I slept allright in my tent that night, jst had to use my ear plugs again to easy my mind off the surf noise. It was probably better, as next morning, looking out of my tent, I noticed the swell and surf had lifted quite a bit!

Shit, I should have taken that possibility into my account, landing on this actually fully unprotected beach! It was easy no to low surf yesterday, and even without increasing wind over night, still the swell came up from wayyyyyy far away, and created some heavy dumping breakers!

Ok…I had to get out somehow…actually, I guessed it can’t be that bad. As usually, time it right, and you’d be out without any problem…

At least I was so cautious to secure everything in my boat, even stowed all the electronics in my under deck bag. I forgot just an orange, carrot and apple which stayed under the deck net under the map case. And my sponge was stuck under a tight bungee inside the cockpit, no clip possible. But I didn’t really expect to bail out!!!

But this is what was happening. The problem with a loaded boat is to get it afloat with me sitting inside with the spraydeck closed, without getting washed sideways up the beach before you can paddle straight out.

I tried to time it right, to be afloat just before the zone where the first dumper ususally crashes with the then hopefully decreasing dumpers. Usually no problem, keep the bow pointed into the foamy water, and try to stay straight and on the spot. Just wait for the dumpers getting lowere and a lull showes up, and then sprint out…

But this time, I sat there too early and too long. The dumpers increased in size, instead of decreasing, and I got washed to the right towards a worse breaker zone. Eventually, a fat one came closer to me and broke instead of just before me right on me… It capsized me, and on sorting myself under water out for a roll, I touched the ground with my helmet. No good, before you break yor neck, rather get out here and off the might of the next breaker…

I came up the surface, and was just able to avoid my own boat to crash on me, lifted by the next, probably even bigger breaker! I saw my lovely kayak flying vertically through the air, swallowed some salty water, and struggled to get some ground under my feet. Good I had my helmet on…the boat got thrown almost on a bit of a reef rock, but sucked back in the surge out to the sea again. Nothing I could do now…I had just to look after myself, as I was not safe yet either, and got trashed again by another breaker and eventually washed up the beach, all gear full of sand. Yuck!

All the time, I could luckily hold onto my paddle…good I never have it on a leash on landing and launching! It may have been wrapped around the flying boat, and either the leash would have been ripped off, or the paddle broken by the heavy boat rolling up the beach…

The first thing I was looking for, sitting high and dry on the sand, was for sure for my kayak! Where was it? Still afloat behind a breaker, about to be flying through the air another time? But no, there it was already, about 30 m to my left, high and dry as well…and obviously in one piece! I was quite relieved, actually…

The boat was full of sandwater. Seat pads, waterbags, all clipped to my backrest, were hanging outside. By putting it on the edge, I was able to toss most of the water out. But my favorite sponge was gone! This was quite a loss…how to get the rest of the water out of the cockpit, and the continuous puddle magically appearing on the bottom of the cockpit during the all day’s paddles? I had to use my scarf after the manual pump got to the bottom of it’s possible use.

But oh well, after regaining my constitution, dragging the boat up thebeach off the small reef rocks and reorganizing the inside of my kayak, I had to start over again.

This time, I was really waiting with the boat almost afloat in the surge, holding it to the decklines more or less straight, until the biggest breakers were through. But for once, I couldn’t prevent the surge washing the heavy boat right on my chins, pinning my whole body into the sand under the boat…not a good place to be.

But eventually I decided to jump in *now*, closed the spraydeck in a hurry and was happy to stay afloat straight without being washed sideways up the beach again. I saw  the breakers getting lower, and paddled out with all power I had left that morning, praying the path would stay open without any breaker crashing right on top of me…my prayer was heard somehow and I got out unscathed on that second try. I was sighting in relief on the open calm sea! It was just some long swell going up and down, but the wind was still lowish. And it turned to be a moderate to strong nicely pushing following wind that day! Something friendly for the change…

The paddle itself was quite offshore, and not much exciting to see besides my friends, the dolphins. It’s always a relief to realize the fin appearing besides you is a curved one and not a straight triangle one with another stern one following…

I could have landed already before Cape Finniss, between Waldegrave Island and the mainland, but I was aiming for Elliston, a small community just around Cape Finniss, inside Waterloo Bay. I needed to fill up fresh water for th enext remote legs. The entrance of waterloo Bay is guarded with wide heavy reef breaks, but if you line up the jetty with yourself, you’ll find a safe path of unbroken water to paddle into the wide calm bay. No problem, just patience outside the heavy break, until that clean line shows up!

Just as I landed easily, a car came up to me with Joan and Pedro Martin, a local crayfisherman. They brought me a new sponge! Actually, when I called Greg right after my then successfull launch, he decided to organize a new one to get brought to me when I landed in Elliston…he even does support me from the distance…thank you, Greg! He was ringing up the local fishermen, and asked if someone would be happy to provide a new sponge…thanks to Joan and Pedro Martin to bring me one!

I camped up in the dunes, after I was able to use the (cold) shower on the local beach facilities. I filled all my waterbags, but after looking on my maps, I realized I should better take more than my 16 liters of water capacity with me! Why the hell didn’t I take more waterbags from the van?

Joan and Pedro were helpful again, and supplied me in the darkness with a one-way 10-liter bladder plus three pump-bottles of fresh water. Thanks again! 28 liters should get me to at least Kangaroo island, where I knew for sure I’d find some shacks with fresh water!

Later, I learnt via blog comments there would be fresh water on Thistle, Wedge and Althorpe Island as well. Thanks for the information, guys! 

33.38 134.53 Elliston 6.30 to 16.30 50 km

Had a crappy start from that beach, surf lifted over night unexpectedly to heavy dumping lines. I had to bail out and swim…second try all right. The days paddle was a pleasure. 15-25 kn following winds, for the change! No sharks, but plenty of dolphins again.