9.21 147.26 Cape Bowling Green. 70km. Lovely surf along the long sandy shallow spit

Coconut Bay was a lovely place. There was a bay 2 km northwards, but it had not such a nice name and more steep walls shown on the map – actually no name at all on the map or the GPS chart.

Paddling along the steep cliffs of Cape Upstart peninsula showed it had a sandy beach as well around the corner, but not as nice hidden. But it would be ok for camping as well.

The crossing of Cape Upstart Bay was uneventful, strong following winds as all days, starting pretty slow, with the tide against me. But the trustworthy GPS showed a turn again at about 10 am, and the estimated arrival time changed to before darkness.

The water became more and more muddy-brown, as several big rivers flooded their waters into the sea.

There was a prawn farm on the map – they may better raise mud crabs in those waters…

Nearing the cape with its long sandy spit, there was an offshore breaker line developing which I tried to keep to the left. But eventually I noticed there is a stretch of calm waters between the breakers and the shore, and I went carefully through that line…nothing too steep actually. It just looked and sounded awful all the time.

One reason I am sleeping mostly with earplugs…to get the continuous attention about the surf off my mind.

I paddled a while inside the more quiet water, until I was sick of almost being washed ashore by the last onshore breaker line. Quite funny actually, leaning frequently into moderate breakers with warm water, knowing the beach is right beneath you, nothing serious could happen…good training.

4 km before the lighthouse on the cape I pulled in at 4.30 pm, quite early for the day. Still cut 70 km off. But I figured a bit more high tide tomorrow early morning will ease the breakers a bit – and already that hour I was active outside with my gear the breaker lines eased.

I enjoyed a pretty long freshwater shower, as I knew tomorrow night I would be in “civilisation” again on Magnetic Island.

My tent broom keeps the tent almost sand free – good thing to have!!! I was shovelling small walls of sand outside around the tent keeps the flying sand off which goes through the bug net.