This was supposed to be the last rough paddle day – for now. The seas should go down tomorrow. You simply can’t stand to paddle a longer distance than 40 or 50 km in such conditions, your concentration is gone after 7 or 8 hours.

I had a late start anyway, launching at 11 am!!!

Paul Hewittson from Mirage Kayaks was finishing the electrical Bilge pump instalment that morning, plus working on sealing my leaking day hatch. It looked like he got it, as on filling the hatch with hot air there was no leakage to hear any more after some sealing work. Later it turned out the sealant obviously hasn’t had time to go off enough, and my day hatch is still leaking… :-(( – but thanks for the effort anyway! The bilge pump is working well. I was using electrical ones in my first three sea kayaks, and always liked the comfort and additional safety. But no electrical pump pumps out the last litre, but the much more important first three hundred, just in case…thanks for putting it in my kayak, Paul!

My new kayak will have a foot pump already installed. We’ll see how that one is working!

An NBC TV crew was supposed to show up on the launching at the beach in Terrigal at 10am, better a bit earlier, but I was packed and ready to go at 11am, still no TV… I climbed into my kayak, ready to go, it was raining heavily, and voilá! TV is there! Can’t help them with the rain then on the quick interview, when they are an hour late…it was shown on the news later quite nicely anyway, as I have heard.

Just leaving Terigal, two lovely fins were cruising around me…and then underneath my kayak. I could clearly make out the Hammerhead shark – about 1,50 m. Why nature created that one I was really wondering…

The first half of the day of The Entrance Bay and past Norah Heads was still moderate rough, and I even could eat a bit…but that was not the whole day! The second half was as rough as the last days, requiring my full concentration. I was constantly watching my GPS, hoping I would make it to Swansea as planned, as any other potential landing between Norah Heads and Swansea wasn’t really inviting in those big seas…

The landing in Swansea was an inlet bar landing, and tidal…I happened to arrive just on the wrong tide, means paddling hard and sneaking in the eddy upstream. No chance not to go fully in and to land on the little beach upfront – too rough.

Going around Moon Island outside was necessary and not really a pleasure as well, with big backwash, but the bar itself was kind of all right. Still I was happy to be in quiet water eventually…but I had to go fully into the bay, following already the navigation lights in last daylight.

Eventually I landed at a quiet shallow beach, but with ugly alga in the water…no pleasure for a cleaning swim at night. The campsite had to be on a green patch on the (luckily empty) parking lot, in heavy rain. Not too much pleasure that night…but the outlook for the next day was quiet water and following winds!!!