Lady Elliot Island Crossing

Photo Bronte McMahon

Greetings from Lady Elliot Island. Rob, Chris & I pulled into the tiny beach in the lee of the island at 8.20pm last night, having set out from a position approximately 2km to the North of Rooney Pt on Fraser Island just over 13 hours earlier.

We had arranged for Ken from Hervey Bay Fishing Charters to run us out to the point, figuring that there was no point draining the batteries with a 60km bay paddle when we would need everything for the big crossing out to Elliot. This was a good idea in practice, but facilitated launching the kayaks off the bow of Ken's boat & wading ashore in some fickle shore dump. A curious pod of dolphins supervising the at times comical display lifted our spirits, if not not our dry bags.

Special thanks to Karel Vissel from kayakweather.com who gave us the confidence to head for Fraser in the first place, with a lingering SW forecast for Tuesday making us reconsider a Bundaberg launch. It's Tuesday here now & honking from the SW, so as Freya told me he would, Karel got it right. 

We camped Sunday night on Fraser in incredibly beautiful & pristine conditions, tucked into the lee of the dunes with a big moon providing the floodlighting.

After a great sleep I awoke at about 4.45am & began the preparation for the paddle.

We had worked out prior to the trip that a 60/40 weight distribution aft/fore seemed to work for the Taran in following seas, so we distributed our gear & cast off the shore at about 7.10. 

I mistook the knot in my guts as the possible beginning of my first ever bout of sea kayak seasickness, but after settling into a good rhythm I realised I was just sh*t scared….

A sea fog blotted out everything around us within about 500m, & for the next few hours we surfed along in quartering following seas up to about a metre & a half, with little or no swell. we had a couple of running repairs in the field, the most serious of which was one of Rob's rudder mounting bracket bolts nearly coming completely away. In one of my rare proper bloke moments I had not only packed the Leatherman in a reachable place but was able to screw the bolt back in while rafted between Chris & Rob, before checking which way you turned it go in, of course.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that crossings of this nature are boring. There is nothing to look at, the horizon is endless & the miles are there to be made, no other option. The truth is that constantly surfing, trying to link runners, watching the troughs as they appear in front of you, watching your heading, having a quick drink plus another dozen multi tasks becomes all encompassing. I was grateful for a degree of challenging water as time passed way faster than 13 hours staring at a compass would have you believe.

At about the 45km mark we were really making ground, we did a couple of 9km+ hours and my speedo was consistently hitting 12-13kmh as we surfed a swell that was building as we cleared the Breaksea spit. The wind picked up to around 20knots & the sea steepened, making us concentrate.

Mariners will tell you this stretch of water is no a place for the feint hearted. The swell barrels in from the east & the sea is steep from the south, & even inexplicably sometimes from the south west. I watched Chris surf a beautiful runner in complete control only to finish with a breaking steep wave hit him hard enough from his blind side to force a high brace.

Whack another 10 knots onto the conditions we were paddling and it would really not be a place to enjoy. Eddie, Paul, Gazza, if you're reading this guys we got a small taste of what you must have copped last year, mucho respect. Our background paddling the confused water off the Sydney cliffs was of infinite value in this permanently confused sea. Not a place to be taken lightly.

About 20km from Lady Elliot we caught sight of the lighthouse & figured we were home. Spirits were high as the sun set, but with no moonlight we realised our margin for crossing the breaking coral reef was probably too tight to even consider.

Our pace slowed with fatigue & trepidation as we crept around to the lee shore looking for the lead lights which the islanders had promised to fire up. About 1km from shore we saw a flashing beam & headed in through the narrow blast channel onto the coral beach in another pesky shore dump. 

The reception was fantastic, it seemed like the entire island staff had come out out to meet us, & a familiar face in sea kayaking buddy Katie Keane who coincidentally was staying on the island. Manger Peter had dry towels & an army of willing hands to grab out boats & gear & whisk them off to the resort, & within half an hour of landing we were standing under hot showers.

The 3m gap in the reef, in daylight.

All three of us have landed in great shape, & a few blisters aside we were all grateful for our thorough training & preparation. The usual lulls aside we were all strong through the day & felt like we could have kept going if we needed to. 

Our boats performed brilliantly. Moving speed was over 8kmh, the hulls glide in the following seas like a dream & the 50kg of gear & water in each was barely noticeable in the performance on the water.

We're going to sort out some minor gear issues today, rest up & strike out  tomorrow for Musgrave, 42km to the north west.

Mark, Rob & Chris.