Booderee National Park is a big peninsular bounded on the north by Governor Head (and off-shore Bowen Island) and on the south by St Georges Head and features about 13 kilometres of steep sandstone cliffs and sea caves along the east facing coastline. At times, the water is calm, and sea kayakers can explore the many caves and clefts along the coast, including slipping between reefs at Stoney Creek to a very small but sheltered cove. Other times, wind, swell and rebound can make for a bumpy, lumpy trip along the cliffs. For whatever reason, there always seem to be a northerly current running along the cliffs from Governor Head to the headland just east of Steamers Beach. The nautical chart shows a 0 to 2 knot current running along here but the current marker on the chart is almost five kilometres off-shore. I’m not exactly sure what is happening along this section of coast but it almost always features current effects.
The trip from Hyams Beach inside Jervis Bay around the peninsula to Sussex Inlet, and across St Georges Basin to Erowal Bay is one of the best two day trips in the area as, depending on your exact paddle route, it is possible to enjoy 50 kilometres of paddling with a mere six kilometre car shuttle. The shuttle is so short it can be easily walked. I’ve done this trip twice with an overnight camp, both times starting from Hyams Beach and paddling north to south.
On the latest occasion, given a forecast for strong southerly winds we planned to paddle from Erowal Bay to Captains Beach near Greenpatch. HH, who suggested the trip, seemed to relish the fact that a northerly swell would be colliding with a southerly swell, both would be acted upon by winds forecast to 20 to 25 knots, and, of course, there is that current past Governor Head, Snapper Point and Cape St George where conditions are almost always “interesting.” What could be more fun?1
Out of a party of almost 20 paddlers, there were only four who expressed interest (including HH) and one of those quickly dropped out leaving three. I would have liked to drop out. I thought of developing the ‘rona overnight, or breaking a leg or arm, even a troublesome hang-nail would be a good excuse but there is that upcoming trip that we are training for and the opportunity for a tough paddle with a very accomplished and competent companion does not happen every day, even every week or month. There was only one thing to do, go and give it a shot.
This is not a trip report where I can confidently say “mistakes were made but not by me” as I certainly made mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if I get better at making mistakes as I get older not worse. Certainly, errors still occur with depressing frequency. It’s easy, if you have a certain personality type, to beat yourself up for these errors, and there is some legitimacy to honest appraisals about what went wrong. There is, however, only one way to avoid making mistakes and that is to not try anything difficult or uncertain. If I have to choose between the cognitive discomfort that comes from never trying anything difficult or facing up to errors, I hope to continue to choose the latter. After all, the really dispiriting thing about making mistakes is not so much making a mistake and making the same mistake a second or even third time.
We were lucky to have friends willing to drop us at Erowal Bay and take our cars back to Green Patch so we did not need to worry about retrieving cars at the end, but, this also meant that the trip started to feel committing. However, there were options for escape, the most notable being landing at Summer Cloud Cove (which turned out to be incredibly calm given the conditions) and walking back along the road and some bush tracks to retrieve a car if necessary. This is a distance of only about six kilometres and I always throw a pair of running shoes in my kayak.
We got away from Erowal Bay pretty much on time at about 8:30 am which I think was both too late and too early! How’s that for being able to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time? Too late because I am about seven kilometres/hour slower than HH (especially into the wind) and too early because the wind was forecast to drop during the day. There was a pretty solid headwind crossing St Georges Basin in the 18 knot range. Luckily, no big sea could build but it was still a rather tedious and slow grind. In Sussex Inlet itself we had a slight favourable current and got some shelter from the wind and the six kilometres down to the bar passed quicker than I thought. It’s funny but I almost hoped that segment of the trip would take longer as it would give more time for the wind and sea state to calm.
The bar at Sussex Inlet was relatively easy as the reef along the eastern side breaks much of the swell. We once had a rather tumultuous entry to Sussex Inlet crossing the bar with a big swell and an outgoing tide, but fortiutiously nothing like that today. We had been paddling about 2.5 hours to this point, which is, as that master of understatment HH said was “a bit behind schedule.” I was beginning to doubt my ability to complete this trip in a reasonable time frame; a seed of doubt that once planted began to grow and grow. Doubt is really not helpful at all. Once in your brain it chews away as steadily as a beaver felling a tree to make a dam and all too frequently marks the end of any realistic attempt. My mantra on difficult rock climbs is “you can do this, you can do this, you can do this.” It’s amazingly successful. A 30 metre well protected sport climb however, is a whole different malarky to a six hour sea paddle but a bit of positive thinking would have helped.
HH was committed, and Doug would accompany me, so I was the joint that could break the whole trip apart. I decided I would paddle across Wreck Bay to St Georges Head and see how I felt there. Conditions were a bit punchy. The wind had dropped to perhaps 12 knots but was still bothersome and we had beam on sea and swell, large enough that I simply tried not to look at it too much! I got side-surfed by a couple of breaking waves which necessitated bracing; awkward and less effective with a wing blade, but I would be paralysingly slow with my flat blade.
Nevertheless, we got to St Georges Head, just a little bit more behind schedule. I was tired, but not shattered. Trying to keep up with HH however, was, and always is difficult for me. I’m always running a bit above my aerobic rate which means I get more fatigued and need a bit more food. It’s a struggle for me to eat on sea kayaking days - unlike normal days when I could eat all day long! I had been at threshold pace (zone 4) for the 1.5 hours it had taken us to cross Wreck Bay to St Georges Head, not something I can keep up forever. I really needed some food but I had nothing really easy to eat handy and stopping to eat would just put me further behind everyone else. Later, one of my paddling friends suggested gels but no matter how desperate I am, I’m not desperate enough to suck back pure (but overpriced) sugar. The resulting crash would be worse than the original symptom.
At St Georges Head I got a bit mixed up thinking the wind had shifted to the east or even northeast and somehow thought we would have this damnable headwind the entire 40 kilometre trip. Looking at the map afterwards it all made sense and Doug, who has his compass mounted to his deck as I foolishly did not (I have since rectified this), realised that we were needed to head windward/southeast for just about 500 metres before we could turn and get the wind if not complely behind us, at least from our rear quarter.
Deciding was difficult, and it would have been nice to pause, eat a bit of food, let my heart-rate drop a little, just take a moment or two to make a rational decision but I was well aware that patient HH had been paddling at half speed since we’d left Erowal Bay and I thought I should decide quickly. I have been on trips in the past, most notably mountaineering trips, where people have stood around for far too long trying to decide what to do. It’s frustrating and I’m not sure better decisions are made in the end.
So Doug and I turned and sped into Summer Cloud Cove. It’s amazing how easy conditions felt with the wind behind us. Sure, there was a little bit of staying in control and not broaching down the steeper waves but making progress felt stupidly easy. From a distance, it looked as if there was a break extending west across the mouth of Summer Cloud Cove but once inshore it was actually a very easy landing. To say I was disappointed in myself is to say the sky is blue: indisputable.
Pictures almost exclusively courtesy of DB and from previous trips as who had time to take pictures?
1Actually lots of things could be more fun!
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