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Over 1,200 nautical miles as the crow flies with an expectation of needing to cover around 1,600 miles through the water: Scott Donaldson is hoping that the 15th attempt at kayaking from New South Wales to New Zealand will be the one that succeeds. This is Donaldson’s own second attempt after a broken rudder last time increased his energy burn (through steering only by paddle) beyond a level that was sustainable. Paddling for 16 hours on a good day equates to a burn rate of at least 8,000 calories every 24 hours… Eat your heart out, Weight Watchers
days at sea and within sight of his New Plymouth destination on the NZ west coast. For six days the volcanic cone of Mount Taranaki was in tantalising view while an easterly storm blocked his progress. He was constantly knocked down and occasionally rolled over; he
was running out of food, his body battered and bruised, when the rescue helicopter crew at New Plymouth warned that he was about to drift beyond their range. Already conditions for a rescue were marginal and set to deteriorate further. ‘In the end the decision to quit was kind of easy,’ Scott recalls. ‘It was a case of now, or never.’ He regards the decision not as a weakness, but a strength. ‘One
of my priorities is never to allow rational decision-making to be compromised by emotion. Much as you want to keep going, as every sailor knows, things can turn to custard pretty quickly if you make bad calls.’ That attempt had already been severely undermined weeks earlier
when his rudder broke halfway across the Tasman. This was a crippling blow, robbing the boat of efficiency; instead of directing all his effort into forward propulsion, now Scott had to allocate precious energy to maintaining course. In an enterprise where every calorie of energy has to be carefully
invested, the added physical burden took a quick toll. An equation where he was burning about 11,000 calories a day and consuming only 5,000 to 6,000 was always going to quickly arrive at a tipping point. He’d soon lost 20kg and with diminishing supplies was losing more every day. That he came within just 40nm of completing the crossing is
testament to sheer bloody-minded willpower and endurance. The straightline distance of the crossing is 1,200nm. By the time he was winched up into the helicopter he had travelled 1,600nm. Now he is preparing to have another go. Every aspect of the
previous attempt has been closely examined looking for potential improvements. The overall boat beam and length will remain unchanged (0.76m x 6.3m), but the new boat is about half the weight. The first boat was built to be bulletproof in Kevlar and GRP. And
it was: after floating semi-submerged for a month after Scott abandoned the attempt his kayak was found intact washed up on a Taranaki beach. The new boat is an all-carbon affair, built under
22 SEAHORSE
the careful hand of Colin Palmer, world champion land yachtsman and one of the founding partners of Adhesive Technologies. The 30mm of extra cockpit room that Scott is celebrating
represents the huge amount of planning that has gone into every detail. There is no additional space available, but the distribution and use of every millimetre has been revisited. Even so, if Scott’s living space were imposed on prisoners it would earn outright condemnation from every human rights agency. Shaped like a wine glass on its side, it comprises an enclosed pod with not much more space than a coffin. At sea everything is wet and precariously balanced, banging and
crashing in perpetual motion. ‘It is like trying to sleep inside a washing machine. You have to lie completely still. Turning over is not an option. When it is really rough you have to belt yourself in.’ In that wet salt environment the constant motion means maintaining health and skin integrity is challenging. Anything that comes in contact with the boat quickly rubs raw. Nutrition is a cocktail of protein shakes and dehydrated food
heated with exothermic packs. Drinking water comes from a small desalinator. The mental demands of such a punishing and constricted
environment – not to mention the challenge of distance, solitude and weather – must be considerable, but Scott allows no creature comforts. ‘I took an iPod last time, but never used it. I was too busy. I won’t bother this time. As an exercise in claustrophobia it is quite extreme, but you can train for mental resilience.’ Anybody who has encountered the Tasman Sea first hand will
testify to its mean spirit. ‘The tricky part of the Tasman is the weather,’ Scott nods. ‘You generally get two days of good travel followed by two to four days of the Tasman trying to push you back to Australia again. Then rinse and repeat. ‘On the good days you paddle about 16 hours. On the bad days
you might get anything from 0-10 hours. It’s a waste of energy trying to paddle into more than 20kt. You stream a sea anchor and try to hook into some favourable current just to stay where you are.’ Being forced to take refuge in the pod on the bad days is
much tougher in all respects than 16 hours of straight paddling on the good days.
w
IVOR WILKINS
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