60 days

There are 60 days until the start of the 4 day event of DW2010 and it's turning into a bit of an uphill struggle.

The train was 6 minutes late, but unlike UK trains ran with snow on the track

Today I flew back from Sweden, well actually Copenhagen, in Denmark. We were delayed by an hour and a half due to snow and frozen planes

I decided to take a detour on my way from Stansted to the West Country and have a look at the Kennet and Avon Canal.

There was still ice at the start line at Devizes Wharf on the canal.

Richard wasn't feeling 100%, our training support crew is ill and I've got bubonic plague, will be off work for a few days and it's a week until Waterside A.

I think vertical is a better description than uphill!

We will get there

Tom

teamGT planning- Sweden

At the moment I'm in Eslöv in Sweden. At the moment, 23:30 (CET) it's -17C. That's quite cold.

This was a bit of my ice driving today in Sweden, in a Volvo if that wasn't predictable enough!

The reason I'm here is team planning with Martin. Martin is driving our support bus for the DW.

One of the main things I don't like when you paddle the DW is being smothered by too big a support team at every portage. It is a fine balance to get it right but so worth taking the time to plan it down right.

Well I fly back to the UK tomorrow and hopefully Richard and I will find some canals that aren't frozen

me driving in the snow, on ice in a Volvo

Tom

Bouncy Casle

Is this the first blog entry from a bouncy castle? This is Martin (and Joeseph his youngest son) who is the support bus driver in Sweden.

Tom

Denmark

Coming into Copenhagen...

Spot

No not Spot the Dog,

Spot Satellite Messenger

The Swedish part of the support crew, not Agnetha from ABBA who's going to marry me and we're going to live in her Volvo palace- that's a palace made out of Volvos, but Martin our driver. However, the Spot wasn't just bought for the DW it was bought to Spot the Dog.

Well to be able to see where Amber goes on her mad runs to chase wild boar!

Amber dog

Spot is a live satellite tracking link which once activated sends messages to show where we are on our map page,the link is at the top right of the gadget bar

Tom

Our first race...

Richard and I travelled to stay Saturday night in London to be close to the start of the Frank Luzmore race.

This morning at 07:34 we got a phone call from our support team, Remko. He informed us that he wouldn't be able to support us on the Frank Luzmore due to parking his car in a tree but assured us he wasn't hurt.

He said the recovery was coming to get the car, a mate was coming to pick him up and because we couldn't help to go and race.

We went to the modified start of the FL. The Thames had dropped but was still very fast. We weren't sure if the race would still go ahead. We then go the news that the water was 25cm above the rollers, I've taken a K2 down the main drop at the Nene so what's the problem with that?

We then got the news that the race was still on but was further modified. I was starting just above Richmond Canoe Club, up past Teddington to some bridge turn around and back to RCC (at warp speed). We went down to RCC where we further assessed the river. I decided that we were not racing, the negatives out weighed the positives and the magnitude of the consequences of a swim were far to large to accept.

We went to see how Remko was. He was OK so we took him to meet the recovery truck and said goodbye to one of the GT team cars.

We made the decision that we weren't travelling this distance and like last time not being able to paddle. We headed back to the Crofton Flight to do it and head to the Bruce Tunnel.

When we got there there was some ice still in the lock cut but a lot more liquid than last visit. So we paddled. We couldn't get much past the top of the flight because it was frozen. A narrowboater had broken the ice on the middle section we paddled up from the road bridge that afternoon. We thanked him for this.

We were a bit wobbly to start with and I couldn't see a good reason why? Because the section, as those of you who have paddled the Crofton Flight will know, was quite short I got out and had a look at Richard's seating position. Before we got back in we adjusted the seat to see if there was a difference. The difference was immeasurable. This meant we were able to concentrate on going forwards rather than worrying about our wobbles! The speed we have got the boat running at is good.

The next area to be looked at was the portages. These aren't Brian Greenham out of the boat before you've actually got to the portage speeds, they weren't graceful, they weren't particularly efficient but they were faster than we were doing previously.

Because this was such a good session I decided to add another variable- raising my seat by one notch. It felt a better paddling position but has changed the centre of wobblyness. It isn't going back down. The next challenge is getting Richard up to the second notch too!

So all in all from a day that started off on quite a bad foot where everything seemed to be going wrong it actually turned into our most productive session so far:

• We improved our portages
• We were running the fastest we ever have
• We had a positive chat with a narrowboater
• We had a positive meeting with some fisher people (they had a fisher woman with them) who caught a 6.8kg (15lb) pike and actually talked in a positive way with us- just check hell hasn't frozen over!

Let's hope that we have some more thawing before Waterside A

Tom

Things can only get better

That's the tune New Labour used in 1997...

Apparently the weather's going to improve over the next week according to the BBC, the Met Office say otherwise.

Therefore, in order to make good use of my vacant time I got busy.

As everyone will still be worrying about my Strat I've finished the surgery. It wasn't all good news, one of the machine heads is damaged but they're on tighter now so hopefully it'll hold tune better

I also cleaned up my plastic kayak to take it into the swimming pool. For hardcore racers a plastic kayak is less than 5.2/ 6.5m and isn't made of vac pac carbon Kevlar

Tom

Exe - frozen, axe - stripped

The river Exe is frozen, we're posponing training- pub anyone?

Tom/ Rich


Well like the rest of the country our training is being hampered by the frozen everything.  So it'll be training in the gym.

So in the meantime I stripped the machine heads off my Stratocaster (yes it is left handed!) in order to give it a proper clean up before I put them back on tighter and restring it.

Tom

Let it snow

Big snow flakes- England will be closed this afternoon!

Ice Ice Baby

Because I'm informed that global warming is caused by carbon emissions from 4x4s. I'm going to buy 4.9 litre V8 Range Rover, if I can find one I'll go for the 6x6 conversion just to add to the CO2 I produce and make the planet a little warmer! I'm informed by my environmental advisor, who has a PhD in Cynicism, that this is correct.

Today the Kennet and Avon was more ice rink than canal! The plan today was to paddle up the Crofton Flight go the wrong way through the Bruce Tunnel and then come back in the right direction. The water temperature said otherwise.

Even the river at the pumping section had ice on it

We left the Crofton Flight and headed to Reading via Newbury. The plan here was to paddle from County Weir through the Oracle, down to Kennetmouth and finish at Dreadnought Reach.

With 4 standing waves at County, high water, fast flow and falling temperature I decided that this was not a good idea. If there were no playboaters out on the weir today then it must be a bad idea. The problem with high flow at County is that the current can push the boat back into the wall that you are trying to get away from.

Further down at Dreadnought Reach the Thames too was high and fast flowing. There was also a cutting easterly wind which made me cold, I've no idea what that would do to mortal paddlers from southern extraction! The landing stage here is usually at the same level as the concrete, not above it.

This evening Devizes was very cold but not totally frozen too.

Gallery of Ice

In reflection, todays window shopping was ok but not paddling does lose a training day but better that then not being able to paddle ever again.

Tom

Frost- very heavy

Frank Luzmore

LUZMORE K2 Race - Status at Friday 1st January - I have traveled the course today and spoken to the lock-keepers. It is highly unlikely that the river will drain sufficiently by Sunday to come off Red Boards. In addition, the weather forecast is for sub-zero temperatures, so the lock cuts will freeze. Apologies; Race is postponed to Sunday 17th January - Sean. . Current status: RACE IS POSTPONED TO SUNDAY 17th JANUARY.


I'm disappointed that we won't be racing on Sunday but understand the reasons why and do agree.


We'll find some unfrozen water and paddle on Sunday


Tom

Double locks - almost thawed

90

Happy new year to everyone.

If you have  a hangover I hope you enjoy it. I went wild last night and had half  litre of full fat Coke! My only decision this afternoon is whether I'm able to drive or not. No, not am I over the limit just am I able to drive

Well it's 90 days until the start of DW2010 and 2 days until our first race. If the water levels on the Thames keep dropping then the Frank Luzmore race should be on.

Anyway need to go and move some boats and v-bars around the South West

Tom