5th June 2020                                                CDU Newsletter 654
 

Terry 0417 977 330

terry@canoeingdownunder.com.au (email)

https://canoeingdownunder.wordpress.com/  (website)

https://www.facebook.com/canoeingdownunder/ (facebook)

https://terrybolland.wordpress.com/ (trips & achievements)

Paddlers have been so lucky to have been able to paddle through the corona virus lock-down and now we can get back to racing. The first race is the Paddle Challenge on Sunday at Bayswater.
 

We are also lucky that we are not in the USA or England where the infections and deaths are high. With 592 infections and 9 deaths in WA and with many restrictions lifted, are people now being too complacent to thinking that they will not got infected? 

We have been praised for self-distancing but are people doing that now? I don't think we are doing such a good job. It is often very hard to self distance, but surely when we can, we still should be doing it.
 

I was even attacked by a hug on the day of my birthday at the kayak club. I must admit it took me by surprise. So why are people hugging each other when there is no need to hug especially as the virus is still around.

Lets not forget how serious the virus is.

The Progressive Racing Group racing on Tuesday evening.

 

The Epic V9 got a lot of praise at last week's come and try session.

SPECIFICATIONS 
Length: 5.79m (19'0")
Width:  49 cm (19'3") 
Depth: 32 cm (12'6") 
Capacity: 120 kg (265lb)

A group of ski paddlers on a trip up-river.
 

The River-Park Club launching at Sandy Beach.

Michael Laloli this morning after finishing training.

He is getting ready for the Avon Descent.
 

Michael with wife Kristie, baby Joey and the boxing kangaroo.
At the World Masters Marathon Champs in China.

(you didn't take your beautiful dog Kristie!)

Michael takes on the World in China

Michael: It was my first tour and for sure I was nervous about being smoked off the start line and then paddling around the course on my own.
I had checked previous race times and was somewhat optimistic, hoping for a top 10 finish based on known race pace, but didn't want to read too much into data from a completely different race and course. 

I had trained pretty hard since I got a sniff at the Nationals in Adelaide 2018, and since our 2019 Nationals were back in May it feels like it has been a long winter.

Our initial prep and arrival at Shaoxing all went well. The facilities set up by the Chinese were impressive and there was a great buzz about the event.
It was fantastic that athletes were all staying among a hand full of hotels and with the course being walking distance there was a great vibe.

I elected not to send my personal boat, instead taking a boat from a different manufacturer Elio and using my boat to continue training in Perth.
A bit of a risk but Elio were superb and proved to be incredibly helpful when setting up boats.
Many of the Australian team were using Elios and we were all very happy with their service. My only complaint was the 80's paint scheme!

For Andrew Heartcliffe and myself, our focus was the K1 event but we did manage to train together a lot and would race together in the K2.
Despite our best efforts to send an Australian K2 we couldn't source one and used a local boat.

Michael was 6th in the 35-39 Men's category

Heading into the first portage I was caught by the chasing pack, so slotted into their group on the way out of the portage.
I was comfortable but despite many attacks at the diamond I had to settle for the second wash. These guys then dropped me in the canal, partly from my lack of concentration while feeding but mostly by the surging pace.
It felt like falling overboard, seeing the boat sail away and I couldn't get back on the wash. I paddled the remainder of the race chasing that same diamond to finish 12th over the line and 6th in the 35-39 Men's category.

So overall I was both happy and disappointed. Disappointed to be dropped twice but really happy with my preparation, fitness, initial pace, portaging, feeding, kayak etc.
I was hoping to be closer to Andy, but on this occasion he kicked my butt, finishing 4th so congrats to Andy he had a brilliant race. Speaking to him after he managed to mix it with that faster bunch for quite some time eventually being dropped in the canal..
After the race my back, chest and breath felt sore and we had only the afternoon for recovery before the K2 the following morning.

Andy & Michael the closest kayak. Darryl, John, T2 and Trevor were also in that group.
 

Andy was getting incredibly uncomfortable and our final lap was slow. I found the boat incredibly unstable . By the time we were in the canal for the last time Andy was in agony. The South Africans could see we were hurting and cleared away. We were passed coming out of the final portage by the Spanish but held on for 5th.
Afterwards the South Africans commented on how strong we looked and the need for a new boat! We like those guys!

Anyway, a great experience and learned a lot. There was some great results from the Aussies and was a great team to travel with. We had a great time with the Kiwis and Saffas afterwards in the pub and just naturally got on well with those lads.

Thanks to Andy for being a great team mate. He is a very serious man but Garth kept him in check. I struggle on the winter mornings and was late to almost every session. Andy never complained.
He did an awesome job driving our heap of a K2 despite it having a turning circle of an oil tanker.

Cheers to Elio for the great service and boat prep.

Big thanks to all my paddling buddies who didn't come, mostly the canning crew and of course Sungtae Kim who always wants to do sprints at the end of our sessions ;)

Thanks to my employer TGP who have been so supportive and understanding.

An especially huge thanks to my coach Ramon Andersson. He is an absolute Master at his craft. Every session I take some goods away, and his feedback is always very specific.
I had his commentary playing on a closed loop throughout the racing. We are so fortunate to have his experience and coaching available to us in the West.

Thanks to the support crew Glen, Mary, Peter and Jo. Who were a huge help, also with Joey and Kristie. A big effort making their way to China.

And of course thanks so much to my darling Kristie Evans who lets me go paddling A LOT and has been very supportive.

Mike Laloli.

The Mississippi River Expedition continued

Part 12

Near Baton Rouge, Only three days left.

Saturday 25^th July

I was away by 6.45am which must have been a record. With the current slowing I had to use as many hours in the day to achieve the kilometres I needed. I passed a long line of barges anchored to the shoreline and approached a huge barge that was sideways across the river. I wasn’t sure what it was doing until I realised it was trying to get under a bridge that was on a bend. It was slow tedious work for the tow boat pilot to safely get a long line of barges around a corner and under a bridge with the current pushing it along and being another tricky problem to think about. It had to be extremely careful to avoid hitting the bridge pylons as the consequences of hitting them would be devastating.

I headed under the bridge and the city of Baton Rouge was fronted by many oil refineries, barges and ships for the first part and later it was good to see the city and all its buildings without industry. There were certainly a couple of impressive buildings especially the state capitol building. It looked very leafy in the region around the capitol but all the industry and refineries on the city edges certainly scarred the overall beauty of the city.

Baton Rouge Bridge and industry in the background.

Mixed amongst the barges along the shore was a casino boat, fishing boats and ships. I came up to an old wharf on the Port Allen on the right side of the river and police were looking into the water for a body. I stopped to have a nosey beak but I saw nothing.

The barges continued to line the shore with towboats shunting them into position but it was the ships that were motoring up the river that now became more of a problem as they were faster than barges. The river curled around in big S shape bends, many very sharp for the barges and ships to get around. I was eager to keep crossing over at the bends to establish a straight line but the ships being quicker than barges just came out of the blue and it was often too dangerous for me to cross over when I couldn’t see more than a kilometre down the river.

A wave from a big ship created a much bigger wave than a towboat that it was catching up with and I was in the firing line as it barrelled towards me. Suddenly I was on shaky ground but I managed to rock and roll over the waves and into calmer waters.   

Because of the bigger ships a navigable channel 12.2 metres deep and 152 metres wide is maintained between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. From New Orleans to the Head of the Passes, 152 kms, a 12.2 metres deep by 305 metres wide channel is maintained. But upstream where no ships roam, between Cairo, where the Ohio joins the Mississippi River, to the city of Baton Rouge (1200kms) the maintained channel is only 2.8 metres deep and 91.4 metres wide. The levee banks on the lower Mississippi are from 4.3 metres to 12.2 metres high and most towns are behind the levees.

I started to get into the country but every so often a refinery or oil depot would pop up. I started to get drowsy so I decided to have a stop at the next town, but then I saw a couple with two dogs wave to me from the left bank. I paddled across and they asked if I wanted to go back to their place for lunch and have a shower. It sounded good so I took up their offer. We walked up to the levee bank and onto a road where there was an impressive huge southern mansion on the other side. A little further we reached their less impressive home and another couple of dogs ran into the yard when hearing us. I had a shower, ate lunch and I made a few phone calls. Scott asked if I wanted to stay the night, but with the slower current I needed to get on as I was behind schedule. I grabbed some water before leaving and got back on the water a little bit livelier.

I was wishing I had stayed, but I hadn’t, so I had to get back to paddling. It wasn’t long before the river started to churn up and a thunderstorm closed in, so I put on my outriggers to give me more stability and continued to cut the corners to paddle in a more direct route.

At 7.00pm I rounded a bend to see a rain storm approaching, packs of barges and bright lights of industrial sites which were spewing out lots of smoke. The weather was looking wild. I later saw town of Donaldson in the distance which looked a nice town. I could have stopped, but it was too late in the day to go shopping and camping close by wouldn’t have been desirable so I kept going. I turned a corner into slightly calmer waters and there was a ship being loaded. Across from it I found a big sand spit which was perfect for camping on. It was 8.10pm, 20 minutes before dark, but paddling through this busy area with barges and large ships motoring up and down was a little risky so it was best to stop. As I made camp the light faded the barges were still passing and the big ship across from me was being loaded by a couple of cranes. With the lights coming from the industrial complex and the ones in the distance it was nearly like the lights at Christmas.

It was hot, but there was a breeze that kept the mosquitoes at bay so it was perfect to be able to cook dinner and later watch all the activity on the river and the ship being loaded without a worry in the world.

A great camping spot.

Sunday 26^th July

I was soon heading under a road bridge and finding a lot more industry and barges. A levee bank   continued to run alongside the river and it was certainly a different view from the top of a levee looking at all the fields. At this point of time though, the fields were now between the industrial sites.

At a settlement called Vacherie I pulled into a swampy area behind a line of barges. I moved around an old derelict barge which was listing into the swampy water and followed the shallow algae laced channel around islands of trees towards the bushy shore. When I could paddle no further I stepped out into mud so deep I thought I would sink up to my knees. I dragged the kayak across the shallows and weed to the bushes to hide it and quickly got changed. I then clambered through the bushes and undergrowth, climbed the levee bank and walked along the road towards some buildings. A drunken man in a ute was loitering not far from where I had landed, which was a concern having a lot of valuables left in my kayak.

A service station wasn’t too far along the road. It was run by Chinese people and had bars on the windows where they served to protect them, and seeing some of the rough looking clientele hanging around I could understand why they needed them. One woman only wanted $2.00 worth of petrol put in her big car and she was making a big fuss of it. It wasn’t a place I would want to hang around.

I made a phone call to Jenny who was in bed because of the time difference but sometimes I had no option to call her in the middle of the night as I was dependent on when I found a public phone. I filled my water container and bought a few goodies to eat that weren’t that good for me, but I wasn’t that fussy as proper supermarkets were hard to come by.

My kayak was still there amongst the bushes and nothing stolen when I returned. There were several ships and heaps of barges anchored along the shore and some barges were anchored away from shore making them like tree strainers as the water went through and underneath them rather the around. The towboats and tugs were skittering back and forth across the river pushing barges from one place to another. It was probably one of the busiest working places I have seen the river.      

The river now was narrowing to 700-950 metres wide with more traffic, and currents and big eddies on the bends which made me tread more carefully. Passing an industrial site I moved over a section of very hot water coming from outlet pipes of a power station. I could feel it radiating through the hull of the kayak. Suddenly I realised it was the Waterford Nuclear Power Plant, so I rushed away from the area as fast as I could. The next thing I knew a large boat was honking its horn at me. I wasn’t directly in its path, but it made me move further towards the shoreline. Petroleum, oil and gas plants were dotted in several places along the river looking very unhealthy to work at and a depressing site to view, unless at night when the lights were burning brightly.

One of the smaller ships being loaded.
 

A long barge passes by.
 

Petroleum industry.

There were a couple of ships being loaded by cranes, a large barge pod being pushed sideways, and a towboat sounding its horn when I was moving around it. Just before the Luling Bridge a thunderstorm struck. The lightning was impressive and lots of it. I should have been seeking shelter from the lightning, but I had to keep going as there was no easy place to land or take shelter. The current ran a little quicker and the rain pelted down stinging me as if they were hailstorms. I got closer to the shore, although barges parked alongside made it pretty difficult to get too close. A big ship in front of me had to do a big ferry glide and then it stopped making me do a little detouring. Later as I approached Kenner five big ships were anchored.

Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge.

I reached the 109 mile mark in the dying light. I could see several ships ahead so I decided to stop on a bend before the Avondale Shipyard. Everyone had warned me about going through New Orleans - they said be careful and don’t stop as you most likely will get your throat slit. I did try to choose my campsite carefully, not only did I have items on me of sufficient value that would encourage robbers, the other concern was from drunken people hanging out at places I camped. (Have a read of https://terrybolland.wordpress.com/nightmare-at-scarp-pool/)

It was impossible to know where any good camp spots were along the way because I had no one to ask and if there was someone they really had no idea what I was looking for. So my second last night on the river I was camped just outside New Orleans in the suburb of Waggaman/Avondale on the river’s edge, my tent laid out on shells next to a swampy area and some trees fronting the river with the levee bank behind me. Over the levee were some houses. I went for a short walk up the levee and met 3 youths not far from my tent. I didn’t really want anyone to know where I was just in case someone visited me in the night, but I was still alive the next morning so the lads didn’t tell anyone.

It 7.20pm and one of my earliest finishes on my trip but I didn’t want to go any further and get stuck in the city.

Camped just outside New Orleans.
 

The Avondale Shipyard and Huey P Long Bridge.

The cormorants are still around in their thousands.