Sunday Morning Pulbah Island Paddle.

With plenty on this weekend, I had only a few hours to fit in a paddle on Sunday morning. I was paddling with fellow Klanner Ben, who had responded to my last minute Friday night call for a paddling buddy. I hadn't paddled with Ben before and we opted for a paddle on Lake Macquarie.

We met up near Swansea caravan park at 8am and were on the water by 8:15. It was a beautiful morning with a light Northeasterly breeeze at Force 2-3 initially with the wind speed increasing to 3-4 as the morning got on. The southern end of the lake provides some shelter from Northerly winds so the conditions on the water were pretty well flat calm with small wavelets up to a foot high.

We headed across to Wangi Point and then went across to the eastern end of Pulbah Island. Happily on such a beautiful morning there were lots of boats out, and while this means that you can't really relax completely, the upside is that there are some nice little wakes to try and catch. It may be my imagination but I have the feeling that I'm starting to get a little better at catching them.

It was a warm morning and paddling in the shade on the weather shore (or in the lee) of the Island was quite welcome. The island has a rocky shoreline and there were some opportunities to weave among the rocks and play a little. Ben was paddling a Sea Bird Designs Expedition. A Norwegian designed, chinese built, plastic boat. He normally paddles an Assateague and this is usually his teenage son's boat. So it was a good opportunity for him to try out something a little different and I could see that he was liking it.

The Norwegians do a bit of Fjord paddling, where the swell and waves are less of an issue than wind funneled down the mountain valleys. The Expedition is pretty typical of their design philosophy, hard tracking with no rocker in the keel line (it actually looks as if the keel has negative rocker) and low decks with little windage. It's a swede form boat with the widest part of the boat aft of the centreline. Like my old Gecko, it has a very flat, wide back deck. I'm speculating here, but I suspect that this might make it a bit harder to roll than some other designs. It certainly weaved happily among the rocks though.

The wind picked up a little as we came out of the lee of the island and while we relished the cool of the breeze, we gritted our teeth for an upwind run back to Swansea, but the weather gods smiled on us and the wind dropped again. So instead of slogging along saving our breath for paddling we were able to relax and enjoy the simple pleasure of being on the water.

Pulbah Island is one of my favourite parts of the lake. It's in the deepest part and the water is usually quite clean. The name Pulbah (or Bulba) is a local aboriginal word meaning "island". It always amuses me that we have felt the need to tack on our own word for Island as well, but there we go Island Island is still one of my favourite spots for a lake paddle.

Thanks Ben for your company.