Sometimes a change to Plan B brings an unexpected find and this paddle was no exception. Our intention to get to Moreton Island was thwarted by our stuffing up the day of the Christmas Party. Not wanting to get the gear dirty for a solitary night's
camping we left Raby Bay on Saturday and headed across to Blakesleys before returning to Potts for the annual Christmas Party lunch on Sunday.
Saturday was one of those heavenly days on the bay. Mark, Felicity and I headed out from Raby Bay to find ourselves gliding over a satin sheet with large glassy ripples. The northeasterley a soft warm touch on the left shoulder and just enough to take the creases out of the sail. Incredibly no one else seemed to
have noticed and there were very few boats out. Cruising at 8kph it was not long before we were nosing onto the beach at Blakelseys at the top of the tide.
With only two tents from tinnies the place was open to a selection of campsites. The NE was starting to freshen so we headed for the southern aspect with views to Caniapa. The big
improvement has been the provision of wheelie bins. Spread about 200m apart and chained to poles these paired green sentries were not on the honk and there was less broken glass and general refuse around. The trees however looked war torn. Limbs were
missing, large patches of bark hacked out, some had deep rope cuts in the cambian while others had equally fatal axe marks part way through their trunk. The amount of charcoal guaranteed you would be sleeping on someones else's (hopefully) long dead fire.
Later in the afternoon we spotted a group of kayakers slugging it out with the NE. This was the Queensland Sea Kayakers (QSK) on the final leg of their journey from Redland Bay via the bottom of Long Island, having stopped at Karragarra for lunch. It looked like hard work and two were under tow. We recognised only one of
the 11 paddlers (Damiano) and we were not familiar with some of the kayaks. The Intasea had features characteristic of Natureline
boats yet the sticker declared it a product of Howe Kayaks (Gympie).
Damiano came across with Tess to find us into the red wine (well it was after 4pm and we had the house in order). The usual discussions about boats had him showing us the two pieces of aluminium angle he had riveted together into a T-shape then stuck onto the hull of the Artic Raider. It acted as a small rear fin
to counteract the tendency of an Artic Raider to religiously round up in a rear quartering sea. Can't wait to try it out, because if it works I will be one very very happy chappy.
Pre-dinner snacks made their debut with a great variety on offer outside a tent whose Christmas decor had it looking like it was home to a harem with a camel or two hitched up out the
back.
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