How to convey this beautiful day at sea?
After just a handful of paddle strokes from the shore at Arawarra, a big green turtle broke the surface with its pleasantly speckled face. It then dived directly towards me and with a few gentle arcs of its large Rayban-like fins it was momentarily beneath my hull and then gone. Beautiful thing! If that had been the end of my day I would have been very pleased.
Soon afterwards an incredible experience ... twelve Humpback whales emerged within just a few kilometres of one another - adults and calves playing at the sea's surface. Their deep groans and higher frequency singing clearly audible to me in my kayak. A couple of spectacular full-body leaps into the sky escaped my camera's shutter but I managed to record a gluttony of images at close range.
And as if that was not enough for one day, I threw a lure over the stern while under sail back to the coast from North West Solitary Island and picked up dinner - a Bonito tuna (ok not so amazing) and a sweet Kingfish - the prize of the sea, in my little fishing book.
In the photo below you can just see South Solitary Island (at left) and South West Solitary Island (at right).
A few years ago I paddled out to South Solitary and I was in two minds earlier this morning about going there again today. I was fortunate that I chose to paddle to North West Solitary and in doing so intersected with this stream of whales.
Below is North West Solitary Island ... no where near as spectacular as South Solitary Island with its elegant lighthouse but still, NWSI is a nice sea peak to aim for when paddling off the east coast.
Dinner was caught on a lure while sailing back to the coast ...
Kingfish and Bonito ... eaten as sashimi with Wasabi and soy (left) and slivers of Jalapeno (right).
Little video from this morning ...
