The Rottnest and Return race was held a couple of times around 1990 and I have done the crossing a couple of times besides that. It's about 17km from the nearest landfall. It's not that hard, and nor does it take very long, but if you break something...
The coolest part is when you are out amongst the swells and you sail down a trough - you can't see land in any direction. This is a very rare thing in windsurfing, very memorable.
Around the summer of 1995 I sailed a few kms out past Windang Point in a moderate north east seabreeze. I saw a pengiun swimming along and then something greyish/bronzish in the water out of the corner of my eye, sailed a couple more kms, completed a shakey gybe and sailed back to Warilla Beach.
Not very far by this posts standards but back in the 90's I went out to the tankers anchored offshore from Nobby's ..couple of kms ? & ran out of wind.LONG swim in sidecrawl towing the gear & thinking of sharks .I was silly enough to stay swimming on the one side the whole way in & cripes was I B musclebound the next day!
Like Rex we used to sail out and around the big ships anchored off Long Reef. One day a mate and I sailed out so far in a great nor-easter we could see South Head and then the thin white strip of sand we thought was Bondi. When we turned around all we had to aim for was Longy headland and the bulk of Collaroy Plateau way in the distance. Best part was appearing and disappearing in between the swells and having flying fish blast along with you. Must admit we were very pleased to hop off onto the sand at Lugga's!!!
Met a fitter working in the mines a few years back who had an interesting background. He'd been a camera man for Ben Cropp, diving on sunken boats and in his spare time windsurfed (on 80s gear) around Tasmania and from Australia to Indonesia. Can't remember his name but last I heard he had built a boat and gone sailing around the workd with a couple of young English lasses. Me? Envious? Nahhhh
About 200m past the sandbar at Lakes Entrance. I soon realised that enourmous funboards are not suited to wave jumping. As with attempting most activities on inappropriate equipment, it was a bit of fun but nothing to brag about.
I saw a kiter yesterday at least a 100mtrs from the shore. I was heading back to see if he was ok but about then he must have realised that people on the shore wouldn't be able to see him and bolted back to jumpy dangly things closer in.
I remember reading in Windsurf magazine that some Cuban guy had windsurfed from Cuba to Miami to escape the Castro regime. That has to be at least 288kms.
A couple of times i have followed someone out far enough that you turn around and struggle to see land always on a floater though Jaws music goes through my head whenever i fall off that far out
went out on a hobie 14 off esperence on a light breeze in summer, had a leg on the steering , lay back in the sun , and was woken by the woodie island ferry sounding his horn at me . woodie was sooo big from there. As I headed back the wind picked up and I had the privledge ? of surfing the ferry wake all the way home. As I got back into the harbour I nose dived and that 's when I realized I didnt have my lifejacket . I think its about 25 kms?
Hey Paddymac the guy you are talking about is Ric Burnup originally from Devonport Tas He sailed to New guinea from Cape York broke a mast on the way and cut a bamboo pole on some remote island to keep going with the rest of the trip. My mate still has the old F2 lightning longboard he sailed around Tassie on. The made a doco of the trip back then called Tasmania by Butterfly replayed on tv earlier in the year
.I was silly enough to stay swimming on the one side the whole way in & cripes was I B musclebound the next day!
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always on a floater though 
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