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Trip Reports Woody Head, Clarence coast Testing the metal @ Woody Head | Testing the metal @ Woody Head | | Print | |
| Written by Josh | |
| Sunday, 27 September 2009 | |
Whale-watching gone wrong Catch of the day - small mack tuna trolled up on a metal slug style lure When I arrived at Woody Head, looked out over the thick rippling water and observed the howling westerly gusts tearing white caps from the swell peaks my first thought was 'it's going to be wet & wild today - good thing I packed my drytop... or did I?' I hadn't of course, and I should have taken that as a sign. I didn't of course, but no way was I heading out in that without it. So I drove home, snatched my drytop and then drove back again. I was optimistic that winds might calm down... but upon return it was much the same. For a moment I stood at the boat ramp staring out to sea, wondering to myself if I should head out or not. Off shore winds were blowing from the west at around 20 knots and if anything was to go wrong out there, I'd be in serious strife. For sure, I'd have to rely on both pedals and sail to get back in, so heading out would be a calculated risk. As I gazed out I saw humpback whales breaching, explosions of water erupting on the horizon. That was it - I was heading out. As I geared up the Island and prepared for launch I reasoned that although the whales were a good 6 - 7 km out directly off shore, getting back in would simply be a matter of making broad tacks into the westerly winds all the way back. Plan B formed in my mind - in the event I simply couldn't make headway upon return, I'd head south and sail through the mouth of the Clarence and land at Iluka instead. Although this would put me 5km away from my car, it would be a manageable backup plan.  Burying the bow... yes, the sounder still works With 20 knot winds behind me the downwind sail was exhilerating, averaging speeds of around 12km an hour. Winds were working a swell up from behind as well, so at times the stern was surfing waves while the bow was burying itself into the water up front. I was 7.5km off shore when I caught a small mack tuna, trolled up on a metal slice. At this point I paused to observe the weather and consider my position, right then questioning my sanity. This was roughly where I'd last seen whales surface and I was keen to get a photo, but it didn't take long for it to feel brazenly foolish to hang around this far out. By now winds were gusting up to around 30 knots and the water was chopping up heavily. And as I turned back into the wind to begin tacking back it quickly dawned on me that plan A was going to be difficult at best, and that if I wanted to act on plan B I had to do it now. The immediate problem was that the winds were blowing too hard and whenever I was able to get any momentum going on a nthwest or sthwest tack, wind would get up underneath the windward tramp and threaten to flip me over. So for the 1st couple of km back I was using only a small amount of sail, and pedalling steadily to keep up momentum. The force of the wind was so strong, however, that for the most part it was simply blowing the boat further out to sea. I was making very little progress, though plan B was still an option. I'd have to tack into the river mouth (some 25km from my current position), and although I'd have to hike out on the tramp, it would be possible. My other option was to roll up the tramps to the forward akas and try to push back towards Woody Head again. That's what I decided to try. But first I decided to wind my line in and forget about fishing - indeed... hooking up to a good fish at this point would be a disaster.  Yeehar! It took about a minute to roll up the tramps... 60 precious seconds that I gave up a lot of ground, blowing even further out to sea. But now with the tramps out of the way I had no concerns about flipping the yak, so I was able to use more of the sail. Turning the yak into the nth west, this time the sail caught wind properly and I started moving in my intended direction. It did make a big difference in my confidence to be sailing with the tramps out of the way, another reminder that they are quite simply unsuitable for use in rough water & high winds. Once I got moving it didn't take terribly long to get back into Shark Bay, although I had to make numerous wide-sweeping tacks to get there, taking advantage of every subtle change in wind direction as it occurred. And when I entered into the calmer waters of the bay I looked out behind me and thought about how easily someone with much less skill would have most certainly been blown out to sea today. And then I reminded myself that most people simply aren't foolhardy enough to be out on days like today anyway. Off shore sailing in off shore winds really is asking for trouble, especially solo. I really did push the limits today, that of my own and the Island. It was a good test of the metal in that sense, but in hind sight it was pretty dangerous. *Video report coming soon
Where: Woody Head, Shark Bay, Clarence Coast, NSW |
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