FP leading the crew away from The Spit at the start of the social paddle

Having done a fair bit of solo paddling over the past few weeks, I thought it might be time to organise an open social paddle. I put the word out looking for first-timers or friends, with a plan to meet at The Spit before a leisurely paddle up Middle Harbour.

The social set making their way under The Spit Bridge

Grumm turned up with Gavin, a mate of his from the old country.  A colleague from my work, Gelo, turned up. A reader of the site who I hadn’t met before (Mark) arrived on his Vespa. And Blast Paddlers personality Dez Blanchfield turned up with his carbon fibre racing ski. Finally, a bloke we met on the beach, Ian (who had hired an OZFlyte ski for a test paddle), took up an impromptu invite  to join us as well. The seven of us then lined up our respective kayaks and skis on the beach, and paddled north into Middle Harbour.

The FP Paddle Gang... that's how we roll, baby!

Watching Dezzy cruising on his 6.5 metre Think Uno racing ski, I thought about how he might go with a Greenland paddle.  So I convinced him to swap paddles for a bit, me fumbling with his carbon wing paddle, and him trying to get a handle on my traditional hand-carved wooden Adanac Paddle. It was an incredible sight, the mix of cutting edge carbon ski with a traditional Inuit paddle!

Carbon fibre and Timber - New School and Old!!

We eventually returned each others paddles and continued with the group up to Sugar Loaf Bay, where we anticipated meeting Garry in his coffee boat. Unfortunately he didn’t turn up, so after waiting a little while we made the decision to head into Scotts Creek and try to find Garry later.

Mark traded in his usual Sit On Top for a sea kayak. Not sure about the lime visor though??

For those of us in kayaks, the narrow confines of Scotts Creek are usually pretty easy to negotiate. You’d expect the boys in long skis to have problems, but not the kayakers. Except for Gelo of course, who someone managed to wedge his boat into a tree.

Gelo, smiling to hide the fact he's firmly wedged in place!

As the creek narrowed at the half way mark, Dez decided he couldn’t really take his ski much further and chose to turn around. Watching a 6.5m ski trying to turn in a creek about 6.3m wide is pretty damn funny, and for a few moments it looked like Dez was going to wobble enough to end up swimming. But after a perfectly executed 120-point turn, he eventually got his ski around and waving goodbye, head off back to the The Spit.

Seeya Dez, get that bloody huge ski out of this creek!

The rest of us continued up the creek until it bottomed out, so we each turned our kayaks around to head back out. Except Gelo of course, who again managed to get wedged sideways across the creek! Grumm and I had to use both our kayaks to push and pull him around until eventually he was facing the right way.

Oh Gelo.... did you get stuck AGAIN??

The paddle back out was uneventful and as we returned to Sugar Loaf Bay we caught up with Garry for the long-awaited coffees. Rafting up, we all had a chat and enjoyed the beautiful Sydney morning as we sipped our coffee, before splitting up again for the final paddle back to The Spit.

A triumphant Mark at the end of the paddle. Still not sure about that visor!!

Gavin and Ian rolling in to The Spit

Ian... got to see a bit more of the Harbour than a just your average paddle!

With a few new friends made, we all grabbed a final coffee and enjoyed the sun and the beach out the front of Sydney Harbour Kayaks. All up a lovely little tour of Middle Harbour, and a few new lads with the paddling bug.  Cheers – FP

P.s. Thanks to Shannon from Sydney Harbour Kayaks for some of the photos!

Tags: Blast Paddlers, Dez Blanchfield, OZFlyte Pro, Scotts Creek, Social Paddle, Think Uno

Early morning at The Spit. Is it really Winter??

This week Team Fat Paddler was graced with Grumm’s sister Andie, up on a holiday from Radelaide.  As we had promised some months earlier, we loaded her into the car and took off for our Sunday paddle session.

Arriving at The Spit at 7am it was hard to believe it was mid-Winter, with sunny conditions, low winds and glassy waters greeting us. A quick fit-out in one of Sydney Harbour Kayaks‘  composite kayaks and Andie was away, choosing not to use the rudder which we all nodded our approval at.

As we paddled up Middle Harbour, we entered a trash zone where recent rains had washed debris out of drains and into the water.  I managed to scrounge a few tennis balls out of the drink to throw at Grumm, and in return he fished out an apple which he returned fire with – and poorly at that. Andie decided to get in on the action and, with a good lean over the side of her yak, attempted to scoop up the bobbing apple. Of course she went over too far and I had a close view of her teetering on the edge of the boat desperately flailing to stay upright before the inevitable spill into the drink.

Choking back the laughter, I paddled over to her and walked her through an assisted rescue; hold onto your boat, now move around to mine, now I’m pulling your boat over my bow so I can drain the water, now move back around ready for entry… and so on and so on.  Within a few minutes, we got her back into her relatively empty boat, before we all burst into fits of laughter at her expense!

With Andie shivering a little in her now fairly wet stage, we made a bee-line for Sugar Loaf Bay to intercept Garry and his Coffee Boat. With his arrival, we rafted up and enjoyed the first hot coffee of the day.

Grumm and a wet Andie enjoying their coffee.

With the coffee out of the way, and Andie now in a somewhat warmer state, we moved off into Scotts Creek for yet another magical paddle through the mangroves, cliff overhangs and scrub.

Andie, in amongst the trees

Mangrove reflections. Beautiful.

Once back out of the creek, we skirted the edges of Sugar Loaf Bay looking at small waterfalls and a couple of stingrays in the shallows, before turning for the trip back to The Spit and another coffee. And of course plenty of reminiscing of Andie bobbing for apples (haha!). Cheers! – FP

Andie, still paddling around looking for apples!

Tags: Scotts Creek

Sunshine at the back, Bugsy up front

Whenever one of my daughters has a birthday, my mum (aka Bugsy) who lives about 1500kms away on the great Murray River, comes to visit. When she last came in January, she came and relaxed on the beach at Sydney Harbour Kayaks whilst I had a paddle, and mesmerised by the beauty of Middle Harbour, decided to try kayaking herself. A month or so later she bought herself a little sit on top and with her partner Richard (aka Sunshine) has been paddling the reaches of the Murray ever since.

With my eldest daughter turning four, mum decided to add a Sydney paddle to her itinerary.  So in the dark early hours of Sunday morning, Bugsy, Sunshine, Grumm and I head off for the beautiful beaches at The Spit. Shannon at Sydney Harbour Kayaks had a nice stable double set-up ready for the two visitors, and we promptly head off into Middle Harbour.

I love the first reactions of new paddlers to Sydney, as they are captivated by the beauty of the Middle Harbour and astounded by the expensive houses and boats that line her shores. Bugsy and Sunshine were no different, oohing and ahhing at the incredible real estate on show.

Once we turned heading for Bantry Bay, I had one thing on my mind – the Coffee Boat. We were running a little late and the Bugsy/Sunshine double kayak was, err, going at a “slightly slower” pace than either Grumm or I are used to. And with about 1.5km to go, I just made out the small golden profile of Garry and his little coffee tug leaving Bantry Bay and making for Sugar Loaf Bay, so without explaining why, I diverted our small group into the bay behind him.

Bugsy (and those glasses!) and Grumm in coffee bliss

Rafting up next to Garry, we ordered coffees for all and enjoyed the black gold whilst slowly drifting across the bay in the early morning sunshine.

Sushine with a bucket of black coffee. Luvverly!

With us all now woken up, I considered our paddling options. The tide was out, but slowly coming back into the Harbour, so I thought we’d try to get into Scotts Creek (despite it being near impossible to enter at low tide). Leading the way into the creek’s entrance, with the water less than half a foot deep, we just pushed our way into the creeks deeper waters.

The barge entering the start of Scotts Creek

It’s really hard to describe the beauty of this hidden part of Middle Harbour, but I still find it to be magical each time I go there. For newcomers, it’s beauty is staggering, with its arching mangroves and cliff overhangs.

Inside Scotts Creek

The overhang, Scotts Creek

When we finally hit the end of the end of the creek, we discovered there was no way for the big double to turn around. I therefore offered a hand by climbing out of my kayak and manually lifting the nose of their double yak over the creek bank to turn them the right way, in the process near freezing my walnuts off in the cold water. As they paddled off towards Sugar Loaf Bay, I gingerly dragged my freezing legs back into my kayak.

Out of the creek and back into the bay

From there we slowly made our way back to The Spit, having lost the best part of 3 hours on our meandering paddle. With a little boat traffic now chopping up the waters, I got the chance to catch a couple of little rides as my visitors put in the paddles to get themselves back.

Back to the where the big boats are!

Finally we pulled into Sydney Harbour Kayaks for an extra cheeky coffee in the sun to round out the morning, with Bugsy and Sunshine now happy and content that they’d actually kayaked Sydney Harbour.  Cheers – FP

Plenty of smiles at the end of the paddle. Cheers!

Tags: Bugsy, Scotts Creek, Sunshine

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

J-Dogg cruising past the marina at The Spit

A good mate of mine who has been living in the Middle East recently returned to Sydney for a few weeks and we organised to head out for a paddle on Middle Harbour.  We both rented matching BD Epsilons (a P300 for me, a P200 for him) from Sydney Harbour Kayaks and since the tide was in I thought I’d take him for a burn up to Scotts Creek, Bantry Bay and back to The Spit.

At the start of the paddle my mate Jeremy (or J-Dogg as I like to call him) took off at a fairly cracking pace, pushing his slightly smaller kayak with his euro blade pretty quickly through the water. As a bigger lazy guy, I need a good 3-4km to warm up so I was struggling a little to keep up with my greenland paddle and bigger boat. Of course, by the time we’d paddled about 2km he was starting to slow down and I was starting to speed up, so our pace levelled out to an uneasy equal!

Turning into Sugar Loaf Bay I guided J-Dogg into Scotts Creek, my anticipated highlight for the morning. Unfortunately an overnight deluge had carried all sorts of rubbish amongst the storm water into the creek, so my once pristine secret was looking pretty dirty. Still, it is a magical place and as we slowly cruised amongst the mangroves and palms, it was hard not to appreciate this little secret spot. A kangaroo breaking cover and hopping alongside us through the scrub just added to the charm.

The J-Dogg on Scotts Creek

Once we left Scotts Creek it was only a few minutes before I spotted the Coffee Boat chugging past in the distance, and not wanting to be deprived of my morning paddle-coffee, I left the J-Dogg behind and put in the big strokes to race after my water-borne caffeine dealer. Fortunately I was able to catch him, so we got to relax on Sugar Loaf Bay sipping skim lattés on the water.

After the coffee I was fired up for a decent paddle, so I led J-Dogg north into Bantry Bay (against a northerly wind). At this stage I started to notice my matey drifting behind me, and was having to slow down every few minutes so he could catch up.  Could it be that J-Dogg had broken the gate a bit hard earlier in the morning *grin*?

J-Dogg "powering" along the shore of Middle harbour. Until he grounded himself on rocks - haha!

After a quick stop in Bantry Bay we realised we needed to get the boats back within 30 minutes so set off for a fast paddle back to The Spit. We set off at a firm pace and cruised back along the Seaforth shoreline, discussing the various merits of house design along this expensive strip, before I took off to sprint the final km or so to the beach in front of Sydney Harbour Kayaks.  A few minutes behind the J-Dogg rolled up on the beach also, looking a little out of breath and somewhat flustered, but in general pretty happy with the experience. All up a nice little morning paddle, made even more fun by doing it with a friend. Cheers! – FP

Tags: Bantry Bay, Middle Harbour, Scotts Creek