Cronulla to Kiama

nick — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:19:05 GMT

Over the weekend of 25-26 Oct, I paddled from Cronulla to Kiama with an overnight at Corrimal. After really bad weather mid-week that culminated with 4m swells and 40 knot winds from the south on Wednesday, it looked like the conditions weren't going to be suitable for a long paddle. Over Thursday and Friday, a high-pressure system moved in, allowing the swell to begin to drop, and Saturday morning dawned with a good forecast of 2m swell and variable winds of about 15 knots out of the north.

The goal of the first days paddle was Corrimal, with is one of the beach-side suburbs north of Wollongong. Corrimal has a really nice council-run caravan park at the back of the beach, and the plan was to leave early (up at 5:15, on the water at 5:40), and meet the family at Corrimal around 1pm. The conditions around the Jibbon Bumbora were quite rough, with steep swells coming from all over the place, but after passing the Bumbora and getting a kilometer or so off the coast, the swell became more consistent and less step, and the paddling was quite easy. There was a lot of foam in the water from the mid-week gale conditions, and it was quite strange paddling in the foam, which dampened all sound, creating a weird silence.

Once past the Royal National Park and along the beaches north of Wollongong, it was clear that a beach landing was going to be hard. There was 6ft dumping sets on most beaches, and a low tide also made conditions pretty bad. I had planned to land at Bellambi Pt if a beach landing look dicey, but get my Points mixed up, and ended up landing at Bulli Pt, which is about 3km north. I rang the family, and they where close by in the car, so I got them to pick me up and the kayak went on the roof for the final few kms to the camp ground.

By the Sunday, the swell had dropped, and taking off from the beach at Corrimal was easy. The Sunday trip had 3 distinct 12km sections - the first to Big Island off Port Kembla, then another 12km to Bass Point, then the final 12 or so kilometers into Easts Beach, just south of Kiama. The seas of Wollongong where fairly calm, and the first 12km went by fast.

Off Big Island, a seal was basking in the sun, but disappeared before I could get the camera out. There were heaps of gulls nesting on Islands, and it was a good spot for a break out of the swell between Big Island and the mainland.

After Big Island, it was getting hazy, and I initially aimed for Windang Island off Lake Illawarra rather than Bass Point. About 1km off Windang Island, I realised my mistake, and turned east to get to Bass Pt. I landed for a while on the Pt, and had some sandwiches for lunch. For the first two hours of each paddle, I had a Gu Gel at the hour mark, and then had a carb drink and sandwich at the 3 hr mark, and then repeated the cycle for the next 3 hours. Breaking the paddle into hour long sections (which was 8kms travelled) made it easy to focus on short-term marks, and the Gu's and drinks keep my energy pretty high.

The last 12kms into Kiama was with a strengthening NE and swells picking up to 1.5m which made for fast paddling.

I had hoped to continue the paddle into Jervis Bay on the Monday, but the weather deteriorate, with 30 knot N/NW winds forecast and a 3m swell. There is a 25km open crossing south of Kiama from Black Pt to Currarong (across the Shoalhaven Bight), and with the bad conditions, the paddle wasn't worth it. Instead I drove down to Jervis Bay with the family and relaxed at Honeymoon Bay out of the wind and swell. This is Jess at the Kiama campground.

The overall distance travelled was 45.1km on the first day, and 38.3km on the second day. The body pulled up well, with no real soreness in the shoulders or back, no sunburn and only very minor blisters on the hands. It was disappointing to not be able to get to Jervis Bay, but looking out at the sea conditions from Currarong on the Monday afternoon, it was apparent I'd made the right choice not to attempt the crossing. Black Pt wasn't visible across the Shoalhaven Bight, the wind was howling, and the temperature was up to the mid- to high-30s. Hopefully over the summer I'll launch from Kiama and finish the last leg of the paddle.

Sea kayaking with a GPS

nick — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:30:22 GMT

I recently purchased a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx for use as both an in-car unit and a sea kayaking navigation aid. While navigation on the current routes I'm doing in pretty easy (essenitally, keep the land on left while heading north), its good to track the speed I'm paddling and get a good handle on distance to go. Mounting the GPS on the kayak was something that I was initially concerned about, but last Sunday I did the 40km paddle from Yowie Bay in the Port Hacking to Watsons Bay in Sydney Harbour with the GPS unit mounted to the front of the kayak using the auto suction-cup mount with good results.

The conditions on Sunday where pretty calm (more details here), but a few waves did come over the front of the kayak without causing any movement or loosening of the suction cup. The suction cup gives quite a strong connection, and its is possible to take most of the 25kg-plus weight of the loaded kayak without having the suction cup detached. This is the basic set-up

I wrapped the unit in a medium zip-lock bag and electical taped the bag to the mount. The 60Csx is water-resistant to IPX7 standards, but I thought 5+ hours of having salt-water dripped onto the unit from the paddle was going to decrease the life of the unit if not kill it outright. Pulled tight, the zip-lock didn't have too much of an impact on screen visibility, and after the paddle only a few drops had managed to work there way into the bag.

The other precaution against unit damage/loss was a stainless-steel cable clipped to the shock-cord mounts and run through the middle of the mount. The stainless steel cable only cost $12 to make, which is reasonable insurance for the cost of the GPS. The photos below show the details of the cable.

The only thing that I didn't like much about the GPS was the lack of details displayed about coastal landmarks like beach and headland names. The detail is all there in BlueChart maps, and viewing the charts on the desktop using MapSource shows heaps of details. No matter how close I zoomed and where I moved the pointer too, I couldn't get the name of a beach or bay to display on the GPS unit. While that isn't much of a drama with familar areas, it is a significant missing feature if you're in unfamilar waters. The one work-around is to add way-points to prominant locations and download them onto the unit before heading out, which is what I plan to do when I do the paddle down to Kiama in a couple of months.

.NET Performance : Sea kayaking

Cronulla to Kiama

Sea kayaking with a GPS