By Jim Banks

Day 12

I awake real early, often a sign for me that there's surf. Actually the reef had been pretty noisy during the night with some serious cracking sounds making their way over to our mooring in the channel. At first light it's a very different reef. Big long dark faces are peeling away on the outside and even the inside end section near us is producing inviting barrels.

We're on it pretty fast and there's substantial size but it's not really my style of wave. I prefer something a little more hollow and I jump back in the scout boat to go explore up the coast. We pass by a few peeling waves that look okay from behind and further up we find a wide open channel. Over on the far side of the channel is a very serious looking right hander. It's big and it's hollow. Back on this side of the channel I can see some interesting looking lefts.

We opt to hit the right. It's thick, powerful and hollow and looks like a combination of the Box in Margaret River and HT's in the Mentawais. My 12 year old son, Harley, jumps in with his bodyboard and i'm a little concerned. There's some serious waves out here and i'm a little worried that he might underestimate how hard they're hitting the reef. Unfortunately the end section of the take off barrel is pinching which is a little deterring to pulling in. I surf it for a little while but I'm not feeling comfortable with it and opt to head over to the lefts.

We signal Bahal to come and pick us up but I can see that the anchor's stuck on the reef. Bahal's had a few goes at getting it but it's too deep for him and he's had no luck. It's pretty deep but I use the anchor rope to pull myself down quickly. I don't have any luck either. It's firmly wedged up under a narrow crevasse. I dive down again but still no luck. Finally on my third dive I manage to pull it free. It's slow going and a real lung buster swimming back up with the anchor but there's no way I want to risk it getting caught again.

As Harley and I paddle out to the lineup a small set comes through. Very perfect looking head high peaks unfold and gentle looking almond eyes peel past us. But then as we paddle out to where we think the take off is a larger set moves in. In front of us, big perfect long walled up peaks stand up and peel towards us. It's way out of Harley's league and he quickly turns around and heads down towards the inside of the reef. My first wave is a mid sized slightly overhead peak with not much wall. It doesn't offer much more than a take off and bottom turn. I paddle back out and wait for another one.

A larger set moves in and I take off slightly behind the peak. Out of the corner of my eye I spot Harley about 50 meters away towards the inside of the reef and make a mental note that it looks like he's too far inside and that he's going to cop it on the head. The wave peels off fast and I have no choice but to pull in. It races out ahead of me but the barrel stays open and I begin traveling through the spinning almond eye. I'm pretty deep and I feel like i'm not going to travel very far at all but the tube continues to stay open and so I get down low and begin to squeeze every ounce of speed that I can from my board. About half way along, the wave moves onto a different part of the reef and the tube opens up more but I'm still really deep and now begin bouncing along on the surging whitewater ball that's pushing up under my board. I intuitively start to feel that I must be getting close to Harley and begin to be a bit concerned that I may collect him as he tries to dive under the wave. Then suddenly a strong surge of whitewater pushes up under my board and I'm tumbling off my board. I come up and about 5 metres behind me Harley's head bobs up out of the whitewater. It was a pretty solid wave but he's not fazed at all. Instead he's stoked, telling me that he could see me through the lip of the wave as I bore down towards him.

It turns into a great session and nearly every wave is a long racing tube ride. I then take of too deep three times in a row on a series of double overhead sets and cop a hammering each time from the rest of the set. It's enough for me and I head for the channel and the scout boat. Back in the boat it's a ridiculous scene. To the east double head high barrels are peeling towards us. Over to my right and slightly further outside Baps and Julien are taking on well overhead HT's style perfect turquoise barrels. I don't know where to look and begin laughing at how hilarious it is to be surrounded on both sides by such high quality waves with no one else around but us.

By the time we get back to the Lambo, the winds turned funky and and we pull anchor and head over to the smaller island where we had been surfing the left point break. Baps and Julien speed off ahead of us in the scout boat. They're keen to hit a another high quality right hander on the way. By the time we get to the right they're out surfing it, but the wind is blowing into it too much for the rest of us and we head over to the left. The left is solid! Big peaks are exploding way outside and peeling down into an extremely hollow and dangerous looking inside section. But even though it's offshore, the wind is savage here also and big chops are blowing across the channel and up the faces, making them very bumpy. It's bizarre. Even though we are only a couple of miles from where we were earlier, the wind here is blowing completely the opposite direction and is about 15 knots stronger. Go figure...

We decide to head around the corner to the next bay that's protected from the strong offshores and check the perfect peeling left that we had come across the other day. Much to our surprise, and disappointment, it's still tiny. For some reason it just doesn't get swell. Back where we came from just ½ a kilometre away, double to triple overhead peaks are exploding and we can see that around the next headland, massive Sunset style peaks unloading on outer reefs. But here, it's barely one foot. Up the other end of the beach some wedgy fun peaks are perfectly offshore and jump out to try a couple. The waves are fun, but after the barrels we'd had this morning it was pretty ordinary and we don't stay out long. Back at the left point the swell has backed off considerably and the inside section that was producing serious wide open barrels is looking pretty quiet now. We pull anchor and head back to the waves of this morning.

It's turned offshore again and there's still plenty of swell but it's getting late. Dave opts for the left nearest our anchorage and we drop him off promising to pick him up on the way back. Baps, Julien and I head down to the hollow lefts and rights. We fly down the coast past long peeling lefts as the sun sets. Above us a million dollar sky has me mesmerised. The sun has already set by the time we get there but with the higher tide, the barrels that were pinching earlier are now staying open and we score a good but short session on the hollow rights.

Dave! We've gotta get Dave! It's dark by the time we climb back in the scout boat and we jam back up to the lefts where we'd left Dave. As we approach the lineup, we call out for Dave. All quiet. Not a sound. We whistle and call out again. Once again, nor response. We're about to give up when we hear a faint whistle. It's Dave! We head over closer to the where we heard the faint whistle and call out again. But it's all quiet again. Maybe he caught a wave. We wait a awhile and call out again, but no reply. It's kind of sketchy where we're parked. We've killed the motor to be able to hear better but in the dark we're not exactly sure where we are. There's still considerable sized random sets coming through and there's no way we're going to see them coming until it's tool ate. We shoot back over to the Lambo to see if Dave's there.

Dave's back on the Lambo. He'd got a ride back to the boat on an outrigger canoe from another surfer who turned out to be a friend of his from Bali. He gives us a good razzing for leaving him in the dark. Not only had had he felt abandoned but he'd had broken his leash during his surf and had to swim for his board, making it an uncomfortable session for him. But at the end of the day, it's been a great day's surfing and we're all surf stoked.

Day 13

It's first light, the sun hasn't even risen yet and we're all up and about early getting our boards ready in between cups of tea and coffee. After yesterdays waves we're keen to surf again. As the sun comes up over the horizon we're already in the scout boat, skimming across the dark water following the coast back down to the lefts and rights of yesterday.

It's smaller today but there's still high quality waves to be had. Baps and I head over to the rights while Dave, Julien and Harley hit the lefts. It's super clean and Baps and I are hunting the larger sets. To our surprise, a boat from up the coast rocks up and three surfers jump out into the line up with us. Baps takes a small inside one. He doesn't make it and lets out a yell of what I thought was frustration when he comes up. But when he yells again and heads for the channel it becomes obvious he's hurt himself. I begin to wonder how bad and catch a small wave to take me down to him. I don't make mine either and as I paddle back out and duck dive the following wave I get stung across the eyes and face by a jellyfish. Aaargh! Now I'm yelling too. It's really burning and I'm frantically trying to pull the long jelly tentacles off my face but they're really sticking and I'm really getting wailed on. It's so painful that I can barely open my eyes to see, but enough to see that Baps is out in the channel yelling at Bahal who is obviously having trouble with the anchor again and can't free the boat to get Baps. Faaark! It's all going on!

Finally Bahal frees the anchor and picks up Baps. By the time I climb into the boat, all I can see through my squinting burning eyes is blood everywhere. Baps has ripped his calf muscle wide open. We haul ass over to the left and grab the rest of the crew and jam back to the boat. The breakfast that was waiting for us on the table is quickly cleared and we lay Baps down for the long process of stitching him back up. Fortunately Dave is up for the job and has even brought a full kit with him, including sutures and anesthetic. It takes about an hour and the gash is so wide open that the first closing stitch breaks, but Dave gets it under control and after about an hour or so Baps wide open gash is a clean row of stitches.

Breakfast is restored and everything settles down. After breakfast we throw Baps a stash of painkillers and head back down to the lefts. The other surfers have gone and the swell has dropped a little but we still get some good waves. It's not as hollow today but the waves are still high quality and we surf for a couple of hours before heading back for lunch and an afternoon siesta.

Today is the final day of the Rote leg and as the day draws to a close we head out for a final surf at the left next to our anchorage. There are still overhead sets but the swell's really backing off now and they are few and far between. I'm not that into it and head down to the end of the reef to see if I can surf all the way back to the boat. The waves get smaller and smaller as I move down the reef but I find a fun little wedge section that intrigues me. A couple of slightly larger ones move through that get me excited and then just back up the reef the previous section begins to fire off perfectly shaped head high tapering wedges. It's classic late afternoon Indo silk and I move on over to tap into them. Dave moves down over to me and picks of a beautiful set wave. It's a good finish to the first leg of the Odyssey.

To be continued...