TR by sunshiner
Wind: 5 knot westerly
Swell: 1.2m easterly
Current: none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: jaro, sunshiner
Just north of the Doggie Beach footpath a decent hole has formed at the edge of the beach. It encourages a strong rip running straight out to sea and also provides a channel to the open sea for people like us. Jaro had reconnoitred the location yesterday afternoon and pronounced the beach launch doable. This, and the welcome reports from sundry observers of bustup activity just out behind the break along that coast had Jaro and me fired up so we fronted this morning.
A lack of visible astronomical objects indicated cloudy conditions and a light westerly breeze whispered in the casuarinas which fringe the Doggie Beach car park and path. Willo, brand new and enthusiastic Noosa Yakker, turned up, sans yak, to witness the taming of the Doggie Beach shore break and outer bank. The pressure was now on Jaro and me to launch so we headed down to the beach with our yaks, accompanied by willo, without even checking whether it was doable.
It was doable, albeit with great care, for right out the back, at least 100m from the beach, occasional large sets arrived and broke spectacularly on the outer sandbank. But most of the time the swell just reared up steeply, threatening to break, then slid off harmlessly into the deep water as it approached the beach. This, then, was our exit from the deep hole, a channel fringed to north and south by a surf break which was already being used by several very early starters. The channel gap was about 50m wide, north-south, and the channel itself doglegged around the southern surf break. Jaro and I examined the whole scene for a couple of minutes, closely watched and listened to by willo, before reaching a verdict, “doable”, and removing the trolleys.
The launch point a couple of minutes before launch. Willo gazing at the sea standing between my yak, left, and Jaro's,
My plan was to paddle out to just short of the outer bank and hold until I was "sure" that no big sets were coming, then charge through. I estimated the total distance to travel to safety was about 250m, which would take me about two and a half minutes. But first some fine judgement had to be applied to dodge the shore break, which was quite fierce given the steepness of the shore just there. Seeing no point in stuffing around I went first, got a clean break through the shorey and was immediately in deep but choppy water, heading for the outer bank with assistance from the rip. Just on my right a board rider on a curling wave gave me a nod as I went my way outbound and he his way inbound. He was in shallow water and I was in deep water, yet we were both the same distance from the beach and only 20m apart. As planned, I hove to just on the beach side of the outer bank while one big wave, then another, crested in front of me. So far, so good. The expected lull appeared and it was time to get moving. For about 30 seconds or so I thought I'd stuffed it up as the waves I was pushing toward were steeper and higher than I'd expected. But soon I'd crossed the bank and the water was getting deeper. After cresting three steepening waves I was out the back, dry bum (Bewdy!), but kept going hard for a minute or so until I was sure the danger was behind me. Now I could turn and take a look at how jaro was going. He also had dodged the shorey and was paddling strongly toward me except that when he drew level with me he kept paddling hard, opining that we were still too close to the lair of the sand monster for his liking. Acknowledging that perhaps he was right I joined up with him as we paddled eastward for another minute before setting up.
Fishing. We trolled and bottom fished without success for the next three hours. No bustups, and only a couple of half-hearted touches on my SPs. Jaro lost a pilchard bait to some tiddler. We fished at Doggie Beach reef and the close in mark. We trolled at varying distances from the beach, going back and forth between the SBSC and the southern end of A-Bay. The westerly wind meanwhile was getting colder so by 09:30, with the rising tide increasing the depth on the outer bank, we were ready to head back in.
Turtleboy and Mrs Turtleboy (Kerry) were on the beach near our launch point, in contact with us by radio initially. There were more surfers now than earlier so clearly the waves were still pumping, but the channel was still intact and this is what we were aiming for. Helped by turtleboy's hand signals (my radio is always stashed below decks for the surf zone transit) and reading the break as best I could I went first and came through fairly easily, again passing close by the board riders on the southern side.
Coming in. Note the wave building on the outer bank, but I'm safe in deep water. Pic by turtleboy, date wrong by one day, time correct.
Bracing in the shorebreak. Pic by turtleboy, date wrong by one day, time correct.
Looking back from the safety of the beach I could now see that jaro was about to start his run. One of the problems today that I haven't mentioned was that the exact breaking positions of the waves was not fully predictable. The entrance to our channel was quite narrow but even then, some waves seemed to break in unexpected places, thus making the entrance even narrower. This problem, and the difficulty of picking it from the seaward side, led to jaro approaching a little further south than was entirely safe. Quite suddenly he was in the midst of a set which started to break. Here he did the best he could by paddling hard to the north, suddenly realizing that the deeper water was in that direction. Uh, oh, he's in trouble, we thought as a wave caught him sideways on just as it started to break. Skilfully, jaro braced hard on the offshore side and hung perilously on the top of the wave in white water before he slid down the back of the wave and reached the deep water. This event occurred too far from the beach to capture movie, unfortunately, as it would have provided a great lesson in how to get out of the situation.
The shorey was all that was left as jaro paddled into the strong current toward the beach, just as at Middle Groyne, except that here the swell was bigger and the beach much steeper.
Jaro approaching the beach. Pic by turtleboy, date wrong by one day, time correct.
Here, in the shorebreak, the sand monster played his last card and won a trick.
Images sourced from movie shot by me.
Jaro was uninjured, and sort of pleased we'd captured the event in a movie so that it could be used as instructional material. Note that he suffered no equipment damage or loss. All his vulnerable gear was either stowed away or strapped down or both.
Movie to follow if I get time before I leave on Sunday.
So, (one) wet arse and no fish!
Kev
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