# Qld: Sept 10/11 peel island



## Plasman (Aug 27, 2008)

I'M GONNA BE SORE TOMORROW!!!!!!!! :lol:


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

very good trip.
thanks for organizing alex

amazing effort by warren and mick to paddle over in what was 25 to 30 knots of putrid westerly.

great campsite at platypus bay. a bit protected.

got a few tailor. 
sad to see the grinner being bladed there alex.
great fire as well

will be investing in a new yabby pump (washed off in the high seas) 
will also be investing in pancake shake and bake, extraordinarily nice stuff.

ran into trevor as well on the way back. his stealth moves very quick.

return trip was straight into the wind and covered about 20 kms tacking to go forward 6 kms and finished dead even with mick and warren who were paddling.

trying so hard to go faster i was even sitting on the tramp with the foot on the rudder handle but all to no avail.

some pics. tied off to the platypus wreck to try and prevent blowing away.

mick with a grassie, warren with a brembo.

the last pic is the hole in the wall at south east rocks for those heading over.

cheers pete


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## warren63 (Apr 16, 2009)

Fews pics fom the weekend,


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Plasman said:


> I'M GONNA BE SORE TOMORROW!!!!!!!! :lol:


I'll bet I'm sorer.

I was a Sunday day visitor, and met the lads returning in Horseshoe Bay. After the boys left I did a couple of drifts, for 1 bump and an undersized snapper, then went into Horseshoe were I spied some sea kayaks on the beach, so trundled in to say g'day. They had crossed from Victoria Pt. Sat to Blakesleys, and came up for the morning. As I left them to circumnavigate Peel, they were bemoaning the absence of the predicted NE breeze to take them home. I was also counting on it. Ah well, the best laid plans.....

As I reached the NE tip of Peel, I was into a NW'er around 12 knots, against the flood tide ripping up that channel. It was rough, with very steep waves to .7 metre. The wind increased before I turned the corner round the green zone, with the wind reaching 18 knots and whitecaps. It only got worse and I struggled to make any speed in a quite rough sea with waves going over the sides. Highest waves were about 1 metre. When it turned West at 15 -18 I was a tad unhappy:

Latest Weather Observations for Peel Island - The Spit
Issued at 9:14 pm EST Sunday 11 September 2011 (issued every 10 minutes, with the page automatically refreshed every 10 minutes)

11/06:00pm - - - - - WNW 14 - 17 knots
11/05:30pm - - - - - WNW 15 - 19 - - - 
11/05:00pm - - - - - WNW 17 - 22 - - - 
11/04:30pm - - - - - WNW 14 - 17 - - - 
11/04:00pm - - - - - WNW 15 - 18 - - - 
11/03:30pm - - - - - W 11 - 18 - - - 
11/03:00pm - - - - - W 11 - 15 - - - 
11/02:30pm - - - - - W 9 - 15 - - - 
11/02:00pm - - - - - W 7 - 13 - - - 
11/01:30pm - - - - - WSW 9 - 14 - - - 
11/01:00pm - - - - - W 7 - 12 - - -

as you can see, 15 - 22 knots....ugly! 
Took 4 hours and I was so depleted on reaching the ramp that I was shaking and could hardly stand up. Must be gettin' old.

Amazing how different that would have been if it had been northerly, or better NE. It does reinforce (for me) that SOT's are not offshore craft (cf sea kayaks), particularly when it all goes pear-shaped.

Sweet dreams lads.
Trevor


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## warren63 (Apr 16, 2009)

few more


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## warren63 (Apr 16, 2009)

Great weekend apart from the wind. Although it was uncomfortable at times, thankfully we were high and dry during the worst of it. Thanks to Lapse for organising it and hopefully we can do a few more. Dreams of fishing, fishing and more fishing were blown away by the wind although we did get a chance to wet a line a couple of times it was more about padddling, watching the wind reports and Grinner's camp side meanderings. Unfortunately we did cut it short but sometimes these things do happen and i would not have liked to have been in a situation paddling in stronger winds and swell. Although the weather was bad the boaties encountered on the paddle back were attrocius, i'll leave Plasman to explain the best one. But seriously that whole bay to navigate and they cut in front of us on several occassions. Actually if Plasman hadnt stopped paddling i wouldnt like to think what would have happened in that one.
One problem with the whole trip is getting back to Cleveland Point and realising i'd left my tent poles and pegs somewhere at Platypus Bay  Certainly not paddling back anytime soon to try to find and retreive them.


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## Plasman (Aug 27, 2008)

All I can say is what an experience  
I have always wanted to a trip like this since getting into kayaking and even though the weather had us reconsidering, I think we made the right choice.
Saturday started with some polite conversation with Lapse (Alex) Warren63 (Warren) and myself about the weather situation with a contingency put together for the weekend.
So off Warren and I trundled about a km into the bay where it started to rough up. Both of us were having tracking issues without a rudder but I found that the wind was spinning me right around if I wasn't punching through the chop which is easier said than done with a tail wind :? I later realised that it is my swag sitting a little high catching the wind that was causing this. 90% of my paddle strokes were to correct my line but although the wind was gusting 15-25knts on the way over, never at any time did the barge feel unstable at all even side on (this just got you wet).
Alex caught us about half way and we all a made it comfortably round the SW corner out of the wind where the boys pulled up on the beach for a smoko that Dodge would have been embarrassed to be a part of.








I couldn't resist wetting a line seeing fish racing around on the flats and pulled a nice little bream. 
Off to the camp site we go. The wind picked up further roughing it up a bit rounding the SE corner but we all arrived safe and well to set up our home for a couple of days.








Not alot more can be said for the weekend other than a couple of short fishing sessions yielding just enough fish for dinner (which was sensational might I add). Thank god for the fire, honestly think it's a bit silly you're not supposed to have fires over there which a small wind breaker could be made for each site to accomodate and contain the blaze.








The decision was made to head off early to punch it through the dropping winds Sunday morning otherwise we wouldve been stuck there till Wednesday or Thursday :shock: . Oh yeah, caught a nice Snap just over 40cm in Horseshoe Bay on the way back.

To the peanuts in the boats.
We would have had about 6 boats pass us on the treck back with 3 of tham passing within 15m of Warren and myself.
The 1st on was a 15m cat cruiser that came up behind Warren and would've passed within 10m of him. The only reason I would think someone would do this is to see if we were ok but there was no wave, no hello no nothing.
The worst one wasn't far off Cleveland and a Yacht, under power not sail might I add, was heading straight for us.
This was unbelievable, not only did they split 2 kayaks about 25m apart, if I hadn't had pulled up they would have run me over. I tried to get a pic and only got the top of the mast from the chop but had a fairly polite conversation with the family on board. You should have seen the guys face when I bobbed up 5m from the port stern of his yacht. 
THEY WEREN'T EVEN WATCHING!!!!!! :twisted: I hope my spray played on their minds and [email protected]#ked their day up.

Anyway, made it back safe and had fish for dinner. Learnt plenty for next time and thanks to Alex for organising and all the boys for the entertainment, it was actually great to get away even though we didn't get alot of fishing in.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Wind was the enemy on my return yesterday. But there were other reasons:

CURRENTS: About 2 km NE of Cleveland Pt I was making little or no progress with near maximum exertion. What's wrong??? I determined it was current, sweeping generally southwards on the flood tide (Moreton Bay has north/south tidal currents, up to 3.5 knots at some localities)   . The tides were a low of .37 at 2.54 pm, and a high of 2.24 at 7.03 pm. So not surprising, as that's a big tidal interchange. The current was kicking out to the NE cause of the shape of Raby Bay and Cleveland Pt. To make some headway I altered heading to N/NW to get out of the current, and it worked admirably, finally gaining ground, albeit 100 degrees away from the destination, but definitely moving towards the mainland. After 20 minutes on this track I was able to track more towards Cleveland Pt.

LEAKS: More reasons for agonisingly slow progress, but not discovered until landing: 
1. Eleven hours since launch, on a pimped SOT.
2. Some biggish seas for hours, seas crashing over the yak.
3. Inadequate homework testing for leaks post pimping (poor preparation)
4. I had an (aftermarket) 6" hatch just forward of the seat with the rubber lid not properly sealed, which I am pretty sure was the main contributor (poor management).
Result was 50 litres (estimated) of water in the fish hatch.

If you are going to out (offshore or a biggish lake) consider the following...

1. Many SOT's are not good in adverse winds due to slab sides and resultent tendency to go downind. Particularly winds from straight on, front quarter or beam on (90 degrees to direction of travel. They are not sea kayaks. Don't bite off more than you can chew.
2. After pimping, stand the yak on each end and fill with water to test for leaks (I didn't).
3. Check the weather forecasts (which can be out, as they were yesterday, but they are usually pretty accurate).
4. Check the weather observations (actual readings from current observed data).
5. Have a contingency plan (e.g. at Peel Is there were 2 X AI's...aka motherships for towing struggling yaks).
6. Maintain fitness if you are planning to go offshore.
7. Have at least a PLB and a marine radio and flares (check regulations)

Analysis: A paddle can turn to poop in no time. What with headwind, currents and leaks, no wonder I was struggling.

Paddle safe lads and ladies,

Another lesson, another great experience on the ocean.

Trevor


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## theclick (Jun 25, 2007)

Good stuff guys.

Pity about the conditions. I went for a paddle in the Gold Coast seaway on saturday and it was blowing harder than Monica Lewinsky. Would have been interesting in the Southern Bay in those craft for sure, good work.

Sunday wasn't didn't seem so bad at St Helena, but still would have been a slog back in those kayaks. You'll certainly did well to make it back!, Good work guys.


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

Good one fellas! sounds like a fun time was had by all & you made the right decisions in the conditions.

How goods kyak camping eh?


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## Plasman (Aug 27, 2008)

Feelin good. Balls of my thumbs are a little tender from so much stroke correction though.
Even had a couple of km leisurely paddle with Warren this arv catching a couple of little bass


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Good to read all went well fellers, as after the hammering we copped out at Wivy convention was wondering how you were going on the Bay.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Finally a couple of photos (from the half drowned yak visitor)...I have just managed to sort computer problems. Thanks for all the help guys.
View attachment 1


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Try again


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)




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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)




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