Friday 18th January. Blog. It swings back to windsurfing a couple of times, as with Sydney Harbour enviro issues. <Thanks in advance for reading.>
All four lanes of the M4 were absolutely mad with traffic from Blacktown to Homebush Bay drive - at 0515hrs.
I guessed it was going to be hot when I saw women in string bikinis at 0700, although all surfaces were still saturated in dew. I needed a spoon to get the air that I breathe - so thick.
It was to be almost 36 degrees at Observatory Hill (near the S end of the Harbour Bridge) - at 7pm. Records were exceeded statewide, including almost 45 degrees at home. Kanangra Main canyon was off for tomorrow - the leader - well, he had the two 60 metre ropes we needed for that anyway, was flying Bankstown to Cooma in a RAFT team at short notice. And the Blue Mountains National Parks
weren't to be closed on the weekend.
Surprised myself by paddling my expedition kayak 9km in 70 minutes from Rose Bay to Clontarf, where I met up with many others from the NSW Sea Kayak Club to paddle to Manly Cove. The noise of the children by the Waterworks theme park was insane. At the beach, many more little boys insisted on holding onto deck lines of the sea kayaks. I saw two older blokes paddling with six children each attached; one of these blokes has taken on the quiet qualities of Bass Strait - so different here. Another guy we know of finished his fourth sea-kayak crossing of Bass Strait this week (with three other guys from the Lane Cove Kayak Club). Others joked that I was slacking off, having only three Xings in the past five years.
I continued on alone to Balmoral to practice kayak rolling, and to ask at the Sailing School/Club about lessons and a replacement rectangular mast base/UJ for the clunker. I was treated respectfully although I was holding a possibly 30-year old part. But why are all the young employees there English?
Had thought the weather forecast was incorrect as I was about to land at Balmoral. Then I landed... people ran from the grass to the waters edge. The deep shade of the many Moreton Bay figs offered little respite, although the sky was becoming a bit leaden.
It poured down by Hermitage and Queens Beach - for 30 seconds max. I rolled again to cool off, using a full face mask. My sinuses were still troubling me a bit after being hammered and pulling the spray deck a few times at Penrith White-water Stadium days prior. The mask is new, after driving away from Watsons Bay last week with the combo mask/camera probably falling off my car roof. The finder, on his daily 0430 bicycle ride from Coogee to Watsons Bay, posted it back to me - in pieces. The microSD is OK... I still reckon I never put stuff on my car roof. Except water-craft.
The kayak on the Subie at Rose Bay, the unweildly clunker of a sailboard and one-piece mast came off. The 5.2m sail does rig OK without a mast extension to suit this retro gear - but there are no jam cleats to lock off the 4mm/5mm cord. I managed to fairly easily tie it off without losing too much bend in the mast. The thunder increased, as did the wind. I practised rigging again. The battens still want to push through the leading edge/luff of the sail - although the cam inducers seem to reduce this pressure a bit, yet the worse batten pressure is well away from cam-inducer placements.
A txt cautioned me of a Severe Area Thunderstorn Warning. What I feared worst, although the 'damaging winds' never eventuated (but did gust to 70km/h about 2130), was wind catching the long sail board (3.7m TenCate) and/or 5.1m sea-kayak and wrenching them off the car. Worse, I had a few near misses with dog droppings in the park. There is a letter in today's SMH about this, as inspired by an article about formal-fireworks remains found on the seabed in Sydney Harbour. I wrote said letter :)
Although I saw a few more paddlers and arrive, set-up without looking at the water and paddle across the bay, in everything from kevlar ocean skis to clunky double SOT's, I drove home - woose. Yet, for my birthday, I just received a gift certificate of wind-surfing lessons at Balmoral - woohoo !
Other stuff noticed on this interesting day;
- didn't I screw it with respect to the wind and my want of wind-surfing TOW! - I should have ignored the kayak.
- MHYC at The Spit and Clontarf Marina appear to have gained approval respectively for noticeably increased marina/berthing size. Both, independently, are claiming it will improve their member or client base. This is 33%, or about 28 yacht spaces at MHYC. Construction commences in winter, subject to funding - yet state that they are loosing members due to '
Our Club is not alone and single purpose clubs around the country are similarly struggling with declining membership bases and the fierce competition from private sector entertainment, food and beverage outlets.' The area around MHYC is a very narrow and quite busy body of water for traffic - this may be an accident waiting to happen.
- Oceanworld Manly is now known as
Manly SEA LIFE Sanctuary. Right... IMO, it is a zoo/circus combo still.
From their website 'Check out the BRAND NEW Penguin Cove where you can discover our own colony of Manly's iconic Little Penguins' and
Visitors can also take the plunge with... Shark Dive Extreme is a unique opportunity of a lifetime to dive into our tank and come face to face with the resident Grey Nurse Sharks, turtles and stingrays. Recently I encountered a turtle with a head as big as my fist near Forty Baskets Beach, I have snorkelled with a Grey Nurse Shark at Fairy Bower (between Manly and Shelly Beach), I have lost count of the penguins I have seen in lower Sydney Harbour. Perhaps if NPWS were given funding to patrol and penalise the disrespectful people who pull up at now opened-up (which is part of the problem with wildlife protection) Quarantine Beach in their motor-boats with their dogs (both are banned there, for goodness sakes!), we would not need to imprison stressed Little Penguins.
- Letter published in the SMH 21st January;
Not so dazzlingHow timely your article, ''Fireworks spectacle is environmental fizzer'' (January 19-20). On Friday, while kayaking on Sydney Harbour and its pretty extensions (at least as viewed from the surface), I practised rolling my kayak just mere metres off Balmoral Beach, where I was alarmed at the amount of plastic bags of all sizes clinging to plant life.
Later the same day, while rigging a windsurfer at Tingira Memorial Park, immediately adjacent to the otherwise charming waters of Rose Bay, I had to continually look to keep myself from walking in or allowing my sailing rig to come in contact with several deposits of sizeable dog faeces across the grass.
The City of Sydney is not alone in being ''unaware'' - Mosman Council and Woollahra Municipal Council have some explaining to do, too. Biodegradable or not.
www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ofarrells-hunger-for-power-puts-lives-at-serious-risk-20130120-2d14v.html
