Hmmmmm .....  you would think that after the Kokoda trail , a kayaking trip around Hinchinbrook Island would be calm,  serene and peaceful by comparison.  As it turned out .... all the hairy, scarey stuff happened here !   To be fair I should point out that it is thanks to Andrew and Pete that we did have an adventure and experience so noteworthy and, in hindsight .....
Ok, ok, ok -
There really is nothing like an adrenalin hit to make it all worthwhile.  (Bindi - you do have a right of reply !)

The guys set out for Hinchinbrook on the Sunday  (see the Diamintina trip from Andrew) and Bindi and I followed suit on Monday.  After lugging the 2 person kayak and assorted gear (mainly mine) down to the shore we paddled off with gusto and fairly calm conditions.  Although the weather was overcast and there was a squall coming in down south nothing much changed on our end and we made it to Sunken Reef beach in an hour and a half. Pretty good going by all accounts.

Tuesday  - woke up to some ugly weather and Andrew confirmed by the radio that it was not looking good.  Later in the day the boys (being boys and fearless) decided to take the plastic one-man kayaks out through the low-tide breaks to see how they fared.  Because the tide was low and the beach quite shallow - they were in little danger if they fell out anywhere in the break - which was, unfortunately, anytime they attempted to surf back in.  The conclusion was that it was bloody difficult paddling in those conditions - 1.5 to 2.0 meter swell and approx. 20 -25 knot winds.  Bindi and I declined to give it a go at the time - little did we know.

Next day - Wednesday and the conditions hadn't really changed.
This was my 3rd week of being wet and I was starting to feel a bit water-logged. At one point I was stomping up the beach mumbling "I'm sick of being wet, I'm sick of being wet" (you get my drift) to find Bindi, Andrew and Pete performing a little dance at the waterline - with Gortex's on - singing accompanied by a little high kick every second step.  You had to be there !  The radio (according to Andrew) was saying that conditions were expected to clear a bit  the next day.

Thursday  morning -  we noticed a very slight change in the wind and seas and Andrew said that the radio was predicting calmer weather later in the day, and winds apparently had eased to 15 - 20 knots.  Pete and Andrew were not going to
be deterred from leaving this particular beach and paddling onward to Zoe's Bay. Bindi and I eyed the conditions rather dubiously and reluctantly agreed to pack and leave.  I think we rather trusted that the guys had a better idea about conditions from a kayak after they had been out the day before - more fool us !

With the kayaks packed and Bindi and I in the double we were the first to "leave" the beach.  We nearly didn't !  We had waited for the smaller set of waves but as we started out we ended up nearly 45 degrees to the 2nd on-coming, by the 3rd wave I suggested we paddle left, then realised my mistake and yelled "RIGHT", "RIGHT".  Paddling hard we managed to get the kayak front on to the on-coming larger set  (Bindi got blinded by each successive in-coming wave) and then continued with me yelling "left, right, left , right" until we made it out the back of the break.  At which point  we looked around and wondered what the f.... we were doing out there.  I've not been so scared in a long time.  The sea that had looked sort of half-way reasonable back on the beach was a competely different story when you're in this little boat bobbing around.   2 metres on
land is definitely NOT the same thing at sea.  At this point we both agreed we probably couldn't get the boat back in without doing some real damage and decided to wait for the guys to join us, which they did eventually.  How did we feel ? " Scared shitless but let's keep going - we'll kill you guys later."

So with some very concentrated paddling we set of in this roiling sea.

This word "roiling" is most appropriate - sums it up nicely - boiling and rolling ! We decided to head seaward into the swell as this made paddling a bit easier and we could see what was coming.  At the sea-most point , a place called Hillock point which was  a cliff-faced headland, we could then turn into Zoe's Bay and have the swell and waves directly behind us.  So I turned around to see how the guys were going - just in time to watch Andrew slide gracefully out of his boat and into the water.

We were in front of the guys and I said unbelievingly to Bindi - "Andrew's in the water" !  We then had to execute a turn in those seas because we had the hand pump strapped to our boat and it was getting more obvious that Andrew was in difficulty.  (Thanks to Bindi for excuting the turn in the correct direction.) We took over holding the kayak and Andrew managed to get himself back into his boat after a couple of attempts.  Then, with Andrew's boat in the middle, both guys had to pump furiously because the kayak was full of water and in Andrew's words it appeared to be "sinking". (In the meantime - please picture
the seas as unchanged  - still bloody roiling - and with us still in it. )

Fortunately the furious pumping cleared most of the water from the cockpit and Andrew managed to get the spray-skirt back on.  The hull had taken some water too so the kayak was not very stable and had a bit of a list.  We proceeded to paddle with all caution into Zoe's Bay , Bindi and I keeping a watchful eye on the guys in our fibreglass "mother ship"  which was very stable, even in these conditions  - and as I often repeated during that time - we were like "ducks on the water".  The seas hadn't abated any but the bay was wide and quite sheltered so the conditions didn't vary too much thankfully.

Closer to the beach and all of a sudden Bindi and I felt the boat rise on a rather large wave (the guys later said that they thought we were goners because they lost sight of us when the wave hit) but we instinctively stuck our paddles in and 'surfed' it.  Brilliant -  and actually felt quite good !  There was a couple sitting on the beach who said later that we looked "magnificent" ,  and they thought that the weather must have calmed down heaps because the kayakers were out  (oh yeah !).

Well .... after praying for land for the last hour and a half  I got out and kissed the beach - literally !  And when the guys got in - Bindi strangled and I thumped !!! Later , Andrew admits to telling a fib about the wind abating to 15 - 20 knots, but we forgive him now because he provided us with the deep-sea rescue experience and has been suitably chastened since.

The seas , of course, calmed down in the next few hours and if we had left it until the afternoon we wouldn't have had an epic adventure but some nice smooth kayaking.  However , by it was now too late to  proceed to Cardwell as originally intended ( it would have been a marathon kayak) and  we managed to convince Pete that we should head back to Lucinda the next day.

Friday morning and the seas were glassy, but we decided to visit the falls for a last swim and didn't leave until midday, by which time the wind had come up a bit and the 1 metre swell produced quite a bit of chop but nothing compared to the previous day.  Unfortunately, by the time we headed back around Hillock Point Andrew was not  very well at all  and was having definite trouble paddling.  We decided to attempt a tow to another beach close to the channel (Bindi and I can testify that towing is NOT a good idea if you can avoid it, it's just very bloody hard work)  where us girls would take over the singles and give the guys the double.

The plastic kayaks are hard work , now I know what a cork in a bathtub feels like and I can sympathise with Andrew taking a tumble in the other, heavier conditions.  But  the really hard work begins .....  with the tide going out the channel, a current that appears to cut across it at 45 degrees, a head wind of about 10 - 15 knots,  and us wanting  to cut right across the whole lot.  It took nearly 2 hours to cover a distance that originally took us about 45 minutes in the double.  The chop, swell, tide, current and wind  all at once meant waves were irregular and would hit at funny angles. So we had to concentrate quite hard to stay upright, and going against the tide meant we had to constantly keep one foot on the right rudder to make sure we were heading for land and not out to sea.    (Pete did offer to swap with either one of us before we hit the channel but we decided against it - next time I might take him up on the offer!)

When we finally got back I was nearly in tears from the effort,  Bindi said she felt exactly the same but why did I all of a sudden seem to put on a burst of speed about two thirds the way across ?  Let me tell you that there's nothing like seeing a sizable shark fin sink slowly below the surface to give your paddling some impetus hey  !!!!    There was no way I was going to end up in the ocean or hang around any longer than I had to with something like that swimming around!

Now .....  I can't wait for my next epic adventure with the Popes !!

Cheers

Steph