Wednesday 8th October
A radio interview delayed us until about 9.15am but the departure from Tweed Heads and out the bar was in excellent weather. There was a light south easter, about 8-10knots. The radio battery was misbehaving so I pulled into Kingscliff and gave it to the Johns to sort out.
Paddling was easy with not much swell but as the day progressed the swell increased and the wind moved to more from the east. We rendezvoused at Hastings Point at 2.30pm when I picked up the radio. John S had dried out the battery and it was charged a bit.
It was a bit of a wet departure as you can see on the photo. After timing the waves well, into and out of Kingscliff, and into Hastings Point luck had run out on that departure.
Around Wooyung there was a lone surfer and we waved to each other. About a kilometre further on the sea was wrong. The white caps were very close together and all over the place. It was some sort of rip but I could not get any advantage for me. The route was inside the sand bar which was about 400m off the beach with maybe 3-4m of water on it. Having been dumped on one of these near Noosa I was careful not to let it happen again and kept a close eye on the bar.
A fin sliced through the water heading just behind me. It did not roll. "Shit! That's not a dolphin", I thought. It was too big to be a dolphin anyway. Then I saw the body. It was big, very big. Even though the kayak is 6m long my heart was in my mouth for the next couple of minutes.
There have been no reports of a shark attack on a surfer in the area so I guess the guy back up the beach was OK and the shark was not hungry anyway.
About half an hour from Brunswick Heads there was a thumping noise out to sea. It was a whale whacking its tail on the water and the performance was repeated at least twenty times. This was exciting stuff, to hear the sound and watch the spectacle.
The sun was disappearing as I paddled through the breakwalls at Brunswick Heads. With no GPS we can argue the distance but I will check it on Google Earth. John S reckons it was 45km. I am tired and sore so it was at least that. It was a great day though and we did cover a lot of water.
[Later: Google Earth showed that the distance covered today was 50km, giving a total of 171km to date]
Day 5 Photos
Leaving Twin Towns
Near Kingscliffe
Hastings Point Fisherman
Coming in to pick up radio
Mistimed...
Made it!
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