I have signed up for this amazing adventure and time to get my ass into gear and get going. Some of the team did a training session on the south coast yesterday. I have only ever spent like 30min playing on a ski so this was my first long haul run.
The planned course was from Omkomaas River to port Edward and back, a distance I didn’t know before we set out. Refuel and some food before turning around for the ride back.
Popped through to RaceTech Yamaha on Friday and picked up a ski (thanks Patrick) for the Sunday ride. Morning got off to a kak start with one of the ski’s not starting, lucky we had a spare and we only got on the water at 830am for our long day out.
Going with the Moderate NE wind played more of a challenge than I originally expected. In a Surfski you can catch the swell, well a jetski is faster than the swell so ramping from bump to bump made for quite a bumpy ride.
The crew with for the day of team leader Russel Symcox and Mark Addison were great in mentoring me through more of the new technical aspects of doing such a run, teaching me how to run diagonally across the swell to ovoid the chop as well as some throttle control and when to sit vs. stand. Russ is a machine on the ski, unreal the mans skills, so stoked to have him as the team leader!
We saw tons of marine life along the route. Way more than I am used to seeing on a Surfski. You are way higher out the water and with the water super clean it was easy to spot schools of king fish, turtles, flying fish and whale sharks. At one point we stopped and I jumped off the ski for a little swim with a whale shark. What an experience. Held onto the dorsal fin for a little ride. We are lucky!
All in all we ended up riding 225km and spent 6h20min on the water. Hectic!
I learnt a lot and will do a lot different next time. Gloves and riding goggles are a must. My hands and face (eyes and lips) took a big smack. Luckily did 3 sunscreen applications so not burn. Something to watch out for and keep up. Purposely drank a lot which also helped with the energy levels at the end of the run. This was only one day on the ski so chafe is not too bad but something we will certainly have to deal with on a 3 week expedition. I rode in a wetsuit with was really comfy but may have to wear something underneath it to help out. We also did some valuable fuel testing on the new 1800 Yamaha to help plan fuel stops on the C2C4C. All these types of tests are vital in the preparation.
This is way harder than I expected and the planned training schedule over the next couple weeks has already been doubled. Very excited to be involved in such a worthy cause, the tough parts seem to be a hurdle worth climbing.
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