Cottontree

This year the end of year celebrations for the Queensland Sea Kayaking Club were held at CottonTree on the Sunshine Coast.  I was fortunate enough to get a public holiday on the Friday thanks to the G20 so joined with the crew for a fun day out on the ocean as well as the on shore social activities.

I assisted a new trip leader with taking a small pod out through the Cottontree bar for a circumnavigation of Mudjimba Island.

The wind was pushing 10+knots from the north as we paddled out to the island.  There was a meter of easterly swell running, with the winds predicted to rise to 20 knots later in the day.  The lee of the island offered good protection from the strengthening winds and swell which was starting to run from the north.

There was a nice wave on the north-west corner of the island (right hander), and the left hand reef break was starting to fire on the south-west corner of the island.

I took the opportunity to surf the left hand reef break - I was tempted to stay out for a few more hours as the waves were a perfect shape, breaking over the shallow reef.

We had a great down wind run on the way back to the Pin Cushion and a uneventful crossing of the bar.  A couple of us stayed out on the bar for some more waves before paddling over to Pin Cushion for some chill time.

More photos at: QSKC Christmas Weekend

Amity Banks Paddling

Sitting and waiting at work to hear the outcome of a major tender wasn't doing me any good so I opted to start the weekend early and took Friday off to spend some time on the water and to enjoy some island time.

A loose plan to paddle against the incoming spring tide over to either Moreton Island or North Stradbroke Island for a day of wildlife spotting was the general idea.  I am always amazed at the amount of wildlife we encounter on the Bay - it just comes down to spending time on the water no matter what the conditions.

We took off from Wellington Point, following the leads out to Hope Bank and then the plan was to continue to the northern side of the Rous Channel.  After 8 kms of slogging against the incoming tide and prevailing wind, we hatched plan B which was to paddle south over the Banks and not worry about going across to Moreton Island. Plan B turned into Plan C and we ended up paddling across the banks and getting a lift up to Amity with the outgoing tide thanks to the 5 knot current running in the Rainbow Channel.

The banks always produce an amazing array of wildlife, though you have to be looking at the right place at the right time to see a dugong as our local dugongs are very nervous and it isn't often that you will find them relaxed on the surface.  In addition to the dugong, we saw the usual gambit of turtles and dolphins, but it was hard to spot the sharks with two plus meters of textured water over the banks.

A walk to the cafe at Amity for brunch saw us spotting koala's as well as a range of bird life including the Eastern Osprey (in the first photo) who's mate was sitting on the nest at the top of a radio tower calling to this one who instead of providing food, was resting in the shade.

After lunch we jumped back in the kayaks and paddled over to a local exposed sandbank to check out the birds we had spotted settling on the banks early in the day.

We ended up with 47 kms of paddling for the day, and ticked more boxes than we expected on our wildlife tour of Moreton Bay.

More photos from the day can be found at: Amity Wander Photos