Tom's Cabin : April 2019

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

PUP - Pick Up Plastic

Ever since my sail on tilman to the remote and beautiful Windawoppa Beach where I filled a bucket with waste plastics in less than 5 minutes, I've made rubbish collection a part of each outing.whether I am surfing, sailing or paddling, I pick up any plastics i see.
At the moment on Facebook a guy called Ferris Gump is taking a peddle-powered Hobie SUP from Byron Bay to like Cairns to raise awareness about plastics pollution.
I know very few of any people read this blog, but I'm just putting it out there. Just saying...

Sunday, April 28, 2019

The Star of the Show

In all my paddling of late the most amazing part is the river itself. Every second I am scanning the water ahead or either bank looking for form, movement and colour. I am always enthralled.

The water is invariably brown and cloudy.The head of the paddle disappears from sight on each stroke. It works lazily and late in the day every square metre features debris, detritus and flotsam of some kind; leaves, twigs, feathers and the ubiquitous seed lanterns, through to bamboo stalks, even whole trees. It's only by paddling several times a week that you realise the river's changing nature. One day you encounter a log reef, at a bend in the river,a tree lays beached, smaller branches, bamboo and leaf litter complete the scene. You wonder idly at how big a flood will be needed to clear it out before the next day when it has completely dissolved. After a while you recognise certain pieces of tree having transported itself down or back up the river. It's ever-changing magnificence.
Depending on where you are the width and i suppose depth, varies. Generally it's narrower and shallower the further upstream you go, but not always. It varies, as do the banks. Downstream, the levee banks are further apart and seem lower.This opens the river to light and greater air flow, friendly breezes or enemy gusts blast across rolling the surface darkly.
The flow is always present but not always evident. At its height it will swirl around snags at other times it is barely perceptible, you need to sit quietly and study the waters for evidence of movement. Yes, it's going out. It's always moving, once the flood stops, the ebb begins. Barely a calm exists, always one way or the other. The flow is the paddler's friend, begin your outing before a change and as you return the tide will turn with you. Keep it at your back and you have a helpful friend.

Paddle - 20 k., S to W Bridge_

Two weeks ago, at my local boat ramp, I met a female kayaker and I marvelled that she paddled 9.5k downstream to the W bridge and back. It took her four hours and she timed the turn around with a change in tidal flows on the river.

This chance encounter did two things; it made me think more about tides on the river, and it challenged me to do the same paddle.

Last Sunday I fronted up to do that paddle, but the tide flow was exactly opposite to what I needed. But as it was going upstream for two hours, that's what I did. And after four hours I'd paddled about 20 kilometres in total to the river's navigational head. Basically, I ran out of water for my kayak, right on the peak of high tide.

So today, I checked the tides before leaving home. If I left at 11:00 it would give me two and a bit hours to reach the W bridge, and paddle back on the flood tide, just as the lady kayaker did. So, although I guessed last week's distance, i know for sure that today i paddled just under 20 kilometres in just under four hours. I set and met my first paddling goal.

Over the past week or so I've been reading "Crazy Winds" by Alexis Right. Ms Right, a thirty-something Canadian sets out to paddle alone in a plastic kayak, halfway around Lake Ontario. She notes how different, how exposed, she and he kayak are on this vast lake when compared to rover paddling. The s water and air temperature too, are vastly different, and equally lethal. AR is an experienced kayaker, she knows how to self rescue and co. But still finds herself in an ambulance suffering delusional hypothermia, twice. On both occasions she resumed paddling without delay. Tough, and she paddles 40 + k each day, tv day after day.

I still have room for improvement.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Friday, April 19, 2019

Paddle Report - Good Friday T. to GB & back

Wow! Good Friday and I was set for a big paddle. I met "Frijon Lady" last week and her 4hr. paddle south seemed like a testing but achievable goal. Only thing, when I arrived the river flow was upstream - this was to continue for another two hours. I didn't want to paddle against it for two hours, then fight back for another two hours - especially with big Easter tides. So up we go!
So today was otherwise bog standard except that I wanted to have a fish on the way. Off we go, current favourable, sky overcast, wind light. Perfect.
P. came and went in under and hour. This is the historic head of navigation for the river, and soon after the river got narrower and shallower - more interesting. The scenery is repetitive, steep banks, heavily vegetated in weeds, fish leaping, ducks scooting put from the banks, all good. It got interesting when I saw a Sacred Kingfisher, the deepest blue wings with lime green (?) about the face. Beautiful but very timid.
On and on we go, still feeling strong and enjoying the ride. Over the duration of the paddle I saw four Osprey: two on their own then a pair just as I arrived at water too shallow to continue.
Throughout, the river was real interesting, there were heaps of logs, some sitting on the bottom, some just whirling and spiralling about. Hundreds of smaller pieces, mostly bamboo, rhythmically beat on the hull as we scooted past. Thank God for plastic hulls.
I learned years ago when floating with the kids that you should never base river navigation on your experiences of nearby roads. Basically, roads are pretty straight, rivers go anywhere! They bend and loop about and many is the time you can hear a train in front of you when you know the trainline is behind you. Well, that's kind of weird fun, but the upshot is that you paddle for a lot longer than you expect. I expected to see my destination bridge for a half hour before I bottomed-out. Luckily, I was able to walk on the river bed to the next bend and see the bridge a tantalising few hundred yards away.
I was feeling a little fatigued, but not hungry. Odd, but I ate anyway, just muesli bars and an up n go before heading back. In the short term we pushed the tide even though it is supposed to have changed. Then i noticed it was with us. Obviously it was not like the tides by the sea which slow around change times. The river seemed to be against us, then with us. And I don't mind saying,I needed all the help I could get. But as happens on rivers and hikes, everything looks different on the way back. Even the little glide I enjoyed had disappeared, but it was a lovely distraction. I had prepared a handline and lure, but found the lure to be to buoyant and had no takes even though the mullet were plentiful.
It took pretty much right on two hours from the ramp to the top of the paddle and once the current came with us,I estimated it would take the same on the return. It took 2.5 hrs. but that could be for the breaks and fishing delays, as well as me allowing my rate.
To go from paddles of just 5 k's a week or so ago to about 20 k. today left me feeling worn out, but really chuffed. The feeling of fatigue is a great elixir.
Thanks.

Monday, April 15, 2019

Hobie Progress

My free Hobie is closer to being launched, may be as soon as this Friday.

Since bringing her home, a large part of my effort has been focused on getting a trailer going. The trailer I bought had been hopelessly neglected and needed major work: descale and repaint frame, strip old electrics, replace tyres and tubes, replace axle bolts, grease wheel bearings, refit cradle parts. All this work was completed yesterday, with just the mast stands needing to be made. So on to the boat.
Yesterday I lifted the hulls into position on the trailer and fitted the trampoline frame, minus the bent port side frame. So far so good!
Today I straightened the port side frame piece, removed the chainplates and left it with a welder. I'm now anticipating that it will be completed by Thursday.

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Paddle Report - P R, south of T ramp

6:40am - Unloaded kayak from Land Rover as usual. Thigh pads in reward setting are snug, only one leg can fit through the gap at a time. (This made me to cold sweat during the following night, worrying about how I would escape in case of capsize.)
The scenery in the immediate vicinity was unspectacular to me. I had been here before and it was similar to the river north, high banks covered in weeds and grassy pastures above. But obviously it was peaceful and calm and I love sneaking up on cattle in the fog alongside cattle. This kayak is so sleek and easy to propel across the water - such a pleasure to witness an old design, perfected by the First Nation's peoples, holding up so well in the thrill and function departments.
Then, the river changed. Ahead a glade of willows, forest oaks and others towered over a near vertical bank on the outside of a sharp bend to the east. Beautiful, I thought about a photo but continued. No more than a hundred yards, another bend to the right, south, similarly forested. The early morning light, already dimmed by fog was being filtered through a green canopy over the river. Enchanting! Another bend, this time to the right, out of sight, more than ninety degrees. The far bank particularly lush, giant bamboo, fallen trees or those that had floated down years before, formed a ominous snag below the bank. This setting was alien to me, no gums, these trees were European and Asian I supposed, the bank was unusually steep, obviously banked by stone. Just as I was marvelling at this scenery the kayak slewed around out or control. A real swirling eddy, unbelievable. I had thought that this lazy, underfed river would never be so animated except in heavy flood. My mind raced, I daydreamed of running a shanty boat through the bends, poling off the banks, trying to avoid snags. The vessel swirling about pirouetting as she went.

Returning to the bends from the south.

I roused myself, completed the paddle and returned to the ramp. But in my head were dream thoughts just like Toad after his horse-drawn carriage was wrecked by a speeding motorcar, "toot toot".

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Surfing Log 2019 (part complete only)

January:
26: MB @ Pog, 3' & sloppy
27: MB @ Pog. 3'
30: Got a near new "Softy" a Softech 6'6" shortboard
31: Softie @ Pogs 3'. First wave ran over my son and cracked the fin.
": MB @ Pogs, 4' & offshore, 10 waves

February:
1: Softie @ Pogs 3'
": MB " " "
7: Pogs MB
8: Pogs, Softie 4'
9: Bought Bluey from Tuncurry
": Boomerang Beach, 4-5' beach break on Bluey
10: no surf due to storm swell
16: OMB @3' on Bluey
23: Seal Rocks @ 4-5' on Bluey

March:
1: Pogs @4' on Bluey, really nice, 10 waves including first tube on years
2: Pogs 3' on Bluey
Surfest and crappy surf overtook local break for two weeks
22: Pogs on Bluey
": Learned that Softie had been stolen
24: Bought LL from recyclers for $40
29: Pogs @2-3' on LL.Felt slow and cool.

April:
4: Pog @3-5' x #6 waves before S change
7: OMB, 2' crowded, no surf.
11: Pogos @ 3'-4' but meaty from S. & got nailed paddling out on the LL!

ABBREVIATIONS
Bluey - mal 9'1" tri fin, c.1988 bought Feb 2019
MB. - mal 8'4" tri by Mick Byrnes owned from new since 1980's
LL - "Little Log" mal 8'0" single fin, Salubrious Surfboards c. 1960's owned since April '19
Mer. - Merewether Beach, my local break since 1960's. Consists of The Bomby, Ladies and The Rocks reef breaks that favour Southerly swell and sou-west to westerly winds. And The Middle, a beach break thats ok in NE or E swells.
OMB - One Mile Beach. A beach further north, protected from S, so prefers small E swells. Point break may be ok in bigger swell and a series of (changeable) beach breaks.
Pogs. - Pogonoski's Beach a reliable and open beach break next to Merewether Beach that tops out around four feet except in strong NE swells.
Softie - 6'6" Softech trifin surfboard that I traded in January with my sister and was stolen by my arsehole brother in April.

Paddling Log

April 2019
3: P R (out of T. ramp, swim deck return) dist. 4k . Conditions: calm, 1 knot ebb
7: T. beach (CB. & LTP) 10km, 8 knot SW
8: M. - 1.5 hrs (up to 2 drums) some shallow banks, flat rural vista.
12: T. - 1 hr. Fitness paddle in fog.
13: T. - 1.5 hrs. Downstream to pretty bends and beyond. Met experienced kayaker, a woman with Frijon fibreglass boat.
In pm. returned to ramp to clean it up, slash grass and weeds, collect plastics and spray weeds. Met Woman kayaker from earlier, having paddled to W. bridge 9.5k at 2 hrs.
19: T. 4.5hrs. Ran tide to near G. Bridge taking 2hrs. Tide back with breaks, 2.5hrs.
22: T ramp - 1.5 hrs. Ran early ebb flow to bends S and return. Cannot identify estate by the bends. Not "Old D", apparently not "D" & not property owned by the famous gardening family
May
5: M ramp 4 hours. Vs ebb, outflow and gusty wind to WB.Closed the loop, paddling the PR, twice.
____________________________________

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Sea kayak paddle two at port S

Launched at glorious T beach, not at dawn, but fairly early. Wind was light from NW and a slight ripple enlivened the water's surface.

Launching - T beach

Food & water break. Feeling fabulous

Other Sea kayaks!

Being my second outing, gear arrangements went more smoothly, as did launching. My first effort at getting into the kayak was deeply unsettling, so I Googled for info on my time off. Experienced kayakers recommended stealing the kayak in deeper water, sit down first, then draw your legs in, using the pale light a tight-rope walker. It seemed so ungainly, straddling the boat and leaving your legs flailing about, but ... it worked! No wobbles, no risk of injury, we were off. We headed north along the shore, into the tide flow just metres from the mangroves. When I got game, I dodged inside of outlying mangrove trees and stirred large flathead from their lies. Note to self: pack fishing tackle.

In C. Bay, 1.5-2 miles out, I skimmed the shoreline in a sweep to the left until I was heading SW. Altho' the surface chop was only 4-6" I did get a taste of how hard it would be to negotiate a beam sea. My god, it was like loosing contact with the water, as the 'yak rolled from windward to leeward. Eeek!

The paddle back towards LTP was pleasant. Full sun, gentle wind and "sea" on the starboard bow. But it never slowed us, we were literally skimming along, so effortlessly. I can see how people get hooked into paddling long distances.

In the channel, it got boring! The water glassed off, the wind eased behind trees, nature gave way to man made crap; jetties, boats, shops, houses crammed onto the water's edge, manicured parks. I cleared the built-up area and found a tiny sand beach. Time to stop for necessary sustenance.

The voyage ended back at T beach when an unbelievable, to my mind, thing happened. As I pulled towards the shore, coming in on the reverse of my own original trajectory was a group of sea kayaks. Nine kayaks carrying ten paddlers, one timber, six fibreglass. All sleek and slender with beautiful upswept bows. "Just friends ... we go somewhere different each weekend". Beautiful!

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Sea kayak -first paddle

Even though I'd had my "new" Riot Brittany for 24 hours, I'd not paddled her yet. That had to be remedied.
Toting the kayak on the Hobie cat trailer, was successful but a tad bulky and cumbersome. But it works for now.
Launching compared to sailing dinghies, was a treat. The fun started as I tried to get in it!
Sitting on the rear cockpit coaming, lift one foot of the (slippery sloping) boat ramp and things got very wobbly, very quickly. Its worth stopping to reflect on the wobble; because I was totally out of control, it was quite upsetting. I had wobbled before on bikes and surfboards, these are more of a predictable loss of balance that are easily corrected if you are alert and capable. When a kayak wobbles, its titally unfair, unpredictable and deeply unsettling. It comes upon you as you are exercising great caution and is so rapid, that its hard to determine what action you shoukd take. You realise very quickly, that this could go pear-shaped and drop you in the water in an instant. It's a feeling that I'm not familiar or comfortable with, and could potentially derail any plans to paddle at all. I mean, if you risk a broken arm or cracked skull each time you enter or leave your kayak, the activity trends to lose its attractiveness. I managed to slip my legs in and get my bum down of the coming without injury, just afew scrapes on the pale blades. I quickly felt joy and relief to be on the water, but this matter needed attention,
I quickly found that this was a quality craft, skinny and long, she sped along the water like a flying fish. Despite the lack of wind, we were setting a cracking pace. Amazing. It was a treat to sneak up quickly and quietly on ducks and lizards, that stealthily slipped into the water or sky.
In preparation for this first paddle, I'd studied various training videos on U-Tube. Fortunately, learning that power should come from the torso, not the arms. Following this advice made it easier to cover the mile of so distance from the ramp to the nearest village. In fact, I was channelling an image I had stored from seeing Ironman Grant Kenny paddling the Brisbane River many years ago. I was in the middle of a singlehanded cruise along the east coast, pottering about in the cockpit early one morning land there he was, all bronzed and svelte, shoulders rotating as he sped along in his kayak. That's the technique for long tireless paddles obviously.
I went ashore halfway through, to respond to a rash of phone messages (nothing important), and was able to work out how the daggerboard and rudder operated. I used both on the return trip, to good effect.
The second most difficult moment came again at the ramp again; my legs largely unused (I thought) for the past hour and a bit, has transformed to heavy jelly filed appendages that were no longer taking instructions from the control tower. Dismounting was made more difficult by the slippery sloping launch. At that point this all seemed beyond me. It's this hard or am i just really lacking fitness and coordination? A large spoonful of self-doubt was swallowed against my will. But the sheer necessity over took me, I just had to get out wet or dry. My repeat error made at launching was to get my bum of the seat first. The kayak wobbled and scrapped on the ramp, the pale scratched for traction and once I planned a foot on the earth again, things steadied appreciably. Second foot down, phew. WTF and OMG! At this point I'm just blindly expecting this whole in and out of kayak thing to get easier with experience.

As the adrenaline, maximum chuff-ness abd stoked feelings subsided, I carried out a promise I made on my last outing under sail, thst is to collect plastic waste each time i go on the water.

Reflecting on the day's events, I actually found the experience to be slightly spiritual, it brought great peace to my mind as would a period of meditation as well as providing a gentle physical workout and unique communion with nature.