GENERAL NOTES
................Ted's Story....................
ABOARD THE ALS PADDLER
SOME MORE OF THE STORY
The nights are so cold and damp and the fog so thick one can only make out a blur for the boats one dock over. The dock lights are a hazy ball.
Ted is wearing flannel pj's plus his shirt and artic fleece pj's and is so tight in this sleeping bag that he cannot move his arms, and his hands go to sleep. By morning the tent walls are wet with condensation.
The paddle wheels are still fine, but the constant head winds force us to beach and rest at times. Picking a beach free of large debris and rocks is vital, and even then we have to get off in knee deep water to shove off again. Often the muck is ankle deep and like quicksand.
The spray from the paddle wheels keeps us wet from hat to toes, but our glasses keep most of it out of our eyes. The river water temperature has been comfortable, but will start cooling down with the cold nights and moderate days.
The locks and dams, tow boats, and pleasure boats are no problem, but do slow us down. The heaviest seas are created by the headwinds.
And, we are still headed for New Orleans.
................Camping....................
Every morning and every evening the story is the same. 45 to 90 minutes breaking camp and making camp.
Deflate the pillows. Roll up the foam pads and sleeping bags. Brush teeth. Empty the tent of bed clothes, ditty bag, water bottles, rain jackets, poncho, folded space blanket, marine radio, GPS, and charts. Stow these items in dry-bags. Remove rainfly, shake some of the moisture off, and find a place to store it for the moment. Remove poles from tent, untie it from the boat, and fold in thirds. Lay the wet rainfly on top of tent put poles in bag, roll up the wet mess and stuff it all in the tent bag. Dump out the wet suits from a large dry bag. Stuff the tent and foam pads into the large dry bag. Fill the voids with the wet suits and close that dry bag. Load three dry bags onto the boat and tie them down. Load throwing PFD, toilet, and water bladder onboard and tie them down. Attach the wooden seat base onto the boat and strap the seat to that. Attach the water bottle bag, marine radio, GPS, and charts for quick access. Remove the gangplank and stow it forward of the paddlewheels with bunji cords. Bring onboard the sail and boom and raise the sail. Usually we must attach one of the paddle wheels which has been removed to allow easy access from dock or shore to the boat. Stow the canoe paddle. Untie the mooring lines and stow them.
I figure you can guess what we have to do to set up camp in the evening. Read the above in
reverse, except we don't unbrush our teeth. We or Arlene must dry the tent sometime before setting up camp.
Our sleep is constantly interupted as our joints get sore from the hard bed forcing us to
turn over which requires an adjustment to our tight sleeping bags. The zipper usually gets underneath us or unzips creating
a cold zone.
................Maintenance....................
Every night we clean the trampoline before pitching the tent. Every three or four days we lubricate the pedals with lithium white grease, which by now has spread onto all our clothing and won't wash out. Every four days we have been pulling the boat up onto shore to drain the hulls. That task should be easier now that I have cleaned the inspection ports, and we will be able to use the hand operated sump pump that Mick bought for us. The hulls are now coated with a green sticky something that is stubborn and won't come off easily. Once a week I lube the bearings with the lithium grease. Every other week I lube the steering box. The rudders and hardware are overdue for grease and silicon lube.
................paddle boat sound....................
To the tune TEA FOR TWO..... blip, blip bloop, bloop blip blip blip blip bloop...(repeat over and over a half a million times so far.
................quoatables....................
If the wind is in the wrong direction, why don't you just turn the boat around? Nicholas
Gutsy. Awsome. God Bless You. You're Crazy.Many folks
Heck! It ain't paddlin if there's no headwind.Greg
You'll make it.Brad
There's no wind on the Ohio.Annonymous