Maria Island
(An attempted one day circumnavigation)
9th Jan. 2001

Not having paddled seriously for a year or so, I was beginning to get the bug again. Boxing Day 12 months ago I’d had a four day trip out to Albatross Island, and last Easter a two day trip down to SE Cape - but since then practically nothing. A few half hour sessions with a new paddler, and the recent four day trip round Maria Island with Maria from Townsville. This had been a very easy trip - four days round Maria Island didn’t extend me at all.

But now I still had the map of Maria Island on the table, and the idea of a one day circumnavigation caught my imagination. A few summers ago I had done a one day circumnavigation of north Bruny - an easy paddle down the outside, starting just before sunrise. Portage across the neck, and then an easy paddle back up the channel, with the seabreeze coming in behind me towards the finish at Tinderbox. About 55 km in all. In those days I was doing a good bit of regular paddling and was reasonably fit (for a man of my age).

From Orford to Orford, round the outside of Maria Island was about 76 km, allowing for going into Whalers Cove and Darlington. The trouble is that it wasn’t like Nth Bruny, where if you got to the neck by the middle of the day you could expect a seabreeze to waft you home.

The forecast the night before was for SE, going NE, plus it was going to be a hot day, so a seabreeze would come in. I decided to go for the southern end first - hoping for the light SE still to be there when I arrived, and help me up the outside a bit before going NE. The seabreeze tend to be a bit NNE out here, but funnels through Mercury Passage in a more N direction, but is more of an Easterly onto the beach at Orford.

I was hoping to get past Mistaken Cape before the seabreeze started, and round the northern end of Maria before it got too strong. Then it would be a glorious sail across to Orford.

I packed a few emergency things the night before - bivvy bag, sleeping mat, tent fly, dry clothes, food and drink. I was prepared for a night out camping if I failed to make it in a day, and got stuck miles away from home.

0510 I was on the water inside the mouth of the Prosser River at Orford, gliding out to sea as the night sky began to lighten. I paddled fairly quickly for half an hour or so to warm up, and then found there was the land breeze blowing on the back of my neck. This called for a bit of sailing across Prosser Bay, but the breeze soon dropped as the sun made its appearance just after 0530. There was now no wind at all, just a cloudless sky with the promise of a hot sunny day. I settled down to some steady paddling, aiming straight across to Lachlan Island, where I stopped for my first break at 0700. By now the first of the runabouts were passing me closer inshore - still a lot of people on holidays, with the keen fishermen off to drop their pots and nets. More and more boats cruised past as I headed across to Unfortunate Cove, where the Magellan, a yacht from Hobart, was anchored. It was now 0800, and they appeared to be just finishing breakfast, preparatory to heading off to Fortescue Bay - telling me the latest forecast was for northerly winds. Just what I didn’t want at this stage.

Just past Green Bluff there was a dive boat with some of the occupants struggling into their dive gear, and as I went past I agreed with them that it was a nice day for it. Then I was round Cape Peron and heading across the southern end of Maria Island towards Haunted Bay. I’d been undecided about pulling in here for a short break, but now a few vague puffs of wind were coming out of the north, and I decided I’d better push on round to Whalers Cove. Up the east side of South Maria the wind was a light NNE, but even this was enough to make it very choppy along the cliffs, with the rebounding waves, and it was beginning to be difficult to build up any momentum. I set a course direct for Whalers Cove, into the freshening wind, and was beginning to doubt  my chances of getting round the outside of North Maria. I’d now been in the kayak for nearly 6 hours, and was beginning to feel a bit weary. Plus my right shoulder was now starting to ache badly. This has been playing up for over a year now - the constant pick and shovel work, and banging in a million nails , plus painting the house, had all taken their toll. There had been some nights when I had difficulty sleeping because of the pain.

A km short of Whalers Cove I called it a day. The sea breeze would not drop till about 1800, and it was about a 6 hour paddle from Whalers Cove to Orford. This would mean a midnight finish if I rested in Whalers till the breeze dropped. The other option was to portage across the neck, have a good long rest at the campsite in Chinamans, and then I could either nip across to Earlham and hitch-hike back to Orford for my car, or perhaps go across to Lachlan Island and then Rheban Beach, and hitch from there. It would depend on the conditions in Mercury Passage.

But either way, I was certainly starting to feel pretty stuffed. I was still 3 km out from the neck, but was able to use a sail in towards the beach. I could hear the surf miles before I got there, but I didn’t care - I was going in anyway. I could see the portage track from a long way out, and headed straight for it, and found very small surf on the beach, and stumbled ashore at exactly 1100. It was a huge effort to carry the North Sea Tourer (NST) up the sand dunes, but once up on top found that I could drag the kayak in the grass and bracken fern all the way across the neck. On the other side I made a small repair to the rudder.

After Maria had used this kayak a week ago, I had made a few changes - like fitting a second sail, strengthening the rudder where it was starting to split, but hadn’t done a very good job of putting it back together. I was using it on this trip as a shake down cruise, to test everything out, and to find out how it went under two sails. The NST is a slightly tippy kayak (less so when it is fully loaded) and most people probably think one sail is a bit of a handful. But I’d been out in it on Xmas Eve, testing it prior to Maria using it, and thought then that it could probably handle two sails.

I was pretty tired by the time I paddled the couple of km across to the campsite, and sat down and barely moved for an hour and a half. Orford seemed a hell of a long way away. A female Ranger appeared on the scene briefly, in her 4WD, but left without hassling me about passes (I did mention that I was only there for a brief lunch stop). After an hour and a half I gathered enough energy to walk over the hill so I could look out across Mercury Passage. The wind was pretty well blowing straight through it - like a pea through a pea shooter. However, although the tree tops were swaying vigorously, the sea of white caps didn’t look too bad.

When I got back to the camp site a found a couple of noisy power boats had arrived, and a yacht was motoring in to anchor as well, so I thought it was time to leave. One of the power boats had brought a large crate of fish ashore and was cleaning them on the shore. Why on earth he couldn’t have cleaned them out at sea I’ll  never know. If there is anything that detracts from a landing site it is dozens of fish heads scattered around.

By the time I’d paddled in the lee of Point Lesueur out to its end, I’d counted 10 craft sheltering behind it. Maybe it was worse than I thought out there. The 3 km across to Lachlan Island was rather pleasant, and if I hadn’t been so tired I would have been really enjoying myself. I was paddling 45 degree into the wind and waves, and was glad I wasn’t in a Greenlander - they don’t like that angle in strong winds - as a couple of paddlers have discovered. In the lee of the island I briefly considered the options - Rheban Beach or Orford? It was only 10 past 3, and I could expect a sail over the last bit as the wind veered into the Orford beach, so I forced myself to go on. It was now more into the wind, and not as easy, but I just had to keep plugging on for another couple of hours.

Finally at Stapletons Point it began to veer more easterly, and start to ease very slightly. I put the smaller of the two sails up and could at last enjoy the luxury of sitting back and letting the sail do most of the work. As I entered Prosser Bay the wind lightened off a bit more and a decided to try both sails for the first time. This was not without a few wobbly moments, but Oh, was it worthwhile? The NST was now surging down the waves, and all I was doing was letting my paddle blade scoot over the water as I supported down wind - sheer heaven.

It was over all too soon, the kayak running up on the beach at 1710, exactly 12 hours after leaving.

The difference in distance from Whalers Cove to Orford, via the outside of North Maria, or via the neck and Mercury Passage is only 10 km - 36 round the outside, 26 over the neck. This is less than a couple of hours paddling time - so allowing for a couple of hours rest ashore somewhere, it would be well within most peoples limits to do the whole trip in under 14 hours, given reasonable weather conditions. Why would you want to? Good Question!

I wanted to give the NST a good tryout somewhere, and also see how fit I was for paddling long distances. Not very. By the time I got home and had a shower, I lay on the bed almost in a stupor, with every muscle in my body aching. It was 10.30pm before I felt I could raise myself and make it to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Will I try it again? - quite likely if the right weather presents itself. A light westerly would allow you to sail down to the southern end, and up the outside to Bishop & Clark, and then waft home on a seabreeze. Dream on!