It’s been a memorable first of July! A headwind and opposing current for most of the day ensured that effort in was far greater than miles awarded. After an 11 hour day, I think we only covered about 18 miles (I haven’t added it up yet). Whenever we stopped for a break, we could see ourselves drifting back past the beach we’d just clawed our way along. Why bother? We’re on a 30 mile dumping surf beach in about 1 metre swell. The swell and headwind are due to increase over the next few days so we want to get out of here before we get stuck or damage something.

Landing and launching were exciting enough today. At lunchtime we both surfed in and managed to pull out kayaks up the beach. Sarah came to help me pull mine up a bit further when an extra large wave came and the powerful back wash pulled Krissy back into the path of the next dumper. Sarah ran to the rescue but she couldn’t save Krissy from being turned upside down, pummeled and filled with sand. Later that afternoon Sarah tried to have a pee at sea. Usually we raft up and she stands on my back deck and her cockpit. She did what age needed to do but the couldn’t do her drop seat zip up because it was clogged with sand. I tried to do it for but couldn’t. Meanwhile it’s taken longer than expected and we’ve drifted to about 10 metres from the dumping surf. I hold the kayaks together while Sarah tries to paddle us out to sea (while kneeling). We realise we won’t be able to do up the zip so Sarah starts pumping out the water that’s sloshed into her cockpit before sitting down. We’re
back in the dumping surf zone so we abandon that and she has to sit on a wet seat with her zip open. Being hard as nails she says she’s Ok to paddle on and a couple of hours later needs to pee again. Because the zip is stuck partly open, poor Sarah ended up largely peeing into her drysuit.

Safely on land by one of the only small headlands along the beach, Sarah’s zip is now sandfree but broken and won’t fully do up.

That’s probably enough drama for one day but just as Sarah was about to walk 400 metres to the river to wash dishes, she spots a massive bear plodding along the beach in the same direction. Out come the pans and we bang them loudly, try to look big and make lots of noise. The result? The bear stands still and looks over in our direction curiously. More banging and screaching and we retreat to the freshly lot fire. The bear wanders on his way to the stream, looking over at us frequently but not looking the slightest bit afraid. That was a couple of hours ago and we’ve not seen him since, nor have we ventured to the stream. Sarah has made the world’s largest fire, every scrap of food is in the kayaks, bear spray is at the ready so it’s time for bed.