We spent three days filled with the juxtaposed emotions of wanting to get off the island while also being looked after so well you'd wonder why anyone would want to leave. Our dilemma was a 25kn+ sou'wester which was roaring every night by about midnight, & would then taper off each afternoon to under 15kn, & on one day even to barely a zephyr. Adding to the frustration was the weather station on Elliot being hidden behind a series of Casuarina banks, which makes their westerly data a good few notches below what is actually happening on the water. So each morning we'd race over to the obs shack in the mornings to see 15kn recording, then wander over to the windward side of the island & see wind that was creating much more demanding sea states than 15kn would suggest.
The forecast models for Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday all had the wind cranking up again by mid afternoon which lowered our margin for a safe passage to Musgrave below an acceptable level. Friday's forecast from Karel at kayakweather.com was far more encouraging however, for the first time predicting a drop that would stay down.
So, with again half the island population on hand to bid us farewell we set off at 11am Friday aiming to ride out what would hopefully be 2-3 hours of nasty breaking beam seas & 20+kn winds, then put the foot down for the rest of the passage to Musgrave. The launch off Elliot was eventful, with the breaking waves off the reef giving us a few wake up calls, and we then pushed across steep & very confused seas for the next 3 hours.
Our trace shows 18km for the first three hours of paddling almost into the sou'wester, in order to hold our NW line, followed by 24km for the following three & a bit hours as the wind dropped & we started to really hammer along. The first three hours were demanding, technical paddling & I for one was pleased to see the steepness start to come off the waves. It's no barrel of laughs getting a big wet cold slap across the shoulders & having to throw in a decent brace every couple of minutes.
Rob had a very large shark scout him out about an hour off Elliot, which seemed to tighten up the group spread, among other things.
We saw three bulk freighters head past on the passage, to our east. You know you're a long way offshore when those big daddies are closer to land than you are.
Musgrave was a welcome sight, a low coral cay island protected by a humungous reef, with upwards of a dozen boats at anchor sheltering from the relentless westerlies.
We grabbed a camp site which looked like a scene from the Empire Strikes Back - you know the little jungle planet where Yoda lives….?
On Saturday night the ANU Dive Club, here on their annual trip, invited us to sunset nibbles & then cooked us a beautiful three course feed, loading us up appropriately for the 75km leg to Heron.
Our forecast for Sunday is ideal, winds 20+kn from the SSE to SE, so the plan is to get going early & continue our 'resort hop' (thanks for that Matty, Rob says you'll keep….)
Mark, Rob & Chris.
Don't take it too hard - with big legs like that you deserve a bit of pampering!
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