Today, the tides were not as kind as they have been, but that does not matter – the HCC is in a tidal river – and I will have at least 1 incoming tide to contend with – which is about 5 hours. So, getting a day where I have to work against the tide is a good thing! With the tide against me whichever way I went, I decided on a clockwise run around Torrens Island as the tide was well over 1M, it meant I could get thru the cutting at the northern end of the island. As the circuit is only about 17km, I decided to tack on a couple of extra loops to bring me up over 20km. It was still pretty cold with the max temp only about 13 or 14, but at least I managed to miss the rain.
Mixing it up and taking a different route.
As usual, I started off at the boat ramp, headed out of Angus Inlet around into Barker Inlet, then up the Port River a little bit, before turning and going back down the river to the cutting across to Barker Inlet again. Here I headed down and did a loop around No 1 Channel Marker then back up Barker Inlet, into Angus Inlet and the Boat ramp. The high tide was at Midday and I started out around 11:15, so I was paddling against the outgoing tide until I turned and headed back down the Port River. There was about a 15-20km/h southerly wind, which I had at my back, down the river – the rest of the time it was in my face. With the wind, it was a bit messy with a wind-chop up to around 0.3 – 0.5M. When I hit the cutting to go across to Barker Inlet, I also hit a brick wall with the tide – it runs pretty hard thru the cutting. Once I started back down Barker Inlet I had everything against me – the wind in my face and an outgoing tide – and it did slow me down a little.
Speed plot from GPS
- Distance: 20.5km
- Time: 2:40:54
- Avg Moving Speed: 7.7km/h
- Tide: 1.9 High / 1.0 Low
I quite often paddle from the boat ramp out into Barker Inlet and down to the No 1 Marker and back when I want to do a short (15.6km) paddle. As far as time goes, it is usually about 52 minutes with the tide and about 65 minutes against the tide. Today, against the tide and against the wind, I came back up the Inlet in 61 minutes – so I am pretty happy with that. While the tidal flow is not very strong here, it is very similar to the Hawksbury – so I like to paddle against it when I can. At this stage of my preparation I am quite happy with how I am traveling. I am up around the 20km mark and still feeling pretty good at the end. In the next week or so, I will have to start pushing the time/distance up a little more.