of wind blowing the lawn can look after itself for another week.  Instead we grabbed the kayaks and headed out for a downwind paddle from Wellington Point to Redcliffe.

With family commitments for lunch, we took off early for a 33 km paddle/sail around the outside of Green and St Helena Islands before crossing the shipping channel for a lumpy downwind ride to Redcliffe.

The swell started picking up around Green Island and the runners kept growing in size as we made our way past St Helena and Mud Islands - without paddling I was still travelling between 10-20 km/hr.

I ended up going for a swim whilst we were waiting for a container ship to clear the shipping channel. We had turned beam on to the wind, whilst letting off the boom ropes to clear the wind out of the sails when the wind whipped the sail around the mast on a gust as some swell pushed me up into the breeze and over I went.

I dropped the sail under water but my paddle had become entangled so had to pop out of the boat to sort the mess out.  Rather than do a re-enter and roll I called my paddling partner over for an assist as I don't have an electric pump in the boat.  It has been a long time since we have had to practice some of our rescue techniques in rough water so whilst it wasn't orthodox- I was back in my boat in short order, pumping the remaining water out as the container ship cleared the shipping channel.

We kept the sails down whilst we crossed the shipping channel as the conditions were still building and gusting around 28 knots with swell coming from all directions - very much a washing machine.  We paddled back towards the coast to get a good line into Redcliffe and then put our sails up for a fun trip back.

We had some hootin' rides and had an average speed over 10 kms/hr including the time I spent having a swim and sorting myself back into the boat in adverse conditions - thanks to Jono for the assist.

A downwind slog

Mother nature didn't come to the party and deliver the promised 15-20 knots of northerly wind to assist us on a downwind run from Redcliffe south.  There was plenty of kayak bling on show as 3 Tarans, a Pace 17 and a ski lined up for the downwind blast - the only thing missing was the wind.

In a Queensland summer we are nearly always guaranteed to get some afternoon wind, but with the prediction for afternoon storms, a plan for an early morning down wind paddle was hatched earlier in the week.  We were watching the predicted wind models decrease the wind intensity over the week, but still were supposed to have between 10-15 knots off shore.

The original plan to go around Mud Island and down to Cleveland was shortened within half an hour of heading off shore, to head down to St Helena Island for a break before coming in at Manly Harbour to a well earned ice cold drink (thanks to the support crew for providing!).

Summer is well and truly here with a week of storms predicted so I think we will be early morning paddling only for the next few months.

The wind turned up as we were sitting at our destination, having slogged 30 kms, averaging 8.5 km/hr with no wind assistance at all - just four hours late!

It was great to catch up with some of our paddling mates who have been enjoying paddling ski's in recent times.  I'm not sure it was a great day out to convince them to get back into some sea kayaking but there is always another day!

Some further photos can be found at: Sutton Beach to Manly Harbour Paddle