Trip report - Maatsuyker Canoe Club - south Bruny Island - 8th & 9th November 2003.
Paddlers - Jamie, Anthea, Sue, Graeme and Matthew - all paddling 'Penguin Fibreglass - Greenlander sea kayaks. Trip report written by Matthew Watton.
We all headed down to Kettering on Friday afternoon. I stopped in the queue at 6.10pm for the 6.30pm ferry. I didn't know where Sue/Graeme or Anthea/Jamie were until I rang Jamie while I was on the ferry and he told me that he was too far back in the line to make it onto my trip. Sue/Graeme were still at Kettering with them.
I waited at Roberts Point for them for an hour on the Bruny side of D'entrecasteaux Channel and spent the time packing my dry bags. As they drove off the ferry I joined in with the long line of traffic and headed south towards Adventure Bay. We stopped for a brief chat and then Jamie led the way to Adventure Bay where we stopped next to the lagoon. The kayaks were unloaded and we packed them in the fading light. We planned to get up and do the car shuffle at 7am so that we could be on the water by 9am.
Saturday 8 November 2003 - Sue/Graeme and Jamie/Anthea had stayed in their tents and I had slept in the back of my station wagon. Graeme, Anthea and I all headed off in our cars towards Jetty Bay (on the western side of south Bruny Island in Great Taylors Bay). Graeme and Anthea left their cars at Jetty Bay next to a bunch of guys having their tenth beer for breakfast. As I drove Graeme & Anthea back to Adventure Bay they hoped that the beer brothers from Jetty Bay didn't break into their cars.
We headed back over Coolangatta Road which runs between Mount Bounty and Mount Mangana and finished packing our kayaks at Adventure Bay. We paddled out of the lagoon at 8.50am and paddled around the beach before rounding Penguin Island.
There were caves everywhere but the swell size didn't allow us to enter them. About every 5 minutes a set of 2-3 bigger waves crashed into the caves.
The southern end of Adventure Bay reminded me of Pirates Bay on the Tasman Peninsula ... and it led to a coastline that is even more spectacular. As we headed south we ventured into every cave that the waves allowed us to. This was an incredible coastline and we followed it as close as the swells allowed.
I had the 1:100,000 D'entrecasteaux map on my deck but after a couple of hours of amazing cliffs and sea caves we weren't exactly sure which section of cliffs we were passing. I couldn't be bothered getting my gps out because it didn't really matter too much.
We passed one point that had an island with a tunnel cave through it (from east to west) and I checked the map and guessed that it might be Arched Island. Jamie paddled through this cave. After paddling about 4km more we reached another island with a cave that ran all the way through from north to south (which turned out to be Arched Island). Jamie and Anthea stopped in a pebbly cove for a break while Sue & Graeme rafted up together. Thinking that Jamie & Anthea had only stopped for some urgent relief I paddled around the corner where there was a small beach.
I waited for a couple of 1 metre waves to roll past and then let the next one pick me up and I dug the paddle in just before it broke so I would drop off the back. I put in a big effort and paddled in behind it and caught a smaller wave for 100m in to the beach. This was an interesting beach with an outer break and then a trough and a small shore break and a sideways sweeping rip near the beach.
As I hit the beach I was swept around sideways by the rip. I waited for the next wave to sweep around me then quickly 'fell' out of the kayak and dragged it clear of the water. Sue and Graeme waited out in the water - still rafted up together and I could see Jamie & Anthea just to the north on the pebbly cove near Arched Island.
After a 10 minute break we all met up out in the water again and continued our journey. Anthea and Jamie paddled as close to the rocky shore as possible - ducking inside every rock and reef that they were able to. Sue wasn't paddling quite as close and Graeme and I were about 50m offshore.
The next 6km to Boreel Head were fairly uneventful (but still spectacular). We all grouped up again and agreed to go out to the Friars which is a group of spectacular small islands and rocks that lay a couple of kilometres south of the s/e corner of Bruny Island). The tourist boat 'Albatross' passed us as it headed to the Friars as well. This area is very popular with divers, fishermen and tourists but due to its exposed location can get pretty wild.
We paddled to the south of Bridge Rock. I was hoping that the conditions would be calm enough to paddle through Bridge Rock or at least check whether it is possible (it might be in very calm weather - with a plastic kayak ... or at least someone else's kayak). From there we headed over to the Friars where there were about 4 fishing boats, a few recreational boats and what looked like a commercial dive boat. There were a few seals on one of the islands and as we paddled around the southern side of the Friars were assaulted by the horrible stench of the seal poo blown by the n/e sea breeze.
It took about 5 minutes to paddle back into the fresh air but the smell of the seal poo lingered in my nose and mouth for about half an hour.
Our next point to aim for was East Cloudy Head. We were able to sail for about 3 of the 5km. I paddled up to the eastern side of the gap in East Cloudy Head to have a look at the channel where I was hit by a broken wave and crashed against the cliff about 3 years ago.
There were large waves breaking through the channels so I used some common sense and paddled around the head.
We were all feeling a bit weary as we plodded the last 4 kilometres towards Cloudy Corner. With about 2km to go I rafted up with Graeme so I could get some food out of my day hatch - without waves washing into the hatch. As I reached behind me - feeling around for a bag with my peanut butter roll - I knocked my day hatch cover and it dropped into the water between the kayaks. I expected to see it dangling by the bungy cord but it sank out of view.
Graeme and I looked at each other - dumbfounded. I felt around underwater next to my kayak but it only confirmed my fears. The hatch cover had gone. NOTE - Don't leave the bungy cord with just a knot in the end of the cord - use a figure 8 knot or similar.
By this time Jamie and Anthea had arrived. I used some bungy cord from my deck to tie Anthea's paddle top over the day hatch for the last few kilometres.
We continued to cruise to Cloudy Corner - which is the eastern end of Cloudy Bay - protected behind a reef (that you can paddle over ... depending on the tide and waves).
We carried the kayaks up the beach and put them on the grass. We saw the evidence of some wild weather where the waves had been washing up over the grass recently.
Jamie and Graeme both lay down for a stretch. We all felt a bit second-hand after the 36-38km. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring, walking along the beach and watching a couple try to launch and retrieve a boat. It is always good entertainment watching people getting bogged on a beach (we helped them eventually).
We finished cooking tea just in time because we were invaded by mosquitoes. They were thick in the air as I gathered things to take to my tent. Once I got in my tent I found that 4 mozzies had snuck in with me and there were about 20 on the fly screen as well. I killed the ones inside the tent and then snuggled down to listen to Australia vs Scotland in the Rugby World Cup. I fell asleep during the first half - as Australia struggled.
I had the door of the tent open with the fly screen shut overnight and I awoke at 3am to see the bright full moon shining directly into the tent. It was also reflecting off the water. During the 4am news, I heard that Australia had won, 33 to 16, but they were unconvincing.
Sunday
We started paddling at 8am and after crossing the reef to leave Cloudy Corner we put sails up and received some help on the 8km crossing to West Cloudy Head. The weather was overcast, gusty and not very warm. There was a small to medium sized swell crashing into the cliffs ... big enough to stop us getting into most of the passages in the headlands and it was cold enough that I didn't feel adventurous. Jamie still ventured through a few of them though.
As we paddled across Courts Bay it looked like there was a clear passage through the gap between Courts Island and Bruny. I had been up close in the past and had always found large boulders in the way. This time I didn't bother having a closer look. Graeme was interested and I told him that if it turned out that it was possible to paddle through there I would tow him for the last few k's of the trip (expecting that we would be sailing the final 8km's anyway). We paddled around Courts Island and then hit a washing machine of rebounding slop for a kilometre. We didn't get close enough to check if we would have got through there - even though it was high tide - but I don't think we could have without carrying the boats over rocks.
A headwind picked up from the n/w that was initially a nuisance but as we progressed on the 11km to Partridge Island it dropped out only to pick up again just before we stopped on the beach near Partridge Island for lunch. While we relaxed about 6 bush walkers passed us. A couple of them had seen us further down the coast and they were amazed that we had beaten them to this point. There were very surprised that the kayaks could travel up to twice as fast as them.
They headed off again through the scrub and we waited a while to give them a head start. After a bit more lying around on the beach we boarded our 'yachts' again and had a very easy sail down to Jetty Bay.
All that was left was to load up the cars and head to the ferry where we waited in the long queue for an hour before the rest of the weekend visitors left the locals in peace.
