Conditions make the trip when ocean kayaking and the conditions on this trip were about as different as they could be from last time we paddled this section of coast. Back in the early part of 2020, not long after I started the "Sunday paddles" while scouring the map for new and interesting trips to do, I had come up with a plan to paddle from Ulladulla Harbour to Basin View. This trip appealed for a number of reasons, not least the distance (over 40 kilometres). However, I royally stuffed up the planning and we ended up having to finish the paddle at Sussex Inlet missing out on the last 12 kilometres of paddling. We did, however, have an adventure: two capsizes, one with a long swim and some challenging paddling (read about it here.)
Armed with information gleaned on that trip, and all the things I have learnt since running the Sunday paddles almost every Sunday for many months on end, I planned to repeat the trip with one minor change. This time, we would launch from Narrawallee, shortening the paddle by 7 or 8 kilometres but adding a potential surf launch at the beginning of the trip.
Not surprisingly, right up until the night before the trip, there were only three of us going. Doug, myself, and Adrian who is a keen new member of our group. Enough to run a car shuttle and, in many ways, smaller groups are easier to manage. However, as often happens, there were three more late additions to the group so we ended up being a party of six. A couple of people brought sails, but Doug and I left ours behind as we are belatedly starting to train for a longer kayak trip.
I hoped to be on the water by about 10 am which, at an average paddle speed, would have us reaching the bar at Sussex Inlet well (at least three hours) after the tide change so we could be guaranteed of an inflowing current. And, that is exactly how it worked out. We convened at Narrawallee at 8 am, did the car shuttle and were paddling out of Narrawallee Inlet right on 10 am.
Exiting Narrawallee Inlet was very easy. There is a fairly consistent channel that runs along the southern rocks and there were not even any breaking waves. Surf launch one, a non-event.
Conditions were very benign with a light easterly wind. The sailors sailed, and the paddlers had no trouble keeping up. We had a few minute on the water break at Green Island. I was somewhat concerned that our fast pace might be too fast for some people to keep up all day. So many groups and individuals go out of the gate too fast and burn out long before the day is over.
We arrived at Bendelong after about 1.5 hours. The main beach was fairly busy, so we paddled west and landed at tiny Flat Rock Beach for lunch. The only other time I have paddled this stretch of coast we have had to be well off-shore as the entire large bay between Bendalong and St Georges Head is shallow with many reefs running parallel to shore. Often these reefs are breaking a long way out. With an insignificant swell, we were able to paddle close in and look for potential landing sites. Most of the beaches along this section of coast would be challenging landing and launch sites unless conditions are quite benign.
At the north end of Cudmirrah Beach, we rounded the big reef point and easily paddled between the small rock island and the reef and cruised across the bar to land just inside Sussex Inlet. There was barely a riffle and certainly conditions could not have been more different from last time. We had another short leg stretch before starting off again on the final 13 kilometres across St Georges Basin.
I had come equipped with a bearing (roughly 314 degrees true) to the boat ramp at Basin View calculated from Kangaroo Point. Nick also had a bearing - slightly different to mine as his was more roughly calculated - but close enough to be a reasonable check on my bearing. This seemed a fairly critical point to me, as, once you exit the waterway that leads into St Georges Basin, you encounter a large body of water with multiple boat ramps, none of which are visible from a kayak and, in effect, no clear idea of where to go.
Everyone on the trip knew that I had a bearing from Kangaroo Point to follow, or at least I assumed everyone knew as I had stated this multiple times. It was therefore, somewhat confronting or at least confusing to arrive at Kangaroo Point to find that R had streaked off ahead heading vaguely 45 degrees off the course of our bearing. N and A were following. Nick, Doug and I, fairly sensibly I thought, paused at Kangaroo Point to check my bearing and find a distinctive area on land that we could aim for as we paddled the final five kilometres to our cars. Although we had a good prominent land mark to aim for, I actually got out my map and retook my bearing to check as the direction that half the group was going in was making me wonder if I had somehow got our bearing completely wrong. I had not.
We paddled off, watching the other three get further and further away. Doug and Nick were of the mind that I had done my due diligence and I should just let them go, but I pictured us all having to wait at the boat ramp late in the day when we still had a long drive to get home as they discovered their error and paddled back to the boat ramp. Even though I consider myself an organiser not a leader, I would not be comfortable leaving some of the group behind while we drove home. Accordingly, Nick blew his whistle and we managed to eventually attract A's attention and he paddled over to join us. N was pretty much committed to following R who by now was at the far the western edge of St Georges Basin. As a last ditch effort, I got my mobile telephone out and called R and left a message.
With all our dithering around, checking bearings and making telephone calls, we actually all arrived at the boat ramp at around the same time as R and N had sail assist from a good tailwind, and, in actuality, a fact I did not realise at the time, it is only about a kilometre further if you paddle over to the western side of St Georges Basin instead of taking a direct line.
Ironically, as we drove out of Basin View, R and N took two consecutive wrong turns and were last seen heading towards St Georges Basin. They would have eventually reached the highway.
I forgot to take a camera on this trip so the photos are repeats from our last trip along this coast. If that is not poor form enough, all the photos came out smeared as the continual ocean splash meant the camera, even mounted on my head, was dripping water all day.
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