It was blowing quite strong south-easterlies, and hiding behind the shore was relatively successful. But this meant hugging the shore closely and adding some km!

On the first half of the day the water was relatively unprotected as the reef was scattered, and the water was deep and not as clear. It got more friendly the second half of the day, crystal clear shallow waters again, some reef protection with plenty of campers in Bateman Bay.

I was planning to get around Point Maud, where three smaller yachts were anchored, into Coral Bay to fill up water. Crossing Bill’s Bay before Coral Bay township gave me the best magnificent view of huge flowery corals I’ve seen so far!

I simply held my waterproof camera under water and took those shot. What I would give for some time off to go snorkelling…

I landed unnoticed at the popular tourist spot Coral Bay, sneaked into the campsite shower for washing my hair and filling my water bags. But I decided already I’m not going to stay…too much of a culture shock amongst all those people…

I kept my paddling clothes on, didn’t bother with drying me off and quickly jumped into my kayak again to launch into the setting sun towards the next unpopulated beach to camp in peace. That beach was another 40 min paddling away, past a landing jetty and about 10 bigger moored tourist motor boats. Out of sight of civilisation, I pulled ashore in almost darkness with at least a bright full moon.

Email from Freya:

23.10 113.45, Monck Head, past Coral Bat.  55 km,  7:30 am to 6:30 pm.
Coral Bay has the most beautiful HUGE corals I’ve seen from the boat so far…a place to be as a tourist.
But for me I felt better to only sneek into the campsite shower to wash my hair, filled up water and flee down the coast for another half hour until past dawn to find a quiet beach without fringing reef. Too much of a culture shock with all those people and boats!