Over the last couple of days the swell dropped precipitously until the HS (the average of the highest one third of waves during the observation period – generally the last 20 minutes) was down to only 0.6 metres with a HMax (the highest wave in the observation period) was only about 1.3 metres. Those waves were still packing a punch though with a 15 second wave period. That’s a wave period you associate with Tasmania or South Australia not the south coast of NSW.
At the Tollgate Islands, there were two very relaxed seals hanging off the east side of the south island but no sign of the bigger male I had seen a couple of weeks ago. As we paddled through the gap between the two islands and through various slots and gauntlets on the east side we noted an off-shore wind increasing. By the time we lapped around the north end of the north island, the WNW wind was about 15 knots and it was a cold and wet paddle (at least on one side of our bodies) down to Black Rock where the west side was uncharacteristically calm compared to the east side.
After that we nipped into the headland that bounds Mosquito Bay and headed back home. It was meant to be a “tempo” paddle for me and I had been hoping to keep the pace between 7 and 8 kilometres an hour for the full distance but the wind played a bit of havoc with that. The only other occurrence of note was that we paddled right through the gap between the two rocks that form the bommie off Mosquito Bay. This reef/bommie almost always breaks but today it was calm enough that with a bit of timing, you could pretty much paddle right across!
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