Sea Kayak Club WA recently held its annual Rottnest Island trip. The trip generally consists of paddling to Rottnest Island on Friday, staying two nights at Rottnest Island and then paddling back to the mainland on Sunday.
This year was a little di erent. With strong southerly winds forecast we decided to paddle from Rockingham, which is a distance of 36km, hoping the southerly winds would provide some assistance. After logging on to Marine Rescue Rockingham we set off with a light south easterly breeze helping is along. We skirted around the Navy restricted area along Garden Island. After a quick break at the northern end of Garden Island we headed for Rottnest. Lots of flying scooting out from in front of us. The strong Southerly didn’t eventuate.
Saturday morning brought strong Southerly winds so we decided to paddle along the protected northern side of Rottnest. We stopped on the northern side of Thompson bay and had a terrific surf session. We had a relaxing co ee at Geordie bay and headed back to Thompson bay for some more surf which had got bigger and steeper with the increasing Southerly wind. Back to our cottage for a rest.
Sunday morning brought light South Easterly winds which were forecast to increase from the South during the morning. We set o for 18km paddle to Port beach at 8:30 am and were on the beach in just over three hours.