A few random downwind paddles since Anaconda Augusta and I thought "The Doctor" was a good idea. The Doctor is a World Class downwind paddle event from Rottnest Island to Sorrento Beach. It's designed to be a downwind race, so the organisers make adjustments to try and make sure it is actually downwind such as moving the day or adjusting the course. In 2010 they even ran it the other way round to suit the wind.
I eneterred on the Tuesday night before the event and was lucky to secure a place for my ski on the barge over to Rotto as they closed it off on Wed morning. Fri afternoon I had to take my ski down to Free'o to load it. Chaos! People and ski's everywhere, and HOT. Registration and breifing at Sorrento on Fri evening, I had to take off to pick up Mici at the airport.
Sat morning and on the 07:15 ferry from Hillary's. A tourist across me cracked a beer......I know I'll be after one of them later on. Arrived a little after 8 and secured a spot under a tree the LONG WAIT began. 1st lesson of the day, don't get the early ferry! 6hr wait for race start is very frustrating. I helped unload the barge and learnt that nearly all the other boats were a LOT lighter than mine.
Well after a lot of lying under a tree at 12ish we heard they were looking at starting us early due to shipping traffic. So we headed over for a quick breifing and the SUP's were off then the Female's and Plastics then us. I never really made the start. I was approaching and suddenly paddles were flying like someone had seen a shark. I just settled into my own rhythm and plodded along.
The course was shortened taking out a bouy rounding to make a straight paddle for Sorrento. This was in an attempt to make the paddle a little more downwind. Turns out NOTHING was going to make the paddle downwind, and it was simply 26.5km of hard work in a washing machine. I really thought I was coming last for a while and at about the 17km mark I was not feeling the joy. I remarked to a guy as I passed him "This isn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be" There was just no waves to surf at all and any waves that there were there were coming from all directions making it a feat just to stay in the boat.......And then I fell out of the boat! twice. I wasn't that disappointed, it was very refreshing on a hot day.
Eventually I could make out Sorrento, and that was when the teasing began. It seemed to take forever to do the last 5km or so into the beach and I was hurting. My abdominals were really letting me know they were ready for a rest. FINALLY I made it to the beach and ran through the finish arch. OH MAN THAT HURTS. Drinking fresh water as opposed to electrolyte was a big releif, but it took a fair while for my abs to calm down.
As luck would have it Andy turned up just as I was picking up my ski to take it up to the car, thank God! A steak and a few beers and all was well again. Valuable lessons learnt. 1 Must train for the Doctor, 2 no need to catch the early ferry, 3 Brad Cuff's pants are questionable.
Right 1 week to Wildside, multi day MTB race in Tassie
