What can I say but I lost the wave battle again today! But I am proud I am still trying.

To cut a very long winded story down, basically I had the last big wave to clear and I was away laughing but it nailed me. It took us a little while to wait and watch as a couple of items arrived to shore after me. Was it a drama? Yes a little, but the biggest drama is that I managed to lose my Inreach unit in it's dry bag in the ocean and there it seems to want to stay, along with my Sony Action Cam and my second Sharkskin beanie.

We sat, we waited and we watched to see if the incoming tide would return these items but no luck. We will return tomorrow to try another time to get on the ocean and paddle a little way.

This is a tiresome day and I feel like I have paddled a big km day, not just done maintenance on T2 and dried my kayak gear. It is hard when the sky is blue and the wind was okay but the swells did not play ball with me. If I do not make it out tomorrow then I am back off the water for days. I will be gold mining or doing some kind of adventure.

I spent the day on this beach, walking, working and just trying to like and enjoy it. It sort of worked but now at the end of the day I am exhausted. A quick trip to Westport for some food and now we are tucked up in Cuzzie.

Yes I have a couple of scrapes, a bruise or two and a frown. I am hoping tomorrow I can punch the sky and smile once I am over the swells.

My smiles today:
Punching through five sets of waves!
My hot water bottle.
My pig headed attitude.
Foraging for mussels for dinner.
Nat and her knitting.
Me loosing gear to MN, I have to smile or cry, so smile it is.
Maintenance on T2.

My thoughts today:
I am trying to be optimistic and I am too determined to be defeated.

Night Night.
Red

I think she cut it too short. We made a plan today to attack this beach in a different way, we were hoping low tide would get us out past the rocks further and, as the beach is flat at low tide, give us less sets of waves to get through. We were right and as I stood in the water to push her off I thought today might be the day. It was all looking good, she flew over the first few waves as if they were barely bumps and then smashed through the next couple. But it was that last one that nailed her. Red came out of T2, and the force of the wave took off her deck bag and the lid to the rear hold. The waves rolled Red and T2 into the rocks, she managed to negotiate through to the channel where I could meet her and help wade T2 on to shore. With T2 safe we did a quick damage assessment. No holes in T2 and other than a small bump to Red's head and a scrape on her knee she seemed to be okay, so we went in search of the gear she had lost. Pretty soon we found the paddles and her missing shoe, and after twenty minutes we went back to Cuzzie to warm up, keeping an eye on the ocean and what she may decide to throw back to us.

Over the next few hours we found most of the gear. The deck bag washed up with some contents in it and others missing. Food and coconut water washed up on the beach throughout the morning and we diligently combed the beach looking for missing gear. After high tide and a late lunch we called it a day, considering ourselves lucky. Anything we lost is all replaceable, and there has been no serious damage to Red or T2. I am certain that if everything washed up quickly she would have been back in the boat and giving it a second try.

This beach is testing us, and we will try again tomorrow with a new plan. The ocean changes every day, every hour, every minute, and we will find our time soon.

N