To reach open water, I even had to back paddle 2 km today! Last night it looked like there was a reef gap furher south, but this morning there were breakers allover…so back into Gnarraloo Bay, and paddling close to the scary breakers out to the relatively quiet open sea. About 5 km extra detour today…but safe.

The plan of action was heading towards Cape Cuvier, 60 km, but the headwinds today made me feel like crawling…which I was, speed less than 4 km/h. No way to reach Cape Cuvier before sunset…it would have been 9pm or even later, as the wind used to be strong south easterlies in the morning, easing a little over lunchtime, and then strong south westerly’s again until late night.

I really felt worn out from that slog into steep chop all morning, and as it was easing around 2pm, I was still paddling slow. So pulling into Red Bluff at around 4pm was the only option, 40 km away, including the reef detour of the morning.

I had some sayings from the few fellow paddlers who have been here on my mind like “You should be able to get into Red Bluff on a quiet day!” and “I felt I would never be able to get off that platform again!” – on Google Earth it looked like a nice white sandy bay. The wind was coming out of the bay, the water relatively quiet, not much swell to feel…so what was that landing all about???

I came closer, and eventually saw some spray on the sandy beach…closer, and I saw some more, bigger spray…closer, and I realized that there were some big fat dumpers waiting!!!

It looked like with some good timing landing would be ok, the back surge was not too wide, and the beach didn’t seem to be steep in the middle where I chose to land.

I was waiting for a big set passing, and quickly sprinted in. I jumped out, and pulled my boat up through not too heavy back surge and on a flat beach. It felt like not much problems this way…

Then I was standing there for a while, watching the shore break dumper developing in the sets – with my eyes getting wider and wider – this was actually SCARY and HUGE!!! It was at maximum a 3 meters high hollow dumper, with manes of spray…how could I get out again next day??? Well, timing again…but with a heavy loaded boat it was not as easy as if you’d like to jump on a lightweight surf ski…I may ask some fellows for launching help then.

Getting a big push, already sitting in the cockpit with the spray deck closed makes a big difference to dragging the boat afloat by yourself, trying to jump on with legs still out and spray deck still open to paddle out as fast as possible, hoping not to catch the next wave and to get filled up with water and maybe trashed from the next dumper.

In an already closed boat you may duck forward if you catch a wave from the next dumper before reaching quiet waters.

My evening went by with putting up the tent on the beach, having some sore stomach feeling from the day’s efforts and the next day’s outlook.

I was checking again the forecast, and it said the same as the previous days – strong south easterlies in the morning, easing a bit over lunch, then strong south westerly’s…but the outlook for Saturday and Sunday were quiet northerlies!

I made my decision – I’ll have a FULL DAY OFF tomorrow! So I would have two days left to Carnarvon – 60 km to Point Quobba, 55 km to Carnarvon, where I’ll get hosted by the rescue crew! Nice outlook!

But headwinds, recovery, blog write-ups…all good reasons for a day without paddling. I won’t call it a rest day, but maybe I can get my website write-ups-chore done soon and have some REAL rest.

Text message from Freya via satellite phone:

24.01 113.26, Red Bluff. 40km, 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. Strong headwinds all morning wore me out, easing very little at 2pm. 40km was enough, landed on a heavy dumping beach in Red Bluff, wonder how to get out tomorrow…. One whale close by at 8 am.