Pirates of Hinchinbrook Island - Banksia Bay to Sunset Beach

Friday 29th July - Paddle Banksia Bay to Sunset Beach.

A 19.5km paddle in medium conditions

After much consultation with weather forecasts and discussions we decided to paddle to Black Sands beach for morning tea and lunch, then onto Sunset Beach.

We were up quite early in the morning with JB, Ian, Jason and I going back to our swimming hole from the night before to fill up some 56 liters of water. With no guaranteed water at Black Sands beach or Sunset Beach we decided on the side of caution to fill up.

After a quite breakfast and pack up we were on the water by 8.30am. The winds and waves not as bad as the previous day, but challenging enough. The flotilla was the same as previous days. We made surprisingly good time to Black Sands beach, being only 5km away. Black Sands Beach offers a nice sheltered landing spot when snugged in at the southern end of the beach. Our plan was to stay at Black Sands beach and walk up Nina peak look out taking a round trip of about 1 hour. Nina Peak is part of the Thorsborne trail. Cam also managed to get an updated weather forecast. The forecast confirmed our concerns about the weather that we were due to get the next day. Forecast winds of upto 30knots blowing in from the East/South East. We were concerned about the high of the seas that this wind would blow up. On the back of the weather forecast it confirmed our decision to paddle onto Sunset beach.

We decided to have lunch at Black Sands beach. At about 12.30 we headed back out form the beach to make our way to Sunset beach. We pushed out in a northerly direction to avoid been too close to the shore line as we were on a lee shore and in the event of a capsize - if we were too close to the shore would have ended badly as the waves would have pulverised  the paddlers and kayak against the rocks. Also taking the route that we did shaved time off our trip.

Once we reached the end of the beach along Ramsay Bay we changed course to track between Eva Reef and the headland. Out in the waters we were fortunate enough to see some whales breaching maybe a kilometer off to our east.

Once around the headland of Hinchinbrook and with Eva Reef behind us the wind started to abate as we progressively moved into the lee of the peninsular. Cruising along the rock faces as they plunged into the aqua green waters was a far more relaxing cruise. Ian and I spying a sea turtle poking its head out of the water, then diving quickly underwater on spying these strange vessels on the water.

We continued to cruise to our bay - Sunset Beach. Interestingly the sunset was not visible. The camo site was occupied by the couple that had left with us back in Lucinda - the 2 outdoor ed types from Tasmania. We camped at the other end of the bay to afford them some privacy.

That night was a little windy but still warmish. We had Singapore and crab noodles washed down by yet another lovely red and some Tawny Port courtesy of JB.