I had a keen crew all set up for the Sunday paddle to leave from Mystery Bay, paddle out to and around Montague Island returning to the mainland at Narooma. And then, the strong wind warning blew out of nowhere as they have done all this long Covid year. These are peer group paddles so I don't have to make the decision whether to go or not go, so I simply sent an email out to the entire group to let each person make their own decision. Very quickly, the number of paddlers dropped from 7 to 1 with only Harry, who loves paddling by himself in wild conditions remaining. Harry had access to car shuttle help, the kayaking equivalent of a belay slave, so he went off and paddled the trip as planned, and, apparently had a great time.
On Sunday, Doug and I launched from our home beach and paddled down the coast, into the wind, for about 12 or 13 kilometres until our stomachs, which had not been fed, starting feeling like food. The wind was not really that strong, and had a bit of westerly in it so by staying inshore we didn't even work very hard. At Rosedale, we had a nice long break on the beach with hot tea and brunch, and then paddled straight out to sea to catch the wind.
The following sea was pretty good and we covered 10 kilometres in one hour, no sail, just sprinting to catch waves. As usual, I was feeling pretty tired by the time we got to our home bay but still had enough energy to do my usual 2 to 5 rolls per side. This will stop when winter comes and the air and water is colder, but right now with warm water and air, rolling is pretty tolerable.
Perusing the wind observations for Sunday later it was clear that, as is often the case, the wind was only around 12 to 14 knots with gusts to 17 or 18 knots. Another fizzler. On Monday, however, we had a good blow at our place and the wind out at Montague Island was steady around 20 knots with gusts to the mid-20's. Ron and Jean, who had been at Mystery Bay on Monday said it would have been difficult to launch from the beach.
Now, however, the ear wig of a Montague Island trip had been planted and on Tuesday, with drizzly conditions and fair winds, a crew of eight left Mystery Bay and headed out to Montague Island. In a brave move for me, I did not take a sail. Neither did Doug or Nick. Nick does not need a sail to paddle twice as fast as everyone else, and Doug can also hold his own without a sail, but, it was work for me keeping up with the sailing kayaks.
We had very lumpy conditions with two opposing swells and a sea on top of that. Most people thought it was one of the lumpiest transits to Montague Island they could remember. In my quest for speed, I have been watching my paddle enter the water as a short paddle stroke had been one of my defects and so the entire way out to Montague Island I watched my paddle blade to make sure it was entering the water completely and far enough forward. That did my head in and by the time we got to Montague Island, I thought I was going to throw up.
After a good rest in a sheltered cove, we paddled along the western side of the island to the north end and then pointed towards Narooma and the mainland. The seas were a little less lumpy and I made sure to keep my eyes on the landscape ahead and not the ocean, plus, I was working solidly to stay ahead of the sailing kayaks. Montague Island to Bar Beach is about 10 kilometres, but there is always a southerly current in the "channel." For a while, I thought we might do that in an hour, which would have been a very good speed for me, but it ended up taking about 20 minutes longer, which is still pretty respectable and probably twice my speed before I started getting ad hoc coaching from Nick.
As an aside, I did the entire trip essentially fasted (I had one egg just before leaving the beach at Mystery Bay but nothing else since dinner at 6 pm the night before), thus proving once again that humans are highly adapted to burn ketones for fuel.
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