Fluid Dynamics

Saturday 26th – coldest day in Perth ever  – it was -0.6 degrees this morning.

Winters in Perth are quite mild compared to many other cities around the world. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Perth City was the overnight minimum of 0.0 C on the 27th July, 1998 and on the 15th July, 1997, this beat the old record of 1.2 C on the 7th July, 1916

What a brilliant day to go swiming in the cold Avon River as part of the Safety Assesment. Due to insurance requirements it has become necessary for all entrants to either have completed an assesment or to have done the race with last 3 years.

Since I last did the Avon Descent in 1999. It was a swim for me …The basic assesment covers wet exit, swiming in rapids, identifying river hazards and ferry glide swiming..plus some wading practice (I dont think I will be wading white water ever – but thats part of the assesment so I did it anyway)

The river is still very very low and barely paddleable. It is just less than 0.25 on the Walyunga Guage ( The race is normally held in river levels of 0.5 and above)

It was a cold and rocky swim and I was glad to be back in boat after the assesment. I did a quick(ish) run from above Bells to Bollands Elbow but had to use hands as much as paddle to get through the rapids.

Heres a few pictures of the Avon Valley on the coldest morning Perth ever had….Rain Dances will be order of the day at the pub tonight.

Bells Winter Morning

bells drop - low water

Downriver Race #3 in WA Wildwater Series.

The race was held on the Upper Swan between Amiens Corner and Barret Street Footbridge. The race route had to be modified 2 days before the event due to no rain. The river is still too low to do the normal Ti Tree race which runs from Bollands Elbow (below Bells) to Amiens Corner.

The race was a 6km DR format race with 33 paddlers starting at 1minute intervals.

The 1st 500m was very tight with some tricky bends to negotiate before a long slog to the finish – heaps of shallow sandbanks to get the heart rate up – normally just when you were getting a nice rythm going.

Race time varied from about 35minutes to 45minutes.

All in all a good race and a good wake up for the big one on the 7th Aug…bring it on