The Saskatchewan winds have been our first real challenge. Previously the river pushed us along and made days of 80 kilometers seem routine. For the last few days however we have faced strong head-on winds from the east. Gusts at times were over 60 kilometers per hour and we had several days where the wind was consistently over 30 km/hour. Today we covered 70 kilometers in almost 10 hours.
Rain on Wednesday morning reduced the number of crews on the water to three: our crew, Pathfinder lead by Brigade leader Ted Bentley, and Fort Saskatchewan Traders lead by Don Gallaway another one of the organizers. By late morning it was obvious our crew could no longer maintain contact with the other boats and we switched two people with Don's crew - their power immediately drove the boat along with the others. By the early afternoon however it was clear we needed to retire Paddle Canada 2 and our crew joined in helping the other two boats finish the day.
It was disappointing that other crews weren't available to help get our Paddle Canada canoe to the end, but it was a lot of fun to join the other crews. Paddling in the Pathfinder canoe I learned a lot about paddling these boats.
One of the pictures shows our initial crew this morning arriving at the change point before Michel and I replaced Richard and Sharon. Sharon & Bill joined the crew yesterday and are from Illinois. Today Greg left for home after two solid weeks of paddling. While Greg has fewer years of paddling experience than others, he consistently demonstrated in fair weather and adverse conditions that he is a strong paddler all of the crew will miss his contribution.
The second picture shows David (second from right, left of the fiddle player) leading a group of dancers at Fort Carleton where we ended our day with yet another meal provided by the community.
Coverage limitations mean this message is not posted somewhat late. On Saturday we arrived in Prince Albert, home town for crew member Daryl Sexsmith. Part of the arrival ceremony is a gun shot from the boat followed by a welcome shot from shore. Richard fired the gun from our canoe as we came were the second boat arriving.
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