The call up

Once again I’ll be photographer on the 2010 Windswell Lizard Island kite trip.

For those who haven’t heard about it I’d suggest you read the article I wrote for last years trip here

This year I’ll try and keep a running blog through out the week of life on the boat, how the kiting has been and of course heaps of photos.

Since we’ll be roughly 300 kms north of Cairns, the northern most city in Queensland, the 3G broadband coverage will be sketchy at best, but with any luck I’ll be able to keep the blog updated. 

Update on Monday, August 9, 2010 at 10:17PM by Ty Fitzgerald

Sorry that I couldn't keep it updated as I said I would, the network coverage was worse than previous years. I quickly wrote the following article to try and make up for it.

Ty

Saturday - Port Douglas

After rounding up a bit of extra gear, spear guns and lollies, Kyle and I made our way to the boat where we met the skipper and owner of the ‘Doreen Too,’ Barry. We also met our deckie for the trip, Gallagher, who we instantly re-christened Gilligan.

We started loading the gear as the guests got all their last minute supplies together and stared to make themselves comfortable aboard the boat. I was happy to see far less glass bottles of beer compared to other trips, which meant less cleaning up for me and the crew.

Once all the gear was stowed we made our way out of Dickson inlet and connected Brett’s RIB for the long tow up to Lizard and settled in for a few quite ones.

Just as night was approaching we had a freak accident where a following wave picked up the RIB and it surfed down the face causing it to smash into the stern of the ‘Doreen Too.’ This created an unfixable hole in the bladder. Some quick thinking by Brett insured the RIB was quickly driven to a charter boat moored off cape tribulation where it was safely secured until it could be recovered, this whole operation only caused a minor delay to the trip.

Sunday - The Blue Lagoon

Sunday – The Blue Lagoon

We all awoke early on Sunday morning after a rough trip up north in following seas driven by 30kt winds. But the wind was why we were here, so after a brief by Brett, Kyle and I loaded up the boats to transport the gear around to the Blue Lagoon while Brett walked everyone else up across the island giving them a run down on the history of the place, this gave Kyle and I time to setup eskys, tents and kites.

At the end of the runway above the beach the guests were welcomed to Lizard with a face full of wind and kites ready to go, everyone was quick to track down their gear and get onto the warm clear water.

After a quick rundown we figured out who could be left to fend on their own and who would need some attention throughout the week, Robert, the SeaBreeze competition winner, was clearly in his element, hailing from Darwin and boosting huge we knew he’d be fine, Thomas our token euro and George From WA were also happily tacking across the lagoon, which left Paul, who hadn’t actually been up properly on the board yet.

Luckily when you’ve got a constant 30kts of wind and boat support, it makes the standard kiteboarding learning curve much steeper and by the end of the day Paul was up and cruising, alas a bit wobbly, back and forth across the lagoon. It was going to be a good trip.

After a quick beach cleanup we packed down the gear and headed back to the boat where Dave our chef was whipping up a stunning meal. Skipper Barry flicked on the back spotlights after dinner and we all watched as Watsons Bay put on a fantastic show of Travally, Cod and Sharks munching down the small fish attracted to the lights.

Monday - Eagle Island

After a solid nights sleep we motored the 6miles across to Eagle island. Once we got there Kyle and I did the hostie thing and setup the tent and gear for what would be our home base for the next 3 days, after some dramas with the tent bending, Brett cutting his had open and us letting a boat blow offshore out of swimming distance, we got it all sorted and everyone was transferred over to ride the flat water in the lee of the island.

Paul scared us a few times dropping some distance off the back off the reef before getting it together and tacking back up wind, while Robert was just happy to cruise and throw sent jumps higher and more casually than any man has a right to. Everyone else had a great time just cruising the flat water.

That afternoon I rallied everyone together to try and do a sunset photo shoot, I’d been wanting to do this for ages and it all came together for an hour or so, the sunset could have been better but I’m pretty stoked with the results.

Sunset Session

Tuesday - Eagle Island

By Tuesday morning everyone has settled in, 30 kts and flat water was the norm now so everyone loosened up and started messing around more, hang-10s, speed runs and circuits of the island were thrown down.

Kyle had work commitments so about lunch the Doreen headed back over to Lizard to drop him off at the air strip, from all reports the 30kt wind winds beam on for an hour wasn’t so pleasant.

It was generally a pretty laid back day so I had a chance to put the camera down and go for a kite, I dialed blind nose presses and was happy just doing sent jumps all afternoon, cheers to Thomas for getting some rare photos of me kiting.

Wednesday - Knobs Hard

We had a bit of a slower start on Wednesday as we planned to be away from the island for most of the day’s session, after transferring to the island we had a quick brief about the day’s activities, the plan was to upwind it and cross a reef to a spot called ‘Knobs Hard’ a series of sand bars that only exist at low tide, Brett and I had our fingers crossed that they would be there as we didn’t have the ideal tide for it.

Bretto led the way and I hung back making sure everyone was OK on the up winder, after navigating the shallow reef we slid in behind the sandbars which were only a few centimeters  above the water line, that as enough for us

Everyone was stoked, just cruising and carving in the flat water, Gilligan had snuck his way over in a support boat with my camera and had carted over the esky filled with frosty beverages.

The tide slowly crept up on us and just as we were just about to head back Paul had a bit of a drama inverting a kite. After dumping it and getting picked up we all headed back to Eagle to pack up and start thinking about heading home.

Thursday - Hope and Home

To break up the trip back we steamed for 10 hours and woke up at Hope island, after a crazy sunrise and a bit of a slow start we started to move some gear over to the island, the wind was a lot lighter today, 15-20kts, and everyone took it easy for most of the day, kiting, drinking, eating. Gilligan and I took this chance and went spear fishing for an hour or so, turning up nothing.

After a lunch of prawns and beers we watched a pod of whales move through the channel, everyone was pretty knackered from the previous days kiting, so we slowly wrapped it up through the afternoon.

Paul won the annual Windswell cup which normally goes to the best kiter on the trip, but considering that he’d gone from body dragging to inter-island travel in 5 days he was always favorite.

During the day Dave had caught a nice spangled emperor so it was BBQed up that night, washed down with plenty more beer. Just on dark we headed for home which ended at 3am when we docked back in Port Douglas

Friday and thank you

I’d like to thank Barry the Skipper, Gilligan the deckie, Dave the chef for all their great work on the boat, as well as Paul, Helen, George, Thomas and Robert for making the trip so special, hope to see you all on the another trip.

And of course Bretto, without him none of this would of been possible.