The forecast for today was easterlies, but it was not really clear if they would be pushing or breaking down my speed once I rounded the corner to the north-north-east. Seas were calm on the southern corner with plenty of seaweed on the beaches, and I was hoping to find the same on the coast trending north towards the start of the Baxter Cliffs.

Paddling on, towards the south-eastern corner, the sea developed plenty of lines of tiny surf, which became eventually a solid 300 m wide belt of low surf guarding the very shallow coast all along!

For some reason I felt not like paddling offshore today, as the surf was low enough to be just fun playing with close to the shore. It even left mostly a belt of about 20-30 m wide almost unbroken water, where the last surf line was rolling softly out towards the beach and created a bit of a pool situation hitting the seaweed pile. It provided an excellent playground and good paddling with easy landing options on the soft seaweed beach at any time!

To my right, the surf grew bigger and messier, as the day wore on and the increasing easterly onshore wind lifted the sea. My calm belt of pool water got less calm and narrower, and I had to brace more frequently and more seriously into the onshore rolling breakers. Still it was more fun than slowing me down. It was more the increasing wind trending north-east which made life unpleasant, and my estimated arrival time at Wattle Camp, an only 50 km paddle for that day, moved close to dusk!

But I had no other choice today than to keep on pushing, as Greg found no other beach access to meet me than at Wattle Camp. I took frequent breaks, and at one point even paddled through the surf out to the open sea, just to find my speed is the same offshore on the lumpy sea as inshore behind the surf lines. The wind was the problem! I paddled in again after only half an hour out there, as I saw no need to be offshore if I could have an a bit more entertaining view and paddle inshore, with easy stopping on the still seaweed-covered beach for having food and a pee without being drifted backwards on that strong headwind!

I felt quite exhausted at some point, and decided it may be funny and as fast as paddling to go for a walk and to tow the kayak in the shallow water behind me! I covered almost two km like that in 4-5km/hr, the similar speed as paddling into the 20 kn headwind! But my feet got too cold eventually, and I jumped into the kayak again for the last few km to Wattle Camp.

The last light faded, as Greg was waiting with the van on the beach. He could drive on to the beach, but not along to meet me, as it was still too much seaweed on the sand.

I needed to give him a call on the radio to tell him to turn the headlights off, as I couldn’t see anything in the upcoming darkness! I was paddling in the low breaker zone almost by feeling only, and it was quite nice, despite the headwinds! I got stranded frequently the last km, and decided to jump out again and to tow the boat towards the flag Greg erected on the beach to mark the exit in case I arrived earlier when he was not on the beach with the van! I proudly towed my boat past the flag mark, and was more than content with my lot, I made 50 km in this nasty headwind, inside the breakers in kind of a playful paddle!

We left the boat on the beach, and I jumped in the van to drive through the darkness about 2km to the camp Greg had erected inside a sheltered bush corner. Tomorrow was even worse headwinds forecasted, so we decided it would be a rest day again.

Text message from Freya via satellite phone:

33.13 124.04, Wattle Camp. 50 km, 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. I paddled against strong headwind upfront the 500m-wide breaker zone all day. More fun and as fast as offshore.