Laying siege

At the end of my last post I mentioned that Adam and I would be going out for a long paddle later that evening. We did and we had a really great one. Right up to the point where we capsized. We had bashed our way up to Molesey, portaged and then carried on for another 20 minutes or so. The conditions were decidedly sub optimal with the wind throwing us off but we felt relaxed and comfortable. We were not doing any intervals, instead just doing a DW paced effort. As we turned back the weather was getting more filthy but as we were heading for home we were not particularly bothered. We were no more than 10 minutes from home, approaching Ravens Ait  when we went in. It was our first capsize in a year so we think we were due one. We were close to the bank so we didn't have far to swim but getting back into the boat was very difficult, with us both having to get in while standing waist high in water. We were very cold on the way back but thankfully not too far from the club and a hot shower.

Last night we continued the process of laying siege to 'the canoeists' Everest' over a curry and a few beers. Dad and John came over with Adam in order that we could plan our practise paddle in a couple of weeks over the Waterside D route. After speaking to Ed at the Royal a couple of week's ago we've decided to amend the paddle by not paddling from Devizes to Newbury, but instead we will be putting in at Pewsey and then finishing at Aldermaston. This does away with the long and frankly boring first 11 miles or so without a portage and means that we will also be paddling part of the later canal when things start to get a bit harder and there's a few navigation points to negotiate. We'll also have to deal with the Monkey Marsh portage which is causing a few problems at the moment and a few low bridges. It should make for a more useful paddle with more portaging while still giving us enough data to accurately know our canal pace. It will be very interesting to see how we compare to the race last year.

The devil is in the detail and hopefully we are getting the details right.