Day 4- Hogan Island to Deal Island

We were up at 3am and on the water less than an hour later to make the most of the calm morning weather and avoid fresh winds from the SW in the afternoon. Unfortunately the cloud shaded almost all the moonlight and blocked out the sunrise. It was an erie paddling in near pitch black although we had a magic phosphorescence display from our bow lines and under our paddles for the first hour. The air was also surprisingly warm and the water was incredibly calm with barely a whisper of wind. These fantastic conditions continued as it got lighter and Deal Island rose up on the horizon and grew larger through the morning.

We took a little while to decide how to best navigate Murray's Pass- a channel between the Kent Islands that can flow incredibly fast. We timed our entry perfectly as it turns out and entered the channel minutes after the tide changed, whisking us through the islands up to the cove beneath the caretaker's hut. After only 7.5hrs paddling (in conditions the ranger Wayne said he's seen only 3 times in 7 years) we were counting our Cape Baren geese of which there turned out to be plenty of on the island.

An afternoon BBQ down on the jetty was put on by the caretakers Tim and Lynne and a bunch of very friendly local artists from Flinders who were staying on the island for a week.

Thanks Noel for the sausages and chocie! Also to Julien and Mike for the eggs.