Dawson River with electric motor

[dawallace45]

Well Piper wanted a trip report with pictures so here it is , ill cheat a little and cut and paste some from a few emails to Jack as I just don't have time to type it all at the moment , had this bloody keyboard for over a year now but still can't get used to it , big fingers and small keys , spend too much time hitting two keys at once and having to go back and fix it , I've actually only had two outings on the water since July and both of them were to Theodore on the Dawson river so here the cutting and pasting starts

Had to take a break a few weeks back and so went out to Theodore with my wife for her work , she is relieving manager for the ANZ bank out there at the moment and probably for the next month or so , wanted to try out my Mill Creek with my electric outboard , well wouldn't you know it , bloody rained for the first 3 days but on the Thursday I was able to get 3 hours in with out rain , the canoe and motor went well , there are some changes I need to make but all in all it's pretty good but my luck was running true to form and I managed to put my back out while loading the canoe back on the trailer , when I got back to the house I managed to hobble back up the stairs of the house only to find I left my glasses back in the car , can't see well enough up close to even insert the key in the bloody lock with out my glasses , slipped going down the stairs [ it was raining again by this time ] and stuffed my bloody knee , when I finally got back up stairs again with my glasses I figured that I'd be better off just spending the day in bed reading , next day I was just too sore to do much except pack the car ready for the trip home that afternoon ,

New rig will work out very well , on the slow speed it will troll along nicely , just right for draging a lure around as I explore the mangrove creeks around here , I think on full speed it goes some thing like 8 to 10 km per hour , more than fast enough for me , scenery on the Dawson isn't all that inspiring , it all looks pretty much the same and the water colour ranges from dark mud to light mud

This house building is giving me the sh#ts , I've got tendonitis from hammering and using the screw gun , bloody wrist is swollen up like a balloon of a evening , it's pretty much making it imposable for me to handle a paddle at the moment so there for the electric motor

Slowly getting through the little projects I'm doing , got the block work done for the generator and pump and the outdoor kitchen , just need to render , tile and make doors and shelves for it , still doing other stuff like the entertainment unit and boxing and digging out for more concreting and extensions , brothers house is coming along slowly but surely , it's not real big just two bedrooms but it will be big enough for him

The entertainment unit is about 6 ft long and 2 ft high , it has a laminated Kwila top and Kwila ends with Sallie wattle face frames , it's coming up very nice , still needs 3 or 4 more coats of Danish oil

The outdoor kitchen is L shaped and a little over 8 ft one way and about 17 ft the other way

Any way got to go , half way through mowing and after that I'm back to working on brothers house

David

 

[Kayak Jack]

Aye god, David - if it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck atall! I'm glad to see, though, that you got out on the klongs for a cruise. Looks like nice territory to be in there.

 

[hairymick]

G'day Dave,

Good to see you again the other day mate, and thank you for the bow making information. I think I can feel another obsession coming on.

Mate, I love the outdoor kitchen and your entertainment unit, Great ideas.

Guys, Dave's piccies of the Dawson River, are pretty typical of most of our western rivers. Most of them are little more than large, muddy drains. In rainy weather, they turn into very muddy drains.

 

[dawallace45]

Jack

Got to admit that I've had a bad 6 months , just injuries one after another and 4 bouts of the flu , in a way I consider my self lucky in that I've had nothing life threatening like some of the others have , my injuries are just nuisances , painful to be sure but just nuisances all the same , I had hoped to have six months free to get healthy again before I had to start my brothers house but it wasn't to be , he's in a panic to get it done but has no idea what he's doing , he suffers from depression badly which makes it worse , if he has to make a decision on some thing it makes him ill for a week , much of the time he's barely capable of following simple instruction

The Dawson river is pretty the first time you paddle it , then you realise the first kilometre is just the same as the next and the next and the next , if the water was a little clearer it would be much more interesting , there are some good size fish in it but they tend to taste a bit too muddy for my taste

David

 

[Kayak Jack]

I need to get you Aussies here on The Au Sable. You can read the date on a dime in ten feet of water. (If you can read, that is. I had to explain it to Yakus Nauticus.)

 

[dawallace45]

Mick

Yeah it was good to catch up , loved your South wind and was impressed as hell with the lightness of the Laker

Actually you are lucky down where you are as the guy who runs the Ozbow site lives in Maryborough and is a very good bow maker ,

Yeah I have high hopes as to how the kitchen will turn out , will be making a fire pit out from the veranda for the spit roast , my wife keeps talking about a wood fired Pisa oven as well but I think it unlikely it will eventuate

Remember the old joke about all Australian inland rivers running up side down , well it's not really a joke


Jack
Now your just teasing us , or is that tortureing us ? either way I'm jealous as hell , but then being able to go camping in warm weather any time of the year has it's advantages too , not having to worry about hunting seasons is good as well ,
David

 

[Wannabe]

David.
Are those leeboards on your boat? If so where is the sail? Bring that rig to the state of Taxes and you would have to pay to use the electric motor or the sails. If your ignorant of the fact you get to pay a fine plus spend the money to get it registered. Do you understand the term--time to dump some tea in the bay? By the way-- nice looking boat.
Bob

 

[Ozark]

I'm more interested in the paddle I see. Tell us about it.
thanks Paul

 

[hairymick]

Wannabe wrote

Do you understand the term--time to dump some tea in the bay? By the way-- nice looking boat.
Bob

Yeah mate, we understand it all right, and there are many of us who think our own little tea party is long overdue.

G'day Dave,

Thanks for the kind words re my boats. I am pretty pleased with them
all but Southwind and Laker are special,

G'day Jack,

We have a few clearwater rivers too. The river that the Dawson flows into is very clear upstream from the junction. I think that a lott of the muddyness comes from the vast areas of agriculture along many river banks.

 

[dawallace45]

Yeah , a leeboard on one side , the Mill Creek is a flat bottom Multi-chine boat with out a keel runner , in most of the places I paddle it gives too big a wind signature and the leeboard helps it run straight in a breeze , when I do put a sail rig on it [ and I intend to ] I'll put on a bigger one and also a rudder , it will make a great sailing canoe

The paddle is my version of a Greenland paddle , that one is a little wider than the one I made before and I'm still deciding whether to narrow it a little or leave it as is , I will trim down the handle a little as this one is just a little too thick , I find the Greenland style paddle great as it allows me to paddle long distance with out stuffing up my already damaged shoulder , I fell head first off the top of a semi-trailer about 30 years ago , I put my hand out to save my self and come down hard on the straight arm , ended up with a greenstick fracture in the arm and stuffed up all the ligaments and tendons in the wrist , elbow and shoulder , also hurt my neck and back , found out later I also fractured my skull , later x-rays also found I had some fractures to my shoulder blade and collar bone , but the original x-rays seemed to have missed them entirely , since then I have been screwing up my shoulder every so often and it still crunches when I move it , using a ordinary large blade paddle tends to bring on tendonitis but the narrow Greenland lets me paddle a lot more with out pain

Mick

I'm definitely going to build a Southwind when I get some of my other projects out of the way , dieing to see your Okwata when you build it , they are my two ideals in kayaks although I think I'd rather see the Okwata with out the rounded deck but that is just personal preference

David

 

[hairymick]

G'day Dave,

although I think I'd rather see the Okwata with out the rounded deck but that is just personal preference

Same here mate, but Matt has proved me wrong with the Laker. I am keen to prove the rounded deck process, but I can see little of practical value in it, other than aesthetics and the value of the challenge of the build.

A bit further down the track, I want to have a go at something that is comfortable for me, but truly high performance and very light weight - bordering on a genuine K1 but I need to improve my build skills and processes first.

BTW, I really like the lines of your Mill Creek but she is a little beamy for my taste. I like my girls lean & mean. :lol: :lol:

 

[dawallace45]

Mick

I've built with rounded deck and with out and I find that with out is quicker and easier for me when working alone

The mill creek is very beamy and very heavy in comparison to your Southwind , I think from now on it will only be used with a motor and later a sail

David