It was nice and calm this morning, it was an easy launch. I got going in good time at 9am.I headed south to round the point. I had about an 8km stretch of exposed cliffs and rocks to pass with no were to land, which made me nervous. The wind was non existent, but there was swell sometimes more than a metre high. I kept out from the rocky headlands that I needed to pass. After a couple of hours I got close to Butler’s beach, and the western end looked pretty sheltered. I landed but just after I got out an unexpected swell came in and swamped the kayak, filling the cockpit with water. I managed to drag the kayak up the beach, pull a lot of the stuff out, and pump it dry.
After half an hour I headed out. The wind had picked up and so had the swell. I couldn’t get the sail up and all I could see were pounding waves hitting beaches, I was worried. I really felt I needed to get off the water. I spotted Salmon Beach and there seemed to be a spot where the swell was not breaking as badly. I got closer, watched the swell and thought it might be possible. I let multiple swell go past, and then went for it. I was wrong, there was more swell behind me. I got out of the kayak thinking I would have more control pushing it in, but immediately I found I couldn’t touch the bottom. The next swell hit, I lost the kayak, and I got pushed underwater. The kayak rolled multiple times. I struggled out of the water realising why the waves were not breaking the same, the beach was really steep, definitely a bad spot to land. I hung on to the kayak, but it was so heavy I couldn’t move it, and every time another wave came in it tried to drag the kayak back into the surf. So started ten minutes of me hanging on to the kayak and trying with each wave to inch it up the beach. Eventually I got it high enough that I could get stuff out, and pump out some of the water in the kayak. After another ten minutes or so I could drag the kayak up away from the waves.
Nothing broken. A few things got wet like my sleeping bag, even though it was in a dry bag. I lost a water bottle, but mostly it was OK. I did about 12km today.
Tomorrow I need the swell to drop to have any chance of getting off the beach
