Day 16, Tomahawk to Bridport
Waking nice and early we would have bettered our best start time had it not been for the need to recover a tin from a helpful resident of the caravan park, name of Alan Jones. Don't think he was expecting a 6:50 am wake up call when he took on the task of helping us out with collecting, despite his obvious 'tiredness' Alan managed to find the tin – with some help from his wife – and we were on our way by 7:15.
Todays conditions were once again good for covering a lot of water quickly, with a fresh NE wind and a fast flowing flood tide, pushing us along at a comfortable average of 10km per hour. The sea was at times quiet big and choppy, which while it made for some good surfing conditions it also kept us on our toes, as the boats shot ahead on some waves so fast that speeds around 24kms per hour were quiet common.
As Bridport came slowly in to view to our West, we had our second interaction with a shark (? several sharks). This time it took the form of a shark passing under the bow of Ben's kayak, then a few minutes later, Charles reported that something had seemed to "have a go" at the back of his kayak – he flipped up his rudder to check that it was all still there, and spent some time look nervously behind as we paddled on much closer together than normal in such conditions.
Once in Bridport, we had three pressing tasks (apart from loading the kayaks), one to find the trailer, which a local kayaking identity in Jeff Jenkins, had kindly allowed to be stored in his driveway for a couple of days; next was find a place to eat (Chris had good luck with this, while the others had mixed results), then finally we needed to find a place to stay. The last task proving the hardest, as there was no were available in Bridport, a very nice lady who owned a couple of self contained three bedroom cottages in Scottsdale proved to be our saviour, she even kindly gave us a good discount. The cottage is loverly and provided us with all the comforts of home, such a change from three nights of sleeping in tents.
Getting ready to paddle on Tomahawk beach.
Taking a break just West of Waterhouse Island.
