Monday 9 March 2015

First day in the boat

We got off to an early start from Melbourne after sleeping on probably the finest linen the Turner Bro's have ever- and will ever- experience courtesy of Sam and Kris' extraordinary hospitality. Disaster struck only a few kilometres out of Port Welshpool when the front roof rack dislodged leaving them precariously balancing on the roof. With the help of a few trusty tie-downs we were back on the road and then loading boats at our launch site. We worked hard to convince Big Sam to squeeze into the rear hatch of Joel's kayak and had him until he remembered it was his engagement party the next day. Having paddled the Murray Marathon with Sam we knew his extra torque would be a massive asset for the big crossing (although we may have had to resort to deep sea trawling to feed him the protein he requires). Big thanks to SMP and Kris for the lift out and the 5 star hospitality.

After the predictable dramas of misplacing items and packing more volume of gear into our kayaks than we have before (we had trained with extra water to simulate the weight but not the bulk we now had) we were on our way at 11am against the current but with otherwise favourable conditions. Our 'little' 43km paddle down the east of Wilson's Promontory was slow going. Just before sunset we pulled up at Refuge Cove relieved to get out of our boats after an 8 hr effort. A quick cook up and hot chocy laced with Ireland's finest and we were out.

No comments:

Post a Comment