Timbo, trying to dry out in the early morning sun

(Continued from Part 1) Both wet from our respective spills, Timbo and I paddled up to Bantry Bay in search of warmth and a hot cup of black gold from the Coffee Boat. On approach to Bantry Bay we could see the little gold tug boat handing out coffees to moored pleasure cruisers  so we hurried over to position ourselves in the queue. Before long, Garry the coffee boat man was handing us two large coffees, which would have been great for Timbo had I not insisted he do a roll for Garry’s enjoyment! Newly wet after his rolling demo, he appreciated that hot coffee more than ever as we rafted together for our floating coffee break.

Once done we figured the extra high tide would make Scotts Creek accessible for a gentle cruise. Tim had only ever been a short way into it, so we took off to see if there was enough tide to get in.

The entrance to Scotts Creek

On arrival we found about 8 inches of water at the entrance (the shallowest part of the creek for quite a distance) which was enough to glide in. The mangroves are mesmerising, encroaching from all sides as the creek narrows to about 6-8 feet wide. This is one of Sydney’s real paddling treats, a lost wilderness in the heart of Sydney, and after our excitement of the morning, it was a perfect way to relax and enjoy the slow drift.

Moving into the start of the creek

Like paddling through an enchanted forest

Overhanging cliffs

Getting deeper up the creek

And finally we run out of water

Once we hit the dry end of the creek we turned around and slowly cruised back out into the Harbour, where we embarked on a hunt for a, err, “nature stop”, which was necessary ofter the buckets of coffee we’d drunk.  Much of Middle Harbour is either cliff or private houses, but eventually we pulled up on a sandy beach for a toilet stop with one hell of a view!

Relief at last! And what a view...

All that was left was a gentle paddle back to The Spit, where the local café would again provide us with caffeine. Once back, we left our boats on the beach to grab the coffees, but when we returned, the only boats on the beach were Timbo’s blue kayak and a few yellow hire boats. The Scarlett Woman was gone!

Lots of kayaks... but no red ones!

A few minutes of panic ensued as I searched the local carpark, the Sydney Harbour Kayaks shop and the grass outside, before I suspected a rat and returned to the beach. Then if wasn’t long before I spotted my beloved Valley Aquanaut in its hiding spot, to the laughter of the SHK boys who had obviously got me.

Found her! Scarlett Woman, carefully hidden.

At the end of our paddle, Timbo and I reflected on the crazy morning. We’d spent over 5 hours on the water; we’d seen the sunrise over the Tasman Sea, experienced a massive tide rushing into big ocean swell, surfed, rock gardened, and both stacked our boats, had coffee on the water, explored the beauty of Scotts Creek and had a nice relax on a harbour-side beach. Not bad for a morning session! Cheers – FP

Tags: Scotts Creek, Tim Kennings

Grotto Point, Sydney Harbour (viewed from the sea-side)

Adventures always seem to start when you least expect it. Over the ANZAC weekend I was due to paddle & camp out in the Shoalhaven Gorge wilderness area, but sickness struck my paddle mate and it was cancelled in the hours before we were due to leave. So instead I met up for a very early paddle with Timbo, kicking off from The Spit before 6am with the sun still yet to peek up over the horizon.

This April had been the warmest in Sydney for over 30 years, but on this particular morning the temperature had dropped to the coldest levels for some time, so much so that I’d pulled out the CAG for the first time since last winter to help keep warm and dry. The forecast was also for 30 knot south/south-easterly winds and rough seas, so I figured it was definitely time to rug up.

Once on the water though the conditions were somewhat confusing. As we paddled towards Grotto Point to catch the sunrise over the Tasman Sea, we took stock of the conditions. Light winds from the west (instead of the south-easterlys we’d expected), and a surging out-going tide that seemed to be creating it’s own swell. Middle harbour is incredibly shallow between The Spit and Grotto Point, and with a big tide range, the surge was creating conditions much like a tidal race.

As we approached Grotto Point, we could see enormous spray and crashing waves where the ocean swell was hammering the cliffs. By this stage we were practically surfing the outgoing tide, but then hitting incoming swell coming from the south-east. And as we rounded the point, the swell size was awesome, with 3 metre swell surging through the Heads and smashing against the sea-side of Grotto Point.

From here we had an incredible view of the sunrise as the tide pushed us out past the point and towards New Zealand. I’d have taken photos but the big swell was hitting the tidal waves and creating a bouncy maelstrom of moving water that did not afford me the pleasure of putting my paddle down to reach for the camera! So as the sun arose, we turned and head back for the safety of the point, watching as the huge swell exploded against the cliffs.

As I rounded the point, I noticed Timbo dropping back to wait for a wave. Grotto Point consists of rocks that gradually slip beneath the water, meaning the waves jack up over them and then curve to the right into the bay behind. Timbo found a wave to his liking, hit the paddle hard and after teetering on the crest of the wave, toppled down onto its face and surfed around the point. Almost. Because as he was passing over the rocks of the point he decided to drop his skeg, which caught the rear of his kayak as he was starting to slide the stern out across the wave, and promptly threw the boat over and upside down. A few seconds later he rolled back up, a little embarrassed and thankful he’d somehow missed the rocks that were under him.

Time to play along the rocky cliffs behind Grotto Point

We cruised into the rocky shores of the bay behind the point as Timbo shivered in his now wet state. The swell was bending around Grotto Point creating plenty of moving water amongst the rocks, so I pulled the skeg all the way up and started slaloming amongst the rock garden. As I laughed at the fun of the wave surges, I started to try tighter turns between tighter gaps in the rocks, relying on my tough Adanac Greenland paddle to help soften the impacts as they happened.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

I can fit through there, NO problem! *gulp*

As we rounded the end of the bay, I found a nice big detached rock with a small gap close to the rocky cliff behind it that would only allow me to pass through on a wave surge. Full of confidence, I waited for the wave and then hammered it into the gap, sliding the boat around on the surge and passing through nicely. Except as the surge sucked back out, a big hole emerged in the waters behind me sucking me back into the cliff. Taking some fast hard strokes I pulled away from the cliff as the next big swell surge rolled under me and into the cliff. Then looking over my shoulder I could only watch as the surge bounced off the cliff, jacked up into a tall breaker and hit me broadside, rolling me into the rocky garden with no room to attempt a roll.

As I popped up holding onto my kayak, Timbo came around from behind the rock having missed the whole thing and wondering why my boat was upside down. The swell was bashing me against the oyster-encrusted rocks, so I was pretty keen to get back into my kayak, and after recovering my paddle & hat in the lumpy waters quickly did an assisted entry back into my boat. Now it was Timbo’s turn to laugh, as both of us continued on our way soaked from our respective swim!

Once we arrived at Clontarf Beach we pulled up to clear out the water in our boats and have a bit of a drink/rest. Looking down I could see I’d opened my ankle up on the oysters and was showing a fair bit of claret for my troubles, but thankfully I’d had wetsuit shoes on and my feet were fine. After another laugh at each other, we got back in our kayaks and head off into Middle Harbour in search of something a bit easier and more civilized. We decided that what we really needed after all the excitement, was the happiness that comes with Middle Harbour’s own Coffee Boat… (to be continued)

Tags: Clontarf Beach, grotto point, kayak surfing, rock gardening

The beginning - a fat bloke with his first kayak

This time a year ago the FatPaddler.com website was launched. It’s initial goal was to document my personal journey to the Hawkesbury Classic, but quickly became a much greater adventure than I had anticipated. In the 12 months since the site was born, I’ve completed three different marathon races, paddled with icebergs and whales in Alaska, learnt to roll (well, kind of), discovered Greenland paddles and paddled all over the waterways of Sydney.

By far the best aspect of my new passion for paddling however  is the friends I’ve made. The local paddlers I get out on the water with weekly, the distant Aussie paddlers I catch up with occassionally, the visiting paddlers that I take out when they arrive in Sydney, the international paddling community that rallies so well on the internet and of course all those that organise the events I’ve particpated in. And of course, all the beginner paddlers I take out, who inevitably want to keep going!

So as I celebrate this first year, I’d like to raise a glass to all the wonderful people I’ve been lucky enough to interact with during my paddling adventures. A better group of people you could not ask for. Cheers! – FP

The first paddle (FP in orange/yellow). 30mins of paddling, 3 hrs of swimming!

Discovering the Coffee Boat

Extending the paddles away from the Harbour. Berowra Waters dawn.

Kayak upgrade - a composite BD Nanook for the Hawkesbury Classic

Sea Kayak course with Old Salty. Strokes, exits, safety and rescues.

USA work trip, ending with a paddling trip in the Alaskan wilderness.

Panasonic photography competition. FP heavily featured.

At last! My first Greenland style paddle!

FP finishes the Haweksbury Classic, a 111km night-time marathon.

Team Fat Paddler awarded Landcrew Award for the 2009 Hawkesbury Classic.

FP in his Valley Aquanaut, a more skill-oriented boat!

Learning to Roll

New custom-made high-strength Greenland paddles (thanks Adanac)

FP & Timbo, having just finished the Bridge to Beach.

Team Fat Paddler at the end of the Lifetsart Kayak for Kids

A Canoe for the kids!

Tags: birthday

Emerging daylight on Pittwater

The weekend had been exciting for Grumm. He had permission from the Minister for War & Finance to buy a kayak, and with the Sydney Harbour Kayaks ex-rental sale on, was keen to get into a nice composite Boréal Design Narwhal. However, with his son’s first football game on, I’d offered to go as his proxy, and returned with a completely different boat for him. Instead of a nice cruisy stable ruddered boat, I had bought him a kayak that was 10cm narrower, 30cm longer, with hard chines and a skeg. I’d got him an immaculate Boréal Design Labrador, knowing that once he was used to it he’d thank me for the more technical boat. And in the meantime, I’d get to laugh at him regularly falling out of it!

To my great annoyance however, on the test run he hadn’t fallen out even once. And as it turned out, the boat is an absolutely flying machine that I couldn’t remotely keep up with. Unless he had to turn of course, which he simply couldn’t do, since I hadn’t shown him how to edge and the boats complete lack of rocker meant it tracked as straight as an arrow!

The next day, since he’d proven he could actually stay upright in the boat, we left home at 5am for Pittwater, a 10km stretch of water leading to the mouth of the Hawkesbury River.  Grumm wanted to see his first kayak-borne sunrise, so I figured this was as good a place as any to do so. I’d also invited Timbo along for the journey, and with darkness slowly draining away we pushed off into the inky waters of Pittwater.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Or golden even!

Immediately Grumm set a cracking pace in his ridiculously fast boat. I was determined to tip him out though, so time and again I’d race up his slip stream, edge the nose of my Aquanaut alongside his stern, and then smash a hard turn to port against the back of his boat. This would immediately spin him around sideways, although I just couldn’t seem to get him to fall out. Of course once sideways it would take him 5 mins and about a 400 metre turning circle to get his boat facing the right way again, which gave me ample time to get some distance on him before he would inevitably catch-up. Then I’d do it all again – haha!

After a few kilometres of these games, we passed by Scotland Island and paused as the sun finally poked up over the horizon, bathing us all in golden light. Grumm raced ahead for the prime position to finally get his paddling sunrise.

The FP view of the sunrise. Beautiful.

Grumm gets pole position for his first sunrise.

Grumm bathed in dawn's first light.

Once we had that out the way we recommenced our northwards paddle up Pittwater, pausing occasionally to enjoy the national park wilderness on its western shores. For me, this meant a little rock-gardening whilst Timbo and Grumm took a wide-berth in their composite boats (yay for my plastic Aquanaut!). Eventually Tim got annoyed with missing out on all the fun, so pulled out his goggles and started to practice some rolls.

Timbo being a clown as usual. Nice rolls though!

By this stage we’d come about 6-7 km, with Timbo and I catching the odd boat-wake for a little sloppy surfing. But Grumm’s boat started to slow down, and we realised all the paddling over the past two days was wearing him out.  So we decided to pull into Mackerel Beach, a quaint little holiday village accessible only by boat.

Time to relax at Mackerel Beach

Now relaxing on the beach, we were joined by a lovely lady who had ridden her bike down to the water’s edge. Our chat inevitably turned to coffee and we asked if she knew of somewhere to get one. She responded that she was actually off to get a few cups of Sydney’s best coffee – at a café on the otherside of Pittwater! And at that, she pulled out an old ski and paddle and set off for the 2km paddle across the water.

Coffee... over there somewhere apparently.

Looking at Grumm however it was clear we wouldn’t be making the extra trip for Sydney’s best coffee. In his whiniest Brit accent, he complained about his sore shoulders and Timbo and I could see we’d have to get him back the last 7 kms via the most direct route possible.  Even though his whinging was a little tiresome, his slow pace allowed us to take in the fog that was rolling into Pittwater, a magnificent sight as it crept into the watery basin.

Fog rolling in from the Tasman Sea across the Hawkesbury River mouth

Timbo watching the fog rolling in through the valleys

Still in a playful mood, I was taking the long route back by playing in all the rock-gardens along the water’s edge. Dodging amongst the rocks, I was giving my Adanac Paddle a good workout as I zoomed through little gauntlets,  with water sliding in and out of the rocky formations.  Then, much to Timbo’s amusement, whilst a good 15 metres into a particularly shallow rock garden, I got stuck. Not a little stuck,  but quite seriously stuck, so to the sounds of Tim’s laughter I slowly pushed off the rocks and carefully reversed out, trying not to think of the new scratches I’d most likely added to my hull. On a bright note, at least I hadn’t broken my Greenland paddle!

Grumm slowly paddling back, safely far away from any shallow rock-gardens

As Grumm’s whining got worse, Timbo took over distraction duties and coached Grumm on paddle technique and edging. It didn’t shut him up for long, but at least it gave him the chance to pick up a few skills! Then finally, we pulled into McCarrs Creek, our put-in point and the end of Grumm’s journey. I was disappointed still that he hadn’t fallen out, but with a few oyster beds to watch our for at the landing point, I thought my best chance was about to come. And wouldn’t you know it, Grumm had already flipped over on exit and taken a bath before I could get the camera primed for the shot!

Grumm trying to disguise the fact he's just fallen in and is now dripping wet!

The final verdict on the morning was that Grumm’s boat is a rocket, sunrises are great, and poms whinge a lot. Oh, and watch out for the depth of rock-gardens!! Cheers – FP

Tags: Boréal Design, Boreal Design Labrador, grummett, Pittwater, Timbo

Team Fat Paddler does Kayak For Kids from Sacha Ward on Vimeo.

Awesome footage of Kayak for Kids from TFP member Sacha. Cheers mate!! – FP

Tags: Kayak for Kids, Team Fat Paddler