Fremantle - Circumnavigation of Rotto and return - 26th Dec - 61km

Matt and Jas after a good day at sea

Our flash new trailer ready for the trip - thanks Jas

Jas and I completed a trip that we had been to attempt from the beginning of our Bass Strait preparations, to paddle from a Perth beach around Rottnest and back in a day.  Waking up at 4.30am on boxing day was pretty rough but we got going and arrived at Leighton Beach at 5.30am to a beautiful morning and a nice 15-20kt ESE.  We were paddling away at 6.15am and were comfortably holding 9km/hr with the tail wind.  Starting further south than normal allowed us to stay on the same bearing all the way to West Point and make the most of the wind direction.
      As we got further offshore the wind waves started picking up and were soon travelling faster than we were and breaking over the back of the boat.  This slowed our speed and was a bit frustrating but we had made the decision not to chase the runs as the time saved by increasing our speed wouldnt make up for the tiredness we would feel on the return journey.  We learnt this from a 4 hr paddle we did in Mandurah the week before.  We had chased runs for an hour and even though we averaged 12km/hr for the hour we were nacked for the remaining paddle.  We have to remember we are paddling 50kg double sea kayaks not 12kg ocean racing ski's.
      There were quite a few medium sized reef breaks along the south side of rotto so we stayed a fair way out.  As we neared West End the shark patrol helicopter flew over and probably wondered what two crazy people were doing in a kayak.  With all the recent shark sitings recently I was relieved that they didnt have their warning siren going.  The ocean flattened out as soon as we rounded the point and even with a headwind we made good time and enjoyed a nice smooth ride along the north side of the island back to Thomsons bay.  At 11am we were already leaving Rotto and heading for home.  The first few km's back were rough not because of the wind or waves but because everybody in Perth who owns a boat seemed to have decided that a trip to Rotto would be a good idea.  There were waves and waves of boats arriving.
     The trip back was pretty smooth with a weakening Easterly headwind turning into a Southerly over the last few km's.  We arrived back onto Leighton beach at 1.30pm after 7hrs20min.  We were really happy with the day, we averaged 8.25km/hr which was held consistently throughout the paddle.  It was a beautiful day and a bit of a shame not to land on the island but definitely worth it as a confidence booster before the real thing to do a non stop 60km trip.  We were strict about our breaks and kept them at no longer than 1-2min every hour.  A friendly guy on the beach gave us a hand to carry the boat back to the trailer which was awesome news to our tired bodies.