Day 11 - Banks Strait to Tassie

A quick geography lesson- The Bass Straight is the remnant land bridge between mainland Tassie and mainland Australia- making that the average water depth of the strait is just 80m. What makes the strait so unique is the shallow depth which plunges to the deep ocean (thousands of metres deep on each side). Because of this difference in depth between the Strait and the neighbouring oceans, each tidal movement sees large volumes of water move across the strait creating in one spot the world's largest underwater waterfall. The Banks Strait is one area of the Bass where the tides are at their strongest.

A little nervous, we headed out this morning into forecasted 15-20knot cross winds for the final crossing to mainland Tassie. Our initial trepidation proved well founded as we left the safety of our cove and were blasted with these ferocious winds coupled with huge 2m+ waves that were running against the tide flow. After 12 days of paddling some of calmest Bass Strait waters imaginable we now got a little taste of the reason for it's reputation. We were all thoroughly soaked within 20min as the waves often hit chest height and took a moment to check in with one another and consider a retreat. Pumped with adrenalin and knowing that the Tassie "mainland" was less than 25klm away we ploughed on into the headwind and the waves.

Yet less than an hour in the weather settled a little and we got into a rhythm. We went with the high tide flowing east until it turned and tacked back towards our destination, Little Musselroe. As we continued on, the Albatross and Shearwaters swooped down low, showing us the way and bringing out the sunshine. The indefatigable Danni was there with waving arms to meet us on the shoreline with a celebratory soda water. 12 days since leaving Victoria we had made it to Tassie mainland - a lot sorer, stinkier and hairier than before.