Leg 10:
Date:	Wednesday 25th March 2009
Route:	Rebecca Bay, Clarke Island to Little Musselroe Bay, Tasmania via Banks Strait. Banks Strait is notorious for ferocious tidal currents.  We had planned our whole trip to arrive at Banks Strait at Neaps Tide (i.e. halfway between full moon and new moon when tides are at their weakest).  We estimated that the Banks Strait crossing would take around 4 hours, and so we planned to depart 2 hours before high tide so that the tidal currents would be at their weakest mid-passage.  Our plan was to maintain a magnetic compass bearing of 190 degrees for the whole trip which would mean that we would be dragged west of our planned track for the first 2 hours of the leg (i.e. the last 2 hours of the flooding tide), and then dragged back east (to our planned track) during the first 2 hours of the ebbing tide, allowing us to arrive at Little Musselroe Bay...our final destination.
Wind:	Tail wind of from the NW of between 5 - 10 kts (i.e. very favourable)
Sea:	Following seas of up to 1 metre; no significant swell.
Cloud cover & temp:	Gray and overcast.  Cool.  Light rain patches of rain.  Glad for our Sharkskins again!
Wellbeing:	We rose at 5 AM to pack camp and load our boats for the last time, leaving plenty of time for our planned 7AM departure.  Having camped on the beach, everything was full of sand, and was wet from the heavy coastal dew.  We all felt excited about the final leg of our journey, and a little anxious about the reputation of Banks Strait.  We'd read many accounts of sea kayakers really having to battle this passage. We were on the water by 6:50 AM, and paddling in the dark.  We made excellent speed, and all felt in good form.  Troy managed to get more sailing in (just 'cause he could!).
Highlights:	Wind and seas were as predicted, and provided for an 'assisted passage'.  We made the crossing faster than expected, which meant we had to correct our heading once our arrival point was visual.  This meant paddling east with the outgoing tide at up to 15 kph.  Whoo hooo! We could make out tiny dots on the point beyond Little Musselroe Bay that proved to be Troy's family.  Great to have a friendly welcoming party.  Cathy (Troy's wife), Viv (Greg's wife) and Michelle with Paul's kids showed up later which was fantastic.  Lyndon and Leanne Voigt arrived with the vehicles from Melbourne having come across Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania the night before (the easy way to cross Bass Strait!). It was fantastic to touch Tasmanian soil, and to carry the boats up the beach for the last time.  We were relieved that the whole trip, and Banks Strait in particular, had gone so well.  We were pleased that we had managed to compensate for our inexperience with careful planning, and prudent decision-making.  We felt fitter and stronger than when we started. Several phone interviews with radio stations. Learned that our fundraising had exceeded $11,000.
Lowlights:	We felt a tiny bit of let-down that the awesome adventure was over.  We were immediately busy with unpacking boats and loading cars, and so kind of missed 'the moment'.  Customary sore bums and lower backs. Now back to our day jobs!

Leg 9:
Date:	Tuesday 24 March 2009
Route:	Preservation Island to Clark Island: Departed approx. 9.40am and  arrived 11.40am. Average speed 7km/h. Max speed 13.4km/h. Approx 2h. Distance 14.9km
Wind:	10 knot head wind from south east
Sea:	Traveling with the tide. Very messy seas with rip tides - washing machine effect - made for challenging conditions.
Cloud cover & temp:	Grey overcast cool day.
Wellbeing:	A short leg but a pretty taxing paddle – all the bones are over forty and we gave into the tendency to paddle a little harder in the tough conditions than we needed to considering we had the tide with us.
Highlights:	The beach at Spike cove on Clark Island is beautiful. We had to camp on sand because it’s a very barren island but beautiful and dramatic with  grey granite rocks covered in contrasting bright orange lichen, green shrubs and blue water. The boys had a very refreshing swim in the cold sea to try and wash some of the grime off. Its nearly all over.
Lowlights:	Its nearly all over.

Leg 8:
Date:	Monday 23 March 2009
Route:	Long Island to Preservation Island: Left Long Island approx. 9.40am and western side of Preservation Island 12.20pm. (approx 2.5hrs). About 16km. 5.9km average speed - 12.9km/h max speed.
Wind:	South easterly head wind 10 knots picking up to 15 knots towards the end.
Sea:	First part along Cape Barren Island – very messy choppy seas. As we crossed the passage and as the wind picked up in the last hour, with us travelling with the tide, it formed short steep faced waves with confused seas up to 1m. A small swell of 0.5m to 1m coming from 4 different directions – quite challenging.
Cloud cover & temp:	Cool all day. Grey and overcast, A few drops of rain.
Wellbeing:	All feeling a bit creaky and groany after five days straight paddling. Lower backs and bums of everyone a bit sore. We intended to go on to Clark island in the one day but after stopping at Preservation for lunch we piked out and stopped for the day.
Highlights:	Not a real good camp site with a long thin flat but island with tundra or thornbush and rocks, but we found a nice little low patch of green grass we called "the village green" - the first level campsite for a while. Another big highlight was eating the four big Wrasse that Troy caught. Baked and fried - we stuffed ourselves on fresh fish. We're thinking Troy should submit an article in "Fishing Australia" on how to catch big yummy fish in Bass Strait - he's become an expert. Two more radio interviews - Troy with ABC Central Coast and Paul with ABC Newcastle.   We saw a massive seal lying asleep in the water with a huge fin sticking out of the water about ½ km off Preservation , also the reefs and shoals along the coast were very interesting. Last but not least, the rest of the guys found a little fluffy ball of grass with a tuft on it that looked rather "Wilson" like (aka Tom Hank's friend in the movie Castaway) – with a few little improvements to make it more life like it was given to Robin for company. Everyone thinks he's secretly very fond of it.
Lowlights:	Just the usual soreness - but nothing really

Leg 7:
Date:	Sunday 22 March 2009
Route:	Trouser Point to Long Island: Left Trouser Point approx. 2.00pm and  arrived Long Island 5.0pm. (approx 3hrs). About 18km. 5.9km average speed.
Wind:	25 knot cross winds
Sea:	0.5m to 1m wind chop.
Cloud cover & temp:	Overcast, Rain squalls
Wellbeing:	After a short but tough technical paddle we all pulled up ok.
Highlights:	Leaving Trouser Point and its seeing its beautiful headland. Making it successfully across the tricky conditions has to go in the highlights section. Robin went for a wonder before we left Trouser Point and discovered a little Cafe/B&B. He scored himself a brewed coffee and a jam croissant.
Lowlights:	Most difficult and scariest conditions so far. Waves were hitting us from the left hand side but with a steady effort we made it ok. Campsite is the roughest so far - no level ground and all rocks. We made the best of it by laying down bracken ferns first for that little touch of homely comfort. Robin had a lowlight when he lost a tooth filling while munching on a bar on the water - but that was ok because he'd had the coffee and croissant without the rest of us before leaving Trouser Point so that seemed only fair.

  

Leg 6:
Date:	Saturday 21 March 2009
Route:	Whitemark to Trouser Point: Left Whitemark approx. 3.45pm and  arrived Trouser Point 6.0pm. (approx 2hrs). About 13km
Wind:	Slight tailwind.
Sea:	Flat - very clear.
Cloud cover & temp:	Skies clear all the way and quite warm
Wellbeing:	It was great to get some R&R in Whitemark - hot showers, full stomachs, relaxing beers, friendly locals that all say g'day (and for Robin a proper bed). Just as well we only stayed the one day - we would have got soft.
Highlights:	Nice straight forward paddle in pleasant conditions and very clear water. It was cool to see our shadows moving across the bottom of the sea floor in the more shallow sections. The scenery was fantastic with the magnificent Strzelecki ranges on our left. They rise 750m out of the water. Very spectacular.  We arrived at the camping spot in Trouser point in late afternoon light with massive granite and marble boulders around us. Can see Cape Barren Island across the way. Back in Whitemark we booked a room at the local hotel in Whitemark so we could all have showers - Robin did well when in order of seniority (read age), Greg decided he was going to continue to rough it on the beach so it fell next to Robin. If any of the 40 year old whipper snappers had ideas about getting the room, Robin soon put a stop to that by exercising his rights.
Lowlights:	The tide was out when we left Whitemark so we had to carry the kayaks a long way out to launch. Big Dog all loaded up must come something close to 250kg so it was pretty tough.

  

Leg 5:
Date:	Friday 20 March 2009
Route:	Roydon Island to Whitemark:  Departed Roydon late morning and arrived Whitemark 3.07pm. Approx. 35km
Wind:	Strong headwind for most of the way.
Sea:	0.5 to 1m swell on calm sea.
Cloud cover & temp:	Skies clear.
Wellbeing:	Ok but it was a difficult paddle with a strong head wind most of the way, so we're all pretty tired.
Highlights:	Considering how hard work the paddle was, it was good that it wasn't too long. Fantastic to get to Whitemark and a shower, enough tucker to actually fill us up and a chance to wash some of our pretty smelly clothes.
Lowlights:	Probably approached the leg with less preparation than usual because we'd just completed the longest leg and a bit of an assumption had crept in to our thinking that it would be a piece of cake from now on. A good wakeup call that we always need to be on our game and mentally prepared when we're out on the water because the head wind was pretty tough. It got pretty warm during the paddle so Paul decided to do an eskimo role to cool off - he also found out at the same time that a) his navigation charts weren't secured on the deck quite as well as they should be and 2) his navigation charts don't float.

  

Leg 4:
Date:	Thursday 19 March 2009
Route:	Deal Island to Roydon Island: Left Deal Island approx. 6.45am  and  arrived Roydon Island 4.53pm. (approx 10hrs). A little over 60km
Wind:	10 knots westerly - died down later in day.
Sea:	0.5 to 1m swell on glassy sea. Tide east to west.
Cloud cover & temp:	Skies clear all the way.
Wellbeing:	All still in good shape after the longest single paddle any of us have ever done. It's good that the leg tomorow (to Whitemark) is short though.
Highlights:	The trip was most significant in that it was a challenge to cover that distance in a single paddle. All Greg's planning on the navigation and weather analysis front has really stood us in good stead in terms of making all the right decisions and changing plans appropriately.
Lowlights:	Robin's back is a bit sore. It was pretty sad to leave our little camp on Deal in the middle of nowhere. After several days there we'd really settled in and its such a beautiful part of the world. Mixed emotions about completing the last big leg. Good in that we've accomplished it but we sense that a big part of the adventure is over - we can see houses across the water on Flinders. Although it will be good to get back and see loved ones and friends we can see this awesome experience coming to an end.

  

Deal Island:
Dates:	Sat 14 to Wed 18 March 2009
Weather:	We've had some pretty wild weather here. About 90km winds and rain was the worst of it. Conditions began to improve on Tues afternoon. Winter Cove was well protected from the wind but as soon as we moved anywhere we got the brunt of it. There has not been enough sunlight to charge the laptop so getting photos and videos out so Lyndon can put them on the web has been difficult. We did manage to get some out though.
Wellbeing:	All feeling great. It's about 4 kms to the caretakers cottage/museum/lighthouse on the western side fo the island so we've been getting exercise by making the trek regularly. Had fantastic hospitality from the caretakers - Wes and Ethel - yes we're talking a lovely feed of hot stew. Looking forward to the next leg. Its a big one - a little over 60km so its good we're all rested up and raring to go early on Thursday morning. We don't mean morning in a civilised way, we mean it as in 4.00am. We're doing as much packing as we can today (Wednesday 18th) to make it easier.
Highlights:	Here is some of the standouts: ·         Fantastic natural environment - feel privileged to be here. ·         Great hospitality from Wes and Ethel. ·         Ethel's hot stew hitting the spot. ·         Troy's prowess at fishing and enjoying tucking into the results (rig a sail, throw a line in - this man can do anything!). ·         Live interviews with ABC radio in Newcastle and the Central Coast. ·         Checking out the Museum.
Lowlights:	Rain, wind and cold is the obvious one but we felt for our mates on the other side of the island who had a much harder time of it (the 3 Qld guys on a similar journey - check out thier blog here). A couple of the nights we went to bed early just to get out of the weather. Being here for so much longer than anticipated we were getting a little low on food but restocking from an emergency store with arrangements to replace goods once we get to Whitemark has fixed that. The fact is its pretty hard to come up with lowlights because we really are having a fantastic time.

  

Leg 3:
Date:	Friday 13 March 2009
Route:	Hogan Island to Deal Island: Left Hogan Island. 10.30am  and  arrived Deal Island 5.41pm. (7hrs,  11 min)  47 km tide east to west
Wind:	No wind
Sea: