He’s never owned a boat and hasn’t spent much time on the water, but that hasn’t stopped Heathcote’s Major Michael Carroll from building his own vessel and getting ready to sail more than 2000km along the Murray to raise money for Legacy.
Major Carroll will hop in his home-made boat, named PB Legacy, at Albury, and aside from a brief exit at Yarrawonga to get around the dry lake will be sailing all the way to Mannum in South Australia — a trip of 2160km.
He’ll be paddling the whole way, too, with the paddle steamer design using leg power instead of steam.
Major Carroll’s mother and aunt were raised by the Legacy Foundation, with his grandfather killed in World War II and his grandmother dying two years later when his mother and aunt, twins, were 10.
They’re two of the hundreds of thousands of people Legacy has helped since it was founded in 1923, and with the charity celebrating its centenary next year Major Carroll wanted to help any way he could.
He has already raised thousands of dollars for Legacy through his poetry, which he has been writing and publishing for decades.
There will be a fundraiser held in Mannum on November 11, which his aunt will attend.
Major Carroll said he was excited for the journey, which would begin in a month.
“I said from the start, I’ll be making heaps of mistakes with this having never owned a boat or built a boat and I’ll just accept it and find a solution,” he said.
“If I didn’t have that philosophy I wouldn’t have got very far with this plan.”
He said wasn’t overly worried by having to pedal all 2000km — if anything he was worried about getting to Mannum too early.
“We’ve had the best snows in 30 years coming down the Murray, down the Goulburn from the High Country, down from Brindabella and Canberra in the Murrumbidgee and then the Queensland floods coming down the Darling,” he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of water in that river.”
The PB Legacy will leave Albury on Vietnam Veterans’ Day, August 18, and arrive in Mannum on Remembrance Day, November 11.
Head to http://pblegacy.online and http://legacyfundraising.gofundraise.com.au for more information or to donate.