Day off

Yesreday, with a 6am start, I rowed from Morgan to Blanchetown, and I am now positioned to pass through lock 1 tomorrow morning. That was a run of around 42 kms. The first 3 hours were without any wind at all. After 17 km I stopped at a "shack" and enjoyed a cup of coffee with some folks we met the previous night in the Morgan pub. I was pleased wth my speed, and happy to get a bit of a break with coffee and good company. Shack is a term meaning weekender by the river, and that was the nature of this one, but closer to Morgan, at Morphet Flat, the "shacks" woukd not look out of place harbourside in Sydney.

When I left this stop, around 10.30, a light Northerly had started, and I had any easy time for a while as my main direction is South. Ahhh, but after not long, the wind started to move to the West, inducing chop and giving me a bit of work when the river turned that way. To add to the fun, as I got closer to Blanchetown, Wakeborders appeared. I have not noticed this brand of nautical fun before, but it consists of towing a person on something like a snowboard behind a fairly powerful boat. Unfortunately, the main part of the fun is to get airborne leaping over the wake. This means a big wake is good, and the boats acheive this by not planing, but pushing along with the bow in the air and the back end low. Some apparently can even take water ballast, to push the back end down. High drag, high power, plenty of noise, and a big wake. Now add 4 big speakers on a bar above the windshield, and some thunpa thumpa music and you are close to the picture.

I like to see people having fun, but the drivers of these boats seem totally unaware of what a drama their wake can be to another boat. They are cheery and good natured, And they come close enough to roll my boat over unless I take evasive action, normally pointing the bow into the wake. This way, I bounce over it, slap, slap, slap, and not much comes on board. Alas, this trick removes any momentum I had built up, so it makes the job of rowing somewhat harder.

As the river approaches Blanchetown, it turns Sothwest. As I turned into this 6km straight, I realised that he wind had coninued the journey around the clock and was now fully opposite my direction of travel. Marg had organised a stop at a caravan park and I intended to get there, but this wind was a big pain. So, it was a bit of a struggle at the end of a big day. I reached the park at about 4.45pm after rowing since 6am, with about one hour break. I crawled out of the boat (failed to fall in the water but came close) and just lay on my back on the grass for a bit. Some blokes nearby (wakeboarders!) gave me a hand to haul the boat onto the bank.

I decided that I needed a day off, some steak, and 2 nights in a bed, so the boat is at Blanchetown and I am at Waikerie having fun. I will go back to the boat early tomorrow and get going.

3 days rowing since I came back from my heart tune up, and I have covered about 100kms, leaving me 200 to go. I think early starts are the go down here as the wind is the main problem. I should still be able to finish in 6 or 7 rowing days. We shall see.