The following morning the wind started to pick up again and the idea was to wait for the tide to come in and to paddle out through the mouth of the creek. A leisurely breakfast, formulation of 'Plan C' and a fast receding tide changed this into a slog through soft sloshy sand.
Given the predicted strengthening wind, the distance to Mon Repos and my pestering about wanting to camp on the sand spit at Coonarr meant we arrived at our destination mid morning. The mouth of the creek had silted up so it was surf landing number two. One paddler took a dip.
This section of the beach is very flat and wide at low tide. The wheels were out for the trek to a sheltered campsite over the back of the dunes amongst the cassurinas on the northern side of the mouth of the creek. It was a very pretty location overlooking the tidal lagoon. While there are great sites on the dunes about 300m south of Coonarr, the location we chose was preferable as it gave us protection from the SE wind which howled all night.
A big 3 metre tide filled the lagoon the next morning so it simply a matter of moving the boats 5 metres and packing before the tide floated them away. No need to go for a swim to wake up, the surf did that just nicely. There was a fair degree of clapotis coming off the rocky headland at times - on one occasion Dave simply disappeared down a green hole to re-emerge with the next swell crest. Stan and Jenni were game and put up their sails. Stan took an even greater risk by sailing along, coming up from behind and shoving the bow of his boat under my armpit. Lucky for him he has a 580 and was out of paddle range.
We made quick time with the ebbing tide and firm SE blow. The next debate was where to land at Mon Repos, in fact where was Mon Repos. After a concensus was reached I was happy to see surf life savers as it was yes, yet another surf landing. Another paddler had a wash.
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