"The Coat Hanger".... aka the Sydney Harbour Bridge

I don’t often paddle in the heart of the city of Sydney because of excessive boat, ship and ferry traffic, but every now and then I do just to see our magnificent city from the Harbour. My completely biased view is that Sydney is the most beautiful city in the world, and exploring her waters is always a pleasure.

The Famous Tim Kennings and I met up at Blues Point and set off into the darkness at 6am, enjoying the view of the city lights reflecting off the water before sunrise lightened the sky. For the rest of the morning we explored her shores, stopped for coffee in Chowder Bay, surfed wind chop and ferry wake, paddled & surfed under the Luna Park boardwalk and generally had a blast as the wind and chop built up over the morning.

Needless to say I’ll let the photos tell the story. Cheers – FP

TFTK in the early morning amber light at sunrise, the Sydney Opera House in background.

Exploring the Harbour's northern shoreline

The world's most beautiful harbour.... well, I think so!

Even harbour's get swell and waves. Good fun to play in!

The iconic Sydney Opera House. As seen from the water!

Kirribilli House, the official Sydney residence of Australia's Prime Minister

Paddling under Luna Park. Timbo surfed through this lane!

Style. Poise. Grace. The Famous Tim Kennings in his North Shore Atlantic!

Paddling out to sea in the darkness

All the weather and marine forecasts said the same thing – small waves and an even smaller ocean swell. Despite weeks of big seas and high winds, here was a one-day window of opportunity that was too good to ignore. It was time to head to sea.

Leaving home around 5am, the temperature gauge read 2 degrees C, a very chilly start to the day. With all my winter paddling layers on, I finally pushed off from The Spit and paddled past Balmoral Beach, then Middle Head, across the shipping lane and finally to Sydney Harbour’s South Head. With a final look back, I paddled past the rocky headland and out to sea.

Breaking light over the Tasman Sea. Beautiful.

With half an hour to go before sunrise, I turned south and paddled along Sydney’s cliffs for a kilometre or so, admiring their ruggedness in the early light. Motor boats were steadily leaving the Harbour and heading to sea, with fishing, diving and whale-watching  boats taking advantage of the calm conditions. I was sitting a little under half a kilometre out to sea waiting for the sunrise, and quietly hoping to see migrating whales. And then I get to enjoy the sunrise, with the cliffs of Sydney bathed in the mornings first orange glow.

Sunrise over calm seas.

Early morning cliffs

With the sun now up, I turned and paddled back in towards the cliffs before slowly paddling back towards South Head, and its candy-striped Lighthouse. As I got closer, I could just make out a lone paddler rounding the head, with the unmistakable blue Atlantic signaling that it was the The Famous Tim Kennings.

The South Head lighthouse

After a quick hello, we paddled up to North Head’s impressive southern cliff where we watched divers, fishermen and ski paddlers frolicking close to the cliff-line. Then with a wave, Timbo headed south for a burn along the cliffs whilst I paddled back into the Harbour to finish off the morning’s paddle and get a hot coffee into me. Cheers – FP

FP with Sydney's cliffs in the background.

Red Dust on Sydney Harbour (Flickr Image Credit: miro b)

Sydney-siders awoke this morning to what appeared to be Armageddon.  The skies at 5.30am were fire-red and thick with dust, the early stages of what has turned into a full-blown gale-force dust-storm. In what has been termed a “once in a lifetime event”, a storm has travelled across much of Australia, picking up topsoil from thousands of kilometres away, and carried it to my home state of New South Wales. Apparently, a good half of the state is covered!

Harbour visibility very low (Flickr Image Credit: traffman)

Now my first thoughts of course were how good the photos would be from a kayak on the water.  However 5 minutes outside quickly removed such thoughts as I was subjected to 80km/hr winds and choking dust. These weather conditions are quite literally hellish.

So no paddling today, will be locking myself indoors for as long as possible, watching the storm unfold.  And preparing for the inevitable clean-up that will come this weekend *sigh*.

Gale force winds - sand-blasting! (Flickr Image Credit: miro b)

Racing the clock to beat the storm

Sydney in Spring can offer up beautiful sunny days, and horrendous tropical storms. And occassionally, both on the same day! On this particular day I’d spent hours drenched in glorious sunlight, enjoying the warmth of the Spring sun. Then the sky started to cloud over and turned a very ominous green. A quick stop into Sydney Harbour Kayaks for a weather check and my fears were confirmed: a storm warning had been issued, and they were clearing kayaks from the water.

Rising winds and ominous rumblings. Bloody hell...

The problem for me was that, unlike most weekends when I park at Sydney Harbour Kayaks for launch, on this day I’d parked another 6km away, by the Roseville Bridge. Which meant I had about an hour’s paddle to get back, hopefully before the full brunt of the storm hit.

This was a good test for the Greenland paddle – ie could it get me somewhere fast when I really needed it to. I asked it the question, and it responded a firm YES. I was able to power through the increasing wind, passing other paddlers with relative ease on my race to Roseville. And as luck would have it I managed to beat the storm, and the rain, hail and lightning that came with it.

Love a bit of excitement with my paddles.

The last glimpse of sunshine before ice fell from the skies.

Sunrise over Manly

One of the real joys of getting out early in the kayak is seeing sunrises from the water. There is something magical about a dark horizon turning gold and then watching an amber rising sun reflected off the water, all whilst bobbing about in gentle early morning swell.

Call it a sudden moment of romanticism, but I was looking through past photos and realised just how many sunrises I’ve seen over the past few months. So I thought perhaps I’d share some of those moments. Enjoy – FP

Rising sun reflected in the Sydney city skyline

Dawn from Five Dock (west of the Sydney CBD)

Sunrise over Seaforth

Dawn over North Head

Dawn breaking over Berowra Waters

Sunrise bathing the Sydney city in amber

Sunrise through the mists of Bantry Bay

Stormy dawn, Berowra Waters

Sunrise over Grotto Point

Sydney Harbour Bridge at dawn

Amber dawn over Bradleys Head