The wind was still strong when we woke, at times gusting to 45 knots. After an unhurried breakfast we packed the kayak and paddled slowly around to the south side of the island from where we would launch for the extended crossing to Flinders Island the following day should the weather permit. In the strong winds and at times driving rain we bobbed around like a cork as the waves hit us from both sides as they refracted off the rocks. It took us just over an hour to reach the sanctity of Winter Cove. After negotiating our way through the breakers we landed on the beach, dragged the kayak to safe ground and set about looking for a place to set up camp for the night. It didn’t take us to long find a nice sheltered area amongst the Fir trees. After lunch we spent the afternoon lying in the sun, exploring the area and playing what we had come to refer to as ‘the waiting game’. We had become quite good at this game over the last 8 days.In the evening we walked back across to the other side of the island to listen to the weather forecast. A mild north easterly at 10 to 15 knots was forecast. This was expected to strengthen the following day before swinging around to the south west. This would be the window of opportunity for which we had been waiting, and our ticket off the island.
The crew from one of the yachts had told us about a solo sea-kayaker that was camped on Erith Island across Murray Pass. We later learnt that he had arrived the day after us and was on route from Wilson’s Prom to Tasmania. We established contact over the radio and agreed that ‘Peter’ would meet us around at ‘Winter Cove’ at 4:30am the following morning. We would paddle to Flinders Island together.