We were supposed to be four today,
heading out to paddle from Yowie Bay to Jibbon Heads, but two dropped
out leaving just two of us to paddle from Yowie Bay to Jibbon Beach.
If I were to do this trip again, I wouldn't! It's quite boring
paddling through Port Hacking and there are a lot of various vessels
all powered by infernal combustion engines roaring around. You only
get to the interesting paddling when you round either Bass and
Flinders Point on the north side of Port Hacking or Jibbon Point on
the south side. By the time you get to either of those points from
Yowie Bay, you've already paddled about eight kilometres and been run
down by about 49 power boats. Launching somewhere in Gunnamatta Bay
would be preferable as a short hop of only four kilometres gets you
out on to the open ocean.
By the time we found we were no longer
four, but only two, it was too late to change destinations so we went
with the previously agreed on plan and launched the kayaks at a
defunct boat ramp in Yowie Bay. If you wanted an easy paddle up
South West Arm or even right up the Port Hacking River this is a good
launching site as there is plenty of on-street parking as the only
thing here is a broken down boat ramp (good at all tides for kayaks).
We had a falling tide and no wind so got some help paddling out to
Jibbon Beach which was packed with motor boats and more continually
arriving. It's amazing how many people have huge boats that go no
further than the inside of Port Hacking, but, I guess that is
preferable to the endless driving to and fro contributing to global
warming that so many boat owners do.
We had a spell at Jibbon Beach and
chatted with a couple who had paddled their kayaks over from
Gunnamatta Bay before paddling out around Jibbon Head and down to
Jibbon Bombora. A west wind blew up out of nowhere while we were on
the beach at Jibbon even though the forecast was for northerly winds.
There was hardly any boats out on the open ocean even though the
swell was only about a metre and the seas much less than that. That
didn't stop us nearly being run over by three dullards driving a boat
to and fro trolling for fish and not watching where they were going.
I did wonder if they drove the same way - looking behind instead of
in front - on the highway. Most power-vessel operators are complete
idiots.
Paddling around Jibbon Heads
We didn't go too far down the coast as
we still had a long paddle back and all into the wind now. We tried
hugging the north shore on the way in to get some shelter from the
wind, and, close in to the headlands it did help, but mostly it was
just plugging away, trying to avoid becoming a bow ornament of some
massive over-powered ocean cruiser as we slowly pulled into the wind.
At some point, the tide did switch over from ebb to flood and we got
some help from the current, but overall, it was a bit of a slow
paddle back. It reminded me of sea kayaking in Victoria, where it
doesn't seem to matter which way you are paddling it will be into the
wind.
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