We started with the 5th and final firing of the Natal Carbineer's cannon. We had a great opening sprint, and were 5th in our batch at the top of Ernie Pearce weir. Unfortunately we took an unscheduled swim at the bottom! We were great in the boat and managed to get to Campbell' portage without further incident and with some great lines - hardly touched a rock. On Campbell's came the knee test, and unfortunately Greg's knee was not up to it. It definitely took the pressure off though as it confined us to walking for the day's portages. We joined Dave Harker and Kendall Slater on an alternative route through Guinea Fowl portage, which turned out to be flatter, and avoided the chaos in Devil's Cauldron, but was probably lightly longer. Back on the water and following some mamba lines through The Maze, we finally found our second's at Mission - we had missed them at Ernie Pearce, Musson's and Campbell’s. The good paddling continued until the Cabbage tree take-out, where we managed to have our second swim and Greg broke a paddle. Luckily our seconds were close at hand and we got a spare and continued to the finish. Our time for the day was around 4h45, we still need to get our official time. Boat still in one piece and ready for tomorrow.
