# VIC - Snake Island April overnighter.



## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

eric said:


> TFM stared at his AI waiting for it to self assemble. This failing, he then set to work putting the several thousand pieces together, but perhaps a bit more carefully than last time when he accidentally made a small aircraft.


 :lol: :lol: So true. Hobie should make an auto model.



eric said:


> The further south we got, the worse the conditions became. I noticed Chris had fallen behind and slowed to allow him to catch up, but stopping completely was out of the question, with just a few hundred metres to go the chop was combining with swell creating Frankenstein waves, huge metre and half triangular watery hills that would pop up in their own giving you something to teeter on, or roll in like a cavalry charge forcing you to paddle franticly to turn a overladen yak into it, or a pipeline would suddenly form out of a wave in front of you giving you something really freaky to stare at in fear. Looking left I saw Chris out of his Outback and leading it into shore, chest deep in water.
> 
> ...TFM crawled out and wished himself a happy birthday, and we celebrated with bacon and eggs and muffins and tomato sauce and chicken salt and freshly roasted Red berries ground and brewed right there in the bush. The Feast day of The Fishin' Musician is an awesome sight.


That is way mean to throw Chris off his outback. What was the wind speed (any BOM AWS's nearby)?

Good read Eric, though a tad scary in the big waves.

Trevor


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## Guest (Apr 30, 2012)

Great report eric. Sounds like it was an 'interesting' trip!


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## FazerPete (Mar 10, 2009)

You blokes are nuts.

Great write up as usual though.


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## paulsod (Dec 28, 2008)

That is one great report Eric.



eric said:


> giving you something really freaky to stare at in fear.


That made me laugh.



eric said:


> he had something to warm us up and pulled out a jar of vasoline


That had my dirty mind worried. :lol:

cheers
Paul


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

nezevic said:


> Great report eric. Sounds like it was an 'interesting' trip!


INTERESTING! :shock: _At 100 km/hr_. Hmmmmmm. 

Trevor


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

You guys.
Great report Eric.
Happy Birthday TFM.


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

.


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## Desal (Feb 26, 2009)

loved your report guys, many thanks. TFM, great job on the video, the music was outstanding. What was the name of the opening track please?


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

Desal said:


> loved your report guys, many thanks. TFM, great job on the video, the music was outstanding. What was the name of the opening track please?


Thanks desal, the first 3 tracks are the opening parts of the Verdi Requiem, Requiem, Dies irae & Tuba mirum. The last track is the 2nd movement of the saint saens 3rd symphony. 


mingle said:


> Nice video, almost like being there - in fact BETTER than being there!
> I'm disappointed Mr. Happy was a no-show and that the flames from the fire were barely above knee-height...
> The trip back looked nice and relaxed!
> Cheers, Mike.


Oh mr happy was there allright, I'm just not sure we got any pics of him this time. 
We had to keep the fire at the sub critical mass stage because we ended up out the back. The one we had planned for the beach was a little more substantial, untill my earthworks got washed away 



ArWeTherYet said:


> You guys.
> Great report Eric.
> Happy Birthday TFM.


Thanks AWTY.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Thanks Mark (+ Eric & Chris)

A trip to remember (glad you survived). High adventure and madness is, in my view, a very fine balancing point. Good balance guys. WHEY!

BTW, I _loved _the music.

Trevor


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

indiedog said:


> Loved the read and the video guys. Well done on still making it across, that didn't look like it would have been fun at all. Was all that shot on GoPro?


thanks indy, it was shot on my fuji z33 & erics olympus. 
it was mostly fun, just the odd tricky bit, but then again, i didnt get rolled!


SurfanFish said:


> Great write up and video. So what caused the damage to the kayaks?


as far as we can tell, when chris rolled his deck bag got pushed into his cart which in turn cracked his scupper. chris snapped a rudder pin getting dropped off a wave onto some sand. i bent a mirage drive mast on the shallows around little snake island & when i set off on sunday morning i noticed one of my drive cables had slipped off the drum so i beached, tightened my nuts & got back underway.
i think the stealth survived unscathed.


kayakone said:


> BTW, I loved the music.


Ta  i had fun with the edits


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## FazerPete (Mar 10, 2009)

The Fishin' Musician said:


> tightened my nuts & got back underway.


Couldn't you have done that in the privacy of your tent the night before?

What sort of speeds do you reckon you were hitting?


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## Kenza (May 28, 2011)

Was fun reading your report Eric! too bad we got there late.

We pulled up at port welshpool at 10.30 stood there and contemplated for like 1 whole hour deciding whether we should cross the channel. Me and my mate (stephen) was pretty keen on crossing but there was a local Seaman on the boat telling us not to cross. It was low tide so we had to walk out pretty far to even launch our vessel. So we decided to go drive around the area to see if there was any better launching spots. We got back to port welshpool a little after lunch ~1.30pm. and at that point the wind was raging. That was when Eric and TFM called, i couldnt hear very well but all i heard was "Chris fell out of his outback!!!" - which was more than enough to deter us. so we decided to fish the peir for trevally etc.. my soft plastic nearly got bitten into 3 pieces ... not sure what bit it. it was very clean cut halfway down the tail and halfway down the body. We were planning on fishing the peir and staying there the night to meet up with the moe boys in the morning., but we called it quits because the wind was making it hard to open our eyes. So we took a drive down to Seaspray. and camped there the night then back home Sunday morning...

We are very keen to go on the next adventure rain or shine!, but hopefully the weather shines a little next time..


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Kenza said:


> ....but we called it quits because the wind was making it hard to open our eyes.
> We are very keen to go on the next adventure rain or shine!, but hopefully the weather shines a little next time..


Wise choice Kenza. They're all mad! (or just a little too adventurous?)

Trevor


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

Kenza said:


> Was fun reading your report Eric! too bad we got there late.
> 
> We pulled up at port welshpool at 10.30 stood there and contemplated for like 1 whole hour deciding whether we should cross the channel. Me and my mate (stephen) was pretty keen on crossing but there was a local Seaman on the boat telling us not to cross. It was low tide so we had to walk out pretty far to even launch our vessel. So we decided to go drive around the area to see if there was any better launching spots. We got back to port welshpool a little after lunch ~1.30pm. and at that point the wind was raging. That was when Eric and TFM called, i couldnt hear very well but all i heard was "Chris fell out of his outback!!!" - which was more than enough to deter us. so we decided to fish the peir for trevally etc.. my soft plastic nearly got bitten into 3 pieces ... not sure what bit it. it was very clean cut halfway down the tail and halfway down the body. We were planning on fishing the peir and staying there the night to meet up with the moe boys in the morning., but we called it quits because the wind was making it hard to open our eyes. So we took a drive down to Seaspray. and camped there the night then back home Sunday morning...
> 
> We are very keen to go on the next adventure rain or shine!, but hopefully the weather shines a little next time..


Yep, good call Ken, sorry you didn't make it down but by the time we got off the water it was awfull & getting worse & remained that way till about midnight! Did you have any luck @ seaspray?
There'll be another one not too far off


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## TheFishinMusician (Feb 5, 2007)

FazerPete said:


> The Fishin' Musician said:
> 
> 
> > tightened my nuts & got back underway.
> ...


I'm an open minded kind of guy, it was more fun on the beach!

I didn't actually get her up too fast, the wind was way too strong to attempt any sort of speed other than maintain a safe headway. I never had the sail more than half out & most of the time was about 1/3rd only. Any more than that & I think the rig or the rudder would have let go!


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## FazerPete (Mar 10, 2009)

Thanks but nope. I recognise that I'm not a good enough kayaker for that trip so I'll play it safe.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

FazerPete said:


> Thanks but nope. I recognise that I'm not a good enough kayaker for that trip so I'll play it safe.


Good to see an honest and wise assessment. From the sound of it the lads were 'on the limit', and if anything had gone wrong it was possibly each man to himself.

I'm not judging at all....I've done a lot of 'on the limit' paddles myself, and by myself, and often worried about the consequences of getting it wrong. Being off your kayak in conditions like that would not be pretty.

So understanding the lure of high adventure, I think Pete's call is probably a good one, and a sobering call for anyone else tempted by terrific tales such as this one.

Trevor


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Eric

No offense intended. I had no intention of bringing your skills into question. Bad wording, sorry.

It's your thread, and a good one on a very exciting crossing (right up my alley actually...love it when it gets serious). I felt it _might_ have been influencing some people to try it when they weren't up to it.

Maybe I should have sent that last post to you as a PM?

I apologise unreservedly for the interpretion.

Trevor


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## FazerPete (Mar 10, 2009)

It's fine. Each to their own but I know that I'm not fit enough or exprerienced enough in handling the kayak if something went wrong. I also have reservations about camping on an island because you're forced to paddle back even if the weather blows in unexpectedly overnight. I did blue water sailing for years and it's amazing how many times I've raced in 40kts when 20 was predicted so I know it happens and I know what happens to water when it does.

You guys have been into kayaking for a lot longer for me and I know you took a lot of precautions up front so that impressed me but I don't trust that I would be in a position to help myself or anyone else if it turned to crap and I certainly couldn't live with myself if anything happened to somebody near me but I wasn't good enough to save them.

I don't want to bring a downer on what was obviously a memorable trip but I just think everyone should be 100% aware of what they're getting into before they contemplate the next one. No judgement on anyone involved; just my 2c worth.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

That's lumpier than a fat chick in yoga pants.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Kenza (May 28, 2011)

No luck fishing out at seaspray but it was fairly relaxing.until my friend decided to go too close to the channel and the change of tide and current nearly sucked us out to see from merriman creek...

It is important to gauge the safety and speed of your vessel and match it with your own ability when deciding to go out in an adventurous condition. Also the fact that it was new territory to us was probably the biggest deterrent. Because port welshpool is soo close t o where i live, i am iching to go there again on a good weather.

Was really really good to be able to read such an in depth report + vid .


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you.

I'm sure there's no regrets, now, but at the time you were probably wondering WTF?
Always a good read, anyway guys. Thanks.


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## Kenza (May 28, 2011)

I have to say the video with the hobie adventure island makes it look soo easy..........................sail power is really awesome....


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