From The Sea Canoeist July 1995.

Jeff was running the trip and had produced a detailed plan for 9 days - basically circumnavigating Cape Barren Island, and taking in numerous smaller islands on the way. The need for a reasonable amount of detail in the planning is because the tide can easily run at 4knots in many places - and its better to go with it than against it.

Because I’d been away four-wheel driving in the Northern Territory for nearly 4 months last year I hadn’t actually done a lot of paddling, so in early January I decided on a small training trip of my own. This consisted of a glorious four days across to Clark Island, round to Preservation Island, and back to Little Musselroe Bay - beautiful warm sunny weather.

So on Feb 4th, here I am back again at Little Musselroe Bay, lining up with Mick Verrier, Grant Hyland, and Jeff Jennings to cross Banks Strait yet again to Preservation Island. The Strait was smooth, with a lightish NE blowing, and by the time we neared Clark Island we had spread out almost to the limits of visibility. I had plenty of time on arrival at Preservation to change into dry clothes and climb the hill behind the hut to watch the others come past Rum Island.

The hut on Preservation is a real little haven for visiting canoeists (see photo below). The previous owner left it unlocked, knowing people would use it, and provided it was left tidy and in the condition it was found in that was OK. It is still left unlocked, and perusing the Visitors Book would seem to indicate that it is still used by all and sundry. And why not? It is a beautifully fitted out hut with beds, mattresses, good kitchen - with gas stove - fireplace, bathroom, loo, all one could ever want. No doubt there are a few primitives about who consider we should be roughing it when we go canoeing, but not this boy.

There was a lot of resting on the foam rubber mattresses after we got there - it would seem that I wasn’t the only one that hadn’t paddled for a while. But then, we had just covered 36km.

The next morning we woke to hard northerly squalls, and the promise of rain, but when we were ready to leave mid-morning it had changed to a glorious flat calm and bright sun. Ideal for crossing to the Cape Barren coast and just dawdling along towards Cape Sir John. Somewhere about Key Island the double went ashore to change batteries in the video recorder, and even though I stopped paddling at Cape Sir John the strong tide took me round the corner and out of sight. I paddled slowly on towards Boxen Island, expecting the others to hove into sight at any moment, but there was still no sign of them when I arrived in the vicinity of the island. About now a bit of a rain squall came through, so I continued on to Badger Island, again in light wind and sun after the squall went through.

Apparently it was about this time the other three came round Cape Sir John, but couldn’t see me in the rain, so they headed up the coast of Cape Barren Island - eventually going ashore at the ‘Corner’ for a Barren-burger. Then, after repairing a broken rudder wire they headed out across to Badger - by now the forecast fresh winds and rain had arrived in earnest. I’d had four hours to wander down to the south end of the island and check out the buildings around the small farmhouse, strolled up past the airstrip to the hill to overlook the lighthouse on Goose Island, and back to the camp-site near Lucy Beeton’s grave - and the site of the original settlement.

When I finally spotted the sails driving through the rain I threw a bit more green stuff on the fire to make smoke and shortly after we were together again. I’d put my tent-fly up as a bit of a wind-break earlier in the day, but about this time the wind was gusting enough to rip it straight down the middle - I now had two very neat half sized tent flys. As I only use a tent-fly, but no tent, things didn’t look too bright for a while. But after looking around I found a good sheltered spot right in under some bushes, and re-erected the two halves so they just about overlapped. It didn’t rain too much overnight anyway.

Our plan had included a jaunt out to Goose Island but the screaming westerlies that greeted us in the morning precluded any such visit. Instead we gingerly headed up into the passage between Badger and Mt Chappell, hoping for some good video shots. The conditions were fantastic, but we were all travelling so fast and erratically that it made close up videoing a bit of a handful. The conditions were so strong that we all suffered some damage to boats or gear. My mizzen sail almost tore the boom off, Mick’s boom started to come out of the sail, one of the sails on the double ripped, and even worse - one of the stainless steel lugs on the rudder broke off. I still had a terrific ride across to Trousers Point with my other sail, surging down wave after wave, while Mick in his North Sea Tourer, and Jeff and Grant in the double travelled at a slightly slower speed.

Trousers Point is another haven for sea canoeists, sheltered landing beach, and good camp-site amongst the she-oaks. Here I tied the two pieces of my tent-fly between two trees and spent the rest of the afternoon sewing it back together, doing such a neat job that I still continue to use it on trips without any further trouble. Mick fixed up his sail, while Grant got a lift to Whitemark with some picnickers to get the rudder welded up. Unfortunately all these repairs left no time to climb Strzelecki Peak - but then it wasn’t much of a day for it anyway.

Tuesday morning saw us getting some lovely long rides down the waves as we surfed towards Lady Barron under sail. The wind was still fresh from the west and despite Mick capsizing a couple of times it was fun, fun, fun. Just before Little Dog Island I veered off to the right to head for Vansittart Island while the other three went into Lady Barron for a counter meal. We weren’t worrying too much about the tides today as the wind would take us along fast enough no matter what the tides were doing, and it wasn’t long before I was ashore in Bates Bay on Vansittart Island, just below the old house.

I was pretty cold and lost no time in changing and putting my tent-fly up in the lee of the old stone wall up the hill from the beach. Then after a bit of a rest I took a day-pack with provisions and climbed to the top of Guncarriage Hill. The view from here is superb, including a patchwork of blue and turquoise water caused by the many varying depths, and I enjoyed it for some time till the cold wind drove me down again.

Late in the afternoon Mick appeared from the direction of Lady Barron. He was sailing along at a good rate, the double back behind him with both sails blown out again. However, in the breaking seas Mick didn’t manage to spot the big rock off the point till it was too late - he rode straight up on it and then capsized, and was in the water for a minute or so till the double drew alongside and helped him back in.

We all wandered around the western end of the island marvelling at the old dry-stone walls, relics of past history. Then that night round the camp-fire saw another orgy of sewing as the two sails off the double were repaired, and Mick carried out some long overdue repairs to his wetsuit boots.

Early the next morning saw a hurried trip up Guncarriage Hill for some, before leaving to slip out to the Farsund - one of the main aims of the trip. Today was back to normal light winds and sunny weather and Mick and Grant and Jeff spent a good hour on board the old wreck while I lazed on a nearby beach and soaked up some sun. Then followed a long gentle sail down the east coast of Cape Barren Island to lunch just before Harleys Point. At one stage I was sailing through a large raft of mutton birds, and only when I was within 2 or 3 metres would the birds take to the air - only to land again on the southern side of the raft. This made for a never-ending vista of birds as the raft stayed right in front of me for a good ten minutes or so.

The afternoon was spent with more gentle sailing along the coast to Cape Barren, and then a hard slog back into the wind across Jamiesons Bay and then along Christmas Beach. The southern end of this beach provided a perfect camp-site, with the very imposing slopes of Mt Kerford just behind us.

A midday start left time for an early stroll along the beach or a climb up the hill to some imposing rock formations, and after an easy climb up the ridge I obtained a good view across Sea Lion Narrows to Clark Island, including the two big lagoons at the back of Crows Beach.

Round the point in Petticoat Bay we met a fishing boat and Mick took advantage of an offer to use the phone on board to call home. Again the day was light and sunny, and we spent a hour or so in Sea Lion Narrows playing in the fast currents. It was all you could do (with the aid of the sails in the light wind) to stem the flow, and a lot of time was spent resting in a big back eddy behind a largish rock just breaking the surface. Finally we had to leave this playground and do the last 10km to Nautilus Bay - in Kent Bay. This was the site of an early whaling station, and indeed, while clearing a camp-site under the trees, Jeff came across some old relics - including part of a clay pipe. And while sitting around on the sand in the warm afternoon sun I was fairly amazed to find hundreds of small pieces of coral all around me. This was something I’d only associated with the tropics.

For some time now I had been worrying about leaving the gas turned on at Preservation Island. We’d probably only boiled about two billies on it, but somehow we had neglected to go outside and turn it off before leaving. The plan from Kent Bay was to go down the east side of Clark Island to Moriarty Point for the night and then back to Little Musselroe Bay. I decided that I would go via Preservation and turn the gas off, and then maybe continue on to Moriarty Point to join up with the others. Because of the tides this meant leaving at 4 in the morning.

And boy, was it cold and dark - very overcast. 11km to Battery Island before there was a glimmer of light from the rising sun, but it brought with it a freshening westerly wind and the slog across to Preservation Island was a bit of a nightmare. I arrived just after the tide had turned, thoroughly wet and exhausted - and gave up any thought of joining the others - even though the wind and tide were now ideal for a fast trip round the south coast of Clark Island to Moriarty Point. Instead I had a rest in the hut, before taking a walk down to the southern end of the island where the survivors of the Sydney Cove set up camp. Not far away from the big house-sized rocks they camped next to is a huge fire place on top of a rock - obviously used as a signal fire.

The rest of the day was spent between reading, and walking towards the western end of the island.

Despite a reasonably early start the next morning, and a light NW wind to help me along, I arrived back at Little Musselroe about an hour after the other three, who had also had an early start from Moriarty point. A very satisfying trip.
LAURIE FORD.