Well done mates

Pic­ture: New Zealand Herald

Some­time in August 1991, my kayak­ing part­ner and I tried to keep a watch out on the hori­zon for any sign of land­fall as we sought to reach Tioman Island in Pahang State by kayak. It was the twelfth day of our trip, and we’d just endured what we felt was the mother of all moth­ers of all storms.

Our Klep­per Aerius Expe­di­tion II’s blue can­vas skin was stained with vomit on either side of the pas­sen­ger com­part­ment cock­pit, but far more wor­ry­ing than that were the low clouds that obscured every­thing else, and made us worry that we might have been head­ing in the wrong direc­tion for the pre­vi­ous, dunno, 12 hours overnight. It was the age before portable elec­tronic nav­i­ga­tional aids, or more accu­rately, the age before yours truly could afford any aid apart from sev­eral mag­netic com­passes pur­chased from dis­count camp­ing stores.

Three com­passes, and the stars in the clear night sky before the storm broke at dawn helped keep our bow pointed at where we thought Tioman was.

I’m try­ing to remem­ber the ela­tion we felt when we finally sighted Tioman’s extinct vol­canic peak. But I’m sure these two other blokes know how it feels, albeit mul­ti­plied a thou­sand times.

So, hearti­est con­grat­u­la­tions to James Cas­tris­son and Justin Jones, for kayak­ing from Aus­tralia to New Zealand. No more eat­ing and shit­ting in the small boat.

I know of Amer­i­can tourists who belit­tle that dis­tance with their igno­rance, ask­ing Syd­neysiders how they can take a day trip out of Syd­ney to New Zealand. But bug­ger me, and all that, James and Justin have pad­dled over 2000km over the last two months. It takes a plane about 3 hours to get from Syd­ney to any­where in NZ. That’s a very long dis­tance, notwith­stand­ing the fact that both Kiwis and Aussies under­stat­edly refer to the Tas­man Sea between the two coun­tries as “the Ditch”.

Orig­i­nally esti­mated as a 42 day pad­dle, they went over 60, and have had to ration their meals. It is the fourth longest kayak cross­ing in recorded his­tory, and the first kayak cross­ing of the Tas­man Sea.

The lat­est in nav­i­ga­tional, com­mu­ni­ca­tions and sur­vival equip­ment were used in this expe­di­tion, as they were in ours. For water, James and Justin had a desali­na­tion unit to sup­ply them their esti­mated require­ments of 5l a day. My kayak­ing buddy and I had this unit we called the 40l jer­rycan, which was stowed between my knees, and which caused me to walk bow-legged for weeks after.

What’s even more impres­sive about James and Justin’s cross­ing is that they did it solely on pad­dling, whereas many open ocean kayak cross­ings are done with the aid of sails. There’s some kayak­ing say­ing that goes “pad­dle if you must, sail when you can”, or some­thing like that. My buddy and I sailed when we could — with a golf umbrella we rigged in front of the cock­pit, and which obscured my view of the hori­zon, and which was the offi­cial excuse for my being sea­sick the whole expedition.

But what the hell am I doing com­par­ing Singapore-Tioman with Sydney-New Ply­mouth? Sorry. Con­grat­u­la­tions James and Justin. You da gods of kayaking!

Tech­no­rati Tags: Aus­tralia, cross­ingthed­itch, kayak, New Zealand