John L. was asking if we have had much wind that would permit sailing the canoe like we did on a few afternoons in Alberta. Unfortunately we haven't had those favourable conditions in several weeks. We keep a pair of thick branches in the boat that Michel, Chris & Steve created for rapidly hoisting a tarp sail. Two days ago a farmer was saying spring is a few weeks late. So maybe the westerlies will kick in soon.
On Thursday we had a beautiful day paddling into the Narrows but yesterday the wind turned from steady 30-40 km per hour to driving rain that was gusting over 60 by late morning. The entire Brigade was forced off the water before 11am. Some wonderful farming family allowed four dozen dripping wet paddlers to enter their house.
It was luck that Chris and I, who had paddled the rainless first 20 kilometers, encountered one of the Brigade leaders or our crew would have sat for hours before we located them. Late in the afternoon we returned to the canoes and paddled them a short distance and then portaged across cow pastures to put the boats on trailers. The forecast for today had the wind shifting to the west at the same strength which would make the eastern shore essentially impossible.
It would have made fantastic video to see us sliding our canoe through the cow-patie covered fields in pouring rain. Some crews with lighter-weight boats carried their boat, but we enjoyed a good workout pushing and pulling our canoe along at a steady pace. The portages to come will not be so easy.
_______________________
Sent from my BlackBerry
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment