We were supposed to paddle out to Montague Island today for my usual Sunday paddle, instead we ambled down the coast to Jimmies Island and did about 21 kilometres (not that much less than a Montague Island circumnavigation trip) and shot some video of our forward strokes. I cancelled the Montague Island trip at the last moment because the BOM weather page had activated the panic warning. This time for large hail, thunderstorms, flash flooding and violent storms. We did get a storm on Saturday evening which lasted for a couple of hours and dropped a mere, but very welcome, 20 mm of rain. There was lots of thunder, no hail and little wind, but it did rain, which I guess, in the new reality is cause for panic.
The new BOM website, that cost us all up about $100 million, always has a panic alert. I don’t remember this from the old website, but perhaps for a $100 million you get an unlimited number of panic alerts. We’ve had about five heat wave alerts already this summer and the temperature has barely cracked 30 degrees Celsius. In summer, in Australia. I did my first rolling practice day on Friday because it was the first day it was actually warm enough to spend a reasonable amount of time upside down in a kayak without having to put a full wet-suit on. As an aside, I could roll. What joy. Each summer, after a winter of not rolling, I wonder if I’ll still be able to roll.
Anyway, we got a light spittle of rain today, but no thunder, no wind, no hail, no flash flooding, nothing. But, not to worry, the BOM website still managed to crank out two warnings for us today: a heat wave warning – our high temperature today was 24 degrees Celsius – and a strong wind warning – the maximum wind speed today at Montague Island was 10 knots. Whew, I’m glad I panicked.
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