Day 8 - Clarke Island

Today was the guys last long paddle (52km, taking 7 hours) from Whitemark to Spike Bay, Clarke Island. The team was feeling pretty refreshed after their rest day. They had a beautiful morning paddling for 2 hours with the water being like glass, even being able to see people's reflections. Then the wind kicked in and conditions turned choppy crossing Franklin Sound. But once the guys rounded Cape Barren Island the outgoing tide pushed them nicely to Clarke Island. They have a beautiful campsite, looking across Banks Strait with Tasmania finally in sight! The guys are really stoked to finally see Tasmania and pretty excited about their last crossing tomorrow. Banks Strait is renowned for its really strong tidal current of up to 7km a hour, so it's crucial that the team gets their timing right for the crossing. The plan is to leave at about 1pm (paddle is 35km) when the tides are looking good, paddle from Clarke Island rounding Cape Portland and paddling to Foster Inlet for their last night of camping before finishing at Tomahawk on Saturday.

On an amusing note, the guys have come up with a short list of how to pass the time whilst spending hours and hours paddling.
1) Kayak cricket - you score runs by whatever passes you by (fish, birds, penguins) and the new person batting starts up every half an hour.
2) The alphabet game - you pick a subject and each person goes around, using the next letter of the alphabet to start the letter of their word (ie. Fruit - apricot, banana, cherry etc.)
3)The song game - someone has to whistle a song while your paddling partner tries to guess (not a good game for Matt who is tone deaf).

The guys also all shaved at the start of the trip and they've been comparing facial hair in a 'Beard growing competition'. Their description so far;
Benny - grizzly bear beard
Tim - red beard
Ross - Mexican handle bars
Jason - random, long whispy under the chin beard
Matt - the styled beard (hmm, but this was a commentary from Matt!)

They all enjoyed looking at God's creation with a beautiful sunset tonight and can't wait to get Tasmania.

Crunchy rice and cardboard chicken, yum