Rise in the sun

Lives drifting, seas drifting
Worlds drifting with the sun

: )

Lxi

Farewell Dad

My father - Granger - passed away in his sleep today in Sydney, aged 84.

He was born in Suva, on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji, in 1930.

Boats were companions throughout his life.
His father ran a fleet of large and small trading vessels in Fiji for W.R.Carpenter that, as a young boy, Dad used to travel on through the many islands of Fiji.

There were other large vessels that carried him and his younger brother, Miles, to and from their dreaded boarding school in New Zealand throughout their schooling life.

As a young man he served in the Merchant Navy of Fiji.

Later there was the ship called "The Lakemba" that he serendipitously met my mum on while travelling from Suva to London.

There were many yachts in his life too - including the yacht "Kanai" that he raced on Port Moresby Harbour for many years with his friends from the Royal Papua Yacht Club ,and in later years the yacht called "Narawi" that he raced with his friends on Sydney Harbour.

The photo above captures him at right with a paddle in his hands, sitting on the stern deck of a skin-on-frame kayak. I am guessing that this photo was taken on the Avon River in Christchurch, NZ, during one of his school boarding terms, and thousands of miles away from the warm waters of Suva that he would rather have been paddling over.

In PNG we were fortunate to have friends in the spectacularly beautiful Trobriand Islands.
Dad and his friend Ret.Captain Don Wilson took us out in small motor boats to fish on the surrounding reefs at night, pulling up seemingly huge fish on baited lines.
During the days I remember us studying the traditional large outrigger canoes that still lined the beaches in front of the villages.

From PNG, Dad once took our young family for a holiday to Vanuatu where we paddled beautiful slender local outrigger canoes. That pleasant experience of one afternoon with him on a Vanuatuan lagoon has stayed with me ever since and it has undoubtedly shaped my fascination and enjoyment of paddling quietly around in a slender boat.

Farewell, Dad.

Mr Beachcroft returns to shore

On Saturday 28th June 2014 Tony and I went for a paddle out the Heads to see if we could say "hello and well done" to Jason Beachcroft - a man who was expected to complete his beautiful personal journey from Rose Bay to Rose Bay, the very long way.

 

It was gusting up to 25 knots outside, so we returned to the harbour thinking that the tired man of the sea was probably slogging it up the cliff line from Botany Bay.

 

 

A helicopter was making a nuisance of itself, buzzing around the harbour in a desperate search for its news story and stalking anyone in a kayak who looked vaguely as though they had just paddled 17,500 kms.

 

Representatives of the local kayak community were also on the look out ..."Any one seen Jason??"
- "Nope"
- "Nah"
- "Who? I can't hear you ... that fucken helicopter is making too much noise"

Helicopter pilot:
"Here we go! There's a greeny-blue canoe at 270. That must be the guy!"

Camera operator:
"Ok ... keep her steady ... I've got a great composition forming up here"

Fifteen minutes of aviation fuel later ...

Camera operator: "Hang on! Even I know that's not a Nadgee! That's a bloody imported kayak!! We've been following the wrong bloody paddler all morning!!!"

Helicopter Pilot: "Shit, eh? No fuel left, mate - we're outta here."

Quite appropriately, the elusive Mr Beachcroft quietly slips ashore to a round of polite applause from his family and friends, a few bemused onlookers and a small fluffy white dog waving its tail ...

Hats off to Jason Beachcroft.
A very humble and determined man who has just completed a very big personal journey.

It takes time ...

I have not yet found the time or space to draw the whole trip across the Strait together into a concise summary report. It needs a little time to sink in.

There are many hundreds of photos to filter through ... many, many, many recollections and memories of this adventure amongst a beautifully unfolding sequence of seascapes and landscapes.

So here are just a couple of images that fall out of the bag ...

New Year's Eve on Hogan Island

Diving for abalone in the Kent Group of islands.

Winter Cove camp.

Hooning over to Hogan. Top speed of 19.9km/h.

Slogging it out to Flinders. 72km this day.

Cruising through the Furneaux Group. Ross and Peter having joined us at Killekrankie.

Mercury sea with Mt Chappel on horizon.

A sea kayaker's dinner.

A sea kayaker's entree ... about seven hundred dollars worth of green lipped abalone.

Mt Strzelecki Group from Anderson Island.

Derek exploring the sea ...

Tony with more abs above, and wondering where Bass Strait has gone below ...

I intend to write a comprehensive summary one day ...

Over & out.

( Luke )

 

Crossing of Bass Strait

OK - so we made a successful crossing of Bass Strait.

Tony + Luke + Derek

Departure from Port Welshpool, Victoria, on 30th Dec, 2013.
Arrival at Little Musselroe Bay, Tasmania, on 15th Jan, 2014

Full details of our crossing to follow soon.

Initial expression of our sincere thanks to the following kind and generous people and places:

Katie + Claudia + Vickie for enduring the whole thing at home with children
Richard Barnes for incredible generosity and spirit
Rob Mercer for skills instruction
John Duffy for advice on fresh water locations
The Erith Mob for the 3 bottles of wine
Rick and Meg Amor for their genuine concern over our life expectancy
Kim and Spud for wonderfully kind hearted welcomingness and hot pumpkin soup
Warren (Yachtie) for the well meaning donation of provisions
The Great Bite Cafe, Killecrankie, for coffee and breakfast
The Hut at Royden Island for its cosiness
Tim and Wendy for their happiness
Meredy and Warren for their interest
Dee and Harry - so good to meet up with you on Tas!
The weather gods of Bass Strait ! ! !

Thank you all !

Paddling around

Some stats from our recent paddling ...

140 kms have been paddled in the last 6 days - that's with 30 kgs of bagged sand as load stashed into the fore compartment, cockpit and aft compartment..

Today Tony and I did a 70 km paddle from Sydney Harbour up to Broken Bay and back.
We were fortunate to have favourable weather and sea conditions - although there was a solid swell running.
We paddled the 70 kms in 9 hrs 27 mins. Average moving speed of 7.5kph. A good result with 30 kgs of sand on board.

In the preceeding weeks, four trips of greater distance than 50km each have been paddled out of Sydney.

And a total of 600kms has been paddled in the last few months. (Thanks to our wives for the multiple leave passes)

It's been satisfying to get these distances completed in varied sea and wind conditions.
Sometimes in grinding headwinds with lots of cliff rebound.
And sometimes with downwind bliss at our backs.

We've hardly taken any photos during this year's paddling.
However here are a few that we took today ...

Luke sailing northwards at dawn in Julian's Impex Force 4. The V-sail is custom made of Mylar with a reefable top section and an increased throat at the sail foot to minimise stalling when burying the foredeck in steep wind waves.

Tony on the way back from Broken Bay. Barrenjoey in the background.

"Only 35 k's to go"

Practising rescues

Derek and Ross at South Head

 

Cray hunting

Tony rolling for crays.
North Head.

Felix

Felix chasing his shadow.

Offshore

Derek rolling 8kms east of Manly.

Stuff

The image below summarises our last 3 months ...

Lots of paddling and a focus on improving our sea kayaking skills - rolling, surfing and other interesting stuff.

Below is a photo of Tony performing a roll, 9 kms east of North Head ... the cliffs are just visible through the bushfire smoke.

 

Kavieng kanu

A recent trip for my work has taken me up to Kavieng, on the north-western tip of New Ireland, which lies off the north coast of the Papua New Guinea mainland.

I got up before dawn, borrowed an outrigger canoe and its single-bladed paddle, and wandered over the short distance to Nusa Island.

I think that this area of the world is pretty close to paddling heaven ...

A kayaker's dream ...

These pavilions are at the Nusa Island Retreat.

This was a nice way to start the day in PNG.

Long white cloud

It's a long way to the long white cloud. 

Australia to New Zealand - Scott Donaldson - Day 1

On his way ...

Australia to New Zealand by kayak

Scott Donaldson preparing his long distance ocean kayak for launch from Coffs Harbour to the north island of New Zealand. 

As of writing this, it is anticipated that he will launch at 9am tomorrow - ANZAC Day.

His understated yet quietly confident manner seems to belong to an earlier era - perhaps consistent with other towering New Zealanders who have knocked the odd bastard off. 

Podcast interview:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/04/24/3744391.htm?site=midnorthcoast

Rolling

 
Thanks to Rob for the skills session today.

Montague Island

The tribe has been exploring the far south coast of NSW.

Here is a small impression of the experience out at Montague Island ...