There is no wind and the sea is greasy grey under low clouds and drizzling rain. There are two swells and left over sea from strong southerlies the last two days. It’s a queasy kind of day and I am queasy all the way to Depot Beach, 20 kilometres north up the Murramarang Coast, while Nick is queasy all the way back. Paddling into Depot Beach we wrap around the outside of Grasshopper Island, no-one can be arsed with trying to get the timing right to go through the reef strewn gap between the mainland and the island with a two metre swell running.
At Depot Beach I finally eat breakfast and feel better almost immediately. We don’t stop long. It is mid summer and yet wet as we are, it is cool and uncomfortable on the beach, and, there is still so far to go. Around Three Isle Point we are sheltered from much of the swell and land on Judges Beach, quiet and empty as Judges Beach almost always is. We are 36 kilometres down and the couple of hundred calories I had earlier feels long gone. My appetite fully recovered I eat two meat patties which Nick eyes warily. Even a homemade ginger biscuit can’t tempt him.
Nick streaks off towards the southern beaches, while Doug and I paddle south to the Tollgate Islands, then further south to Black Rock, where currents swirl around the reef, finally turning towards home and, for the last six kilometres paddling into both current and headwind. I feel stronger, not nearly as tired as usual at the end of one of these long days, the result of less sometimes being more. Training is easy, recovering is hard. The beach is inexplicably busy given the strong northeasterly wind blowing in. Boats onto trolleys and the walk up the hill and home. The last 50 was 49 kilometres.
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