Another couple of paddle training days done. Not the big numbers we did before Bass Strait, but hopefully enough for our next long paddle trip. On Friday, we headed north up the Murramarang coast into a modest NW wind. Unlike the cliffs along the Booderee coast, it is impossible to get close enough in to the Murramarang coast to escape all wind so it was a bit of work getting up to Durras.
Instead of stopping at Durras, about our half way point, we decided to turn back immediately and have a tea break closer to the bay. Winds were expected to swing westerly, which is an off-shore, and increase in intensity, but we had some vague hopes that we might not have to paddle directly into strong winds at the end of the day
At North Head beach I was so desperate to get out of the boat, feeling excessively cramped and stiff, that I surfed in on the first wave of a big following set. As expected, the boat broached, no drama, but, immediately the kayak rotated 90 degrees and I was pointing back out to sea. Faster thinking would have seen me paddle back out and effect the landing again, but, all I can say is I was just so very cramped and desperate to get out that, like our old dog Kumo, who used to think “give me food, give me food, give me food now” on endless loop, all I could think was “get out of boat, get out of boat, get out of boat now!” I launched out of the boat, which immediately got sucked out to sea while I got knocked off my feet by a wave on the steep beach. All Murramarang beaches are steep and many is the kayaker who has fallen into the water after an otherwise successful landing.
No-one ever falls out on the right (seaward) side of the boat and my ignominious exit was no different. I was in waist deep water struggling to get my feet under me as a series of larger sets rolled in with the boat on the ocean side and ideally placed to become a 28 kilogram battering ram. First into my thigh and then sucked out again and onto my back and head. At some point, I just lay down, face ground into the sand and let the boat ride right over me.
Finally, I got my feet under me and staggered up onto the beach, immediately cold in the blustery wind and feeling quite bruised and battered. Inexplicably, I did not have a dry paddle top with me, but Doug did so I stripped off all my wet layers and put that one, along with a puff jacket I carry in winter. I limped over to the shelter of some rocks after bailing out the boat and contemplating with chagrin the amount of gritty sand that now coated the cockpit.
Shivering on the beach, I could see a long line of white-caps blowing past Three Isle Point, the off-shore wind was up. Back in the boat, we left the shelter of North Head Beach and confronted surf coming out of the bay. You know the off-shore is cranked up when the waves are running out to sea. As usual, time seemed to stop and it felt like we were barely moving but after a steady and tiring hour into the wind, we arrived back at our home bay. My quadricep had seized into a lump of knotted muscle and I limped home to a hot shower and late coffee.
Yesterday was a big swell day – 2.5 to 4 metres on the wave buoy. Normally, that would be a good wave height for surfing in the bay and the swell was penetrating far in, but, we are really in distance mode so we went out and paddled about 22 km in mostly light but cold winds watching carefully for bommies going off.
This is essential training, putting in the time and volume even if the immediate destination does not grab you – I have paddled north, south, east and west of our home bay so many times that, although the ocean is different everyday, one paddle can feel much like the last. But, training does not have to be glamorous, sexy or involve a breakthrough workout every day. Mostly, performance success comes from grinding discipline.
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