Night Practice on The Thames

Both crews decided to practice the Reading to Marlow stretch at night. It was 8.00pm by the time we got going from Dreadnought Reach with Len & Nick (Crew 2) leading the way. The River was high with the water almost level with the pontoon deck.

I know this stretch reasonably well but it was very misty with light drizzle and with my glasses covered in raindrops the visibility for me was awful. I will definately have contact lenses in next time.

Crew 2 did very well in the dark and coped well with navigation, lock portaging and the fast flowing river. The Ace Explorer is slower than the Waterman by about 0.25 knot but a lot tougher. I took a wrong turn at one stage and while moving across the river to get back on track the current stuffed us into an island and the Waterman made a crunching sound. From the damage it looks like a square post punched a hole in the side of the boat. Luckily for us the damage was all above the water line.

The carbon fibre kevlar repair kit has arrived and it should be pretty straight forward to repair the hole.

We covered the 16 miles at an average of 5.8 miles an hour but both boats could easily have done it at an average of 6.5 miles an hour with better portaging.

Everyone had upgraded their clothing for this trip and nobody got cold. Overall a very useful trip for all of us.

Crew1 - Devizes to Marlow - 70mile practice

The idea was to cover the first part of the course and do a long run to better assess our speed, food & drinking strategy, clothing and for our support crew to do a proper trial.

The day was bright and sunny but cold at 1degC. We set off from Devizes at 9.30am and soon ran into a problem - ice. The ice on the Canal was manageable initially when it was 1-2mm thick. The boat is a very effective ice breaker but there is no doubt we were having to expend a lot more energy getting through it. We managed for more than 6 miles before the ice got too thick. At about 6mm thick the paddles bounce off the top of the ice and you grind to a halt.

We walked for a couple of miles with the boat to a point where our support crew could pick us up and the first place we found that was ice free was Little Bedwin.

Back in the water we ran into ice again about 3 miles later and came to a halt. After breaking up the ice around us and recovering the boat we had to walk just 1/4mile to where the water was free flowing and it remained that way for the rest of the trip. The canal section was fairly un-eventful apart from the Canal boat yard at Aldermaston that had moored boats across 90% of the width of the canal. In the dark it looked like, and was, a wall of steel. Just as we were feeling a little cold we changed into our night clothes - a heavy cag top. This was a good move but later on we realised that we really needed an extra layer as well. At Fobney lock we were both grumpy and the support crew knew it.

As we passed by the back of the houses in Reading there was a guy with a massive hoody on looking down at us. You couldn't see his face at all, just a black hole. I thought at the time that he looked just like the grim reaper. On a serious note the locks on the canals and river are no place for support crew members to be on their own, in my view two minimum with at least one bloke.

We got to the Thames and as we paddled past Marsport at Dreadnought Reach I yearned to be packing it in and going home. In honesty, those feelings were in place from the time it got dark. My brain saying - go home. What kept me going was thinking about it being mind over matter and the charity we are doing this for.

The Thames was flowing at an incredible rate and I found it hard to work out where to go between Reading and Marlow. The boat steers like a battle ship. Make a rudder input and wait.

We turned late to take an alternative fork in the river and going cross current it slammed us sideways into some old wooden posts and tipped the boat right on its side, we only just recovered it and stayed upright. Heading towards Danesfield house on the hill there are flat watermeadows on the right that lead down to Hurley lock. With a big gap in the trees and the light I turned right too early and we only just stopped before hitting the bank. During this river stretch there was a massive piece of tree canopy in the middle of the river, again we turned hard and paddled hard but the current pushed us sideways into it and we had to use the branches to drag ourselves out.

From Reading onwards it was cold rain and by the time we got to Hambleden it was sleet. We were really grumpy and shaking with cold and just wanted to get back in the boat and keep paddling to warm up.

Once we were at Hurley it was really quick to the next lock Temple and then 10 minutes of paddling to home (Marlow). We arrived in Marlow around Midnight.

It was a really worthwhile trip and we learnt a tremendous amount which will stand us in good stead for the main event.

Our support crew did a great job and we really looked forward to seeing them. Thanks Sandra, Malcolm, Emily, Michael & Ron.

Crew 2 - Boat maiden voyage - Reading to Marlow

Nick & Len at Dreadnought Reach, Reading in a new Ace Explorer 515.

Sunday, January 18th ... the forecast for the weekend was horrendous with gails and heavy rain anticipated for Saturday night and Sunday morning. However, didn't want to wimp out so kept to the plan. Luckily the day dawned sunny, clear and just a bit nippy, not too bad at all. We met in Marlow at 8am for a cup of tea and some 'team talk'. Then we proceeded to load up Sandra’s smallish car with 4 large blokes and 2 even larger canoes …bit of a squeeze! We were dropped at Dreadnought Reach near Reading and we were given our first opportunity to ‘test drive’ the new vessel. It is ok, but there are several issues with the rudder which need to be sorted out on dry land. In the meantime I carried out a ‘Heath Robinson’ bush repair to make it work for the training run. We covered 17 miles with relative ease, hampered slightly by the sticky rudder. This was the first time that Nick & I have paddled together so it was very interesting. There were only 5 portages on this leg and each one seemed to have a resident ‘DW expert’ who had actually never taken part in the race but advised how tough it was – just what we needed to hear! The stretch at Henley was the hardest as the river winds around and then we were exposed and paddling directly into the very chilly north wind. Back to Marlow in approx. 3.5 hours which included (lots of) chatting at the locks and a lunch break. When we stopped it was quite alarming just how quickly we got very cold. Once back in Marlow, Sandra attended to her crew with welcoming (and deserved) bacon butties and cake! Well done Sandra I knew you were taking your role seriously! Lessons learned today….. Re-assess the clothing, grease the ruddy rudder and most importantly, if anyone standing idle at a lock asks if you are training for the DW …. Lie!

More Training Required

I was a bit slack over the Christmas period so I need to get cracking now. My wife tells me how fit and toned the Olympic canoeists are down at Bisham gym. They do pull ups on a bar at incredible speed for considerable periods..................hmm. I paddle every other morning 3 miles to Temple and back. 5mins slog, 1min rest etc. Its not enough. Last week was interesting with temperatures as low as minus 10deg. There were ice sheets close to the river bank and a combination of startled ducks and the water lapping underneath sounded like rattling chains. It was a good opportunity to try out different clothing combinations for these temperatures. I am trying hard to improve my paddling technique as we had been taught at Marsport. Hand high in line with the peak of a cap and not crossing the boat centre line, stab the paddle in as far forward as possible next to the boat, pull hard (no pushing) and don't pick up water on the lift out to fling on your partner.
The build up races start in mid February with waterside A. I plan to do them all so we have covered the whole course for a second time. We still have a first run at Devizes to Newbury to do, as well as Teddington to Westminster. I hope to complete these in the K2 in the next two weeks. I think I need to be down the gym every day that I am not paddling. What a fag.