I fell asleep in my original Toyota pu after a New Year’s Eve party in 1978. It was 50 and drizzling rain. I had consumed far more alcohol than anyone ever should.
My wife drove us home and went next door to collect the kids. She didn’t come back.
I had gotten my legs out before I passed out. Woke up a couple of hours later, soaked and freezing.
The message was she wasn’t taking care of the kids and my drunk a##.
And never slept in a canoe either.
One of the biggest problems is that you have crawl under two thwarts. Then you are asleep in a boat that can easily turn over. Imagine waking up from a sound sleep in the water, trapped under the thwarts with a boat on top of you.
yep. That’s a daunting proposition. If I could manage to wedge myself under the thwarts of a Merlin II, I wouldn’t be able to turn over, so pretty much be on my back the whole time. Still, your point is too chilling and I won’t be doing that.
One way would be to bring some inflatables, that when inflated are as thick as the canoe. Tie them on either side outside the canoe to the center (kneeling) thwart. carry some 1/4"x6"x 6’ planks in the bottom of the canoe. Lash those across the canoe and inflatables. You’d have a pretty stable bed. You could even clip some edging along the sides of the bed. Add a self inflating air mattress and voila. Or bring a couple of 1/4" x 2’ x 2’ lexan ply. Clip one horizontal from gunwale to gunwale in front of the front thwart. Clip the other vertically to the center thwart like a chair back. Sit on the bottom of the hull with your legs up, calves resting on the hor. piece and back resting on the vert. one. Just like a recliner. I actually slept that way in a recliner for 3 months one time.
It would be interesting to see if it’s possible to flip a canoe while laying in the bottom. In my experience it’s extremely stable with all your weight on the floor but I suppose if the canoe leans and you keep trying to roll up the side (or hang you leg out) it might be possible to flip. An extra inch or two of depth makes a lot of difference in how confined you may feel by the front thwart…my Osprey has quite a bit of room (about a foot) under the front thwart but the Merlin II is significantly more shallow and the seat doesn’t slide in the Merlin to let you center your weight and sleep with a skinnier part of your body (your legs) under the thwart. I think a Swift Keewaydin 15 with the easily removable two-position seat would be a great napping/sleeping solo.
Just slept in a Holiday Inn
I have never seen a Holiday Inn near a place I wanted to paddle.
I too don’t think flipping is likely, especially in a cypress swamp.
I’ve never seen the Atchafalaya, closest I’ve been is magazine articles and airboating near New Orleans once. Seems to me there should be plenty of, ahem, land (OK, muddy areas above water level). I suppose you’ve google earthed your trip, any nearby canals or river courses? The bayous I’ve seen are crisscrossed by canals, each of which is lined with spoils that almost form a dike, and the river courses have natural levees where the floods drop the bigger silt granules. In which case you’d be better off with a good pair of muck boots and a hammock tent with bomb proof netting.
You are correct about a lot of these things. I live close to the Basin (as we call it). I have relatives that live all around it. I’ve been in it most of my life hunting and fishing (I no longer hunt). A misleading thing about aerial photos is the large treed areas that look like land are actually cypress and tupelo gum groves that have water. There is some land and put-ins. For most put-ins, a paddler can only go so far before having to come back before dark. It is the far reaches that I want to get at. The put-ins are for motor boats but some areas of the Basin are too shallow and could be explored in a paddled hull. Those are the areas I want to go. I can go 16 to 18 miles in a day but the areas I want can be 20, 30, 40 miles round trip. I’m not interested in the canals as they are all the same. After a few hours in a canal, one has seen all there is to see.
The time to worry most about flipping is when you’re trying to get yourself under, or out from under, the thwarts. Once your butt is on the bottom the greatest tipping threat is over. The worry about entrapment, at least when I did it in a Grumman, occurred to me when I did it, but in reality in the event of a tip there was only one thwart over my belly and slipping out from under that would be like slipping out of a kayak in a wet exit situation, only easier - though back then and as a canoeist, kayaks also seemed confining and like a set up for entrapment too. But a Merlin might be more problematic, especially when getting into and out of position on the floor. (Which would need to be sopped up with a sponge beforehand, of course.)
I can recall a couple times when I’ve spread out on the floor of my Blackhawk Starship ( a fairly tippy solo with a removable adjustable seat) and drifted, once in a calm bay and once on a pond, admired the Milky Way. Magical. I could have easily fallen asleep doing that, though I had no intention of staying out all night and an hour or so of that was enough.
But in your proposed situation, alone, far from a back-up escape possibility, without any solid ground at hand… this is just unwise. Suppose you do take a spill trying to get into position - what happens to all your stuff, stuff that presumably you will need or you wouldn’t have it along. Food, dry clothes, etc. Imagine wallowing around in muck trying to round up everything in the dark, no solid footing… how do you drain and reenter the canoe in the muck? Its not a pretty picture.
Surely there is some high spot, some dike, something with a few trees rooted in something solid that you could identify beforehand, plan on attaining, and set some sort of camp on… even sleeping in a folding camp chair, like a low end LazyBoy, perhaps with a rain poncho over all, would be preferable - though that would be for someone who is more at ease camping with snakes and gators than I am. I presume you are or you wouldn’t even be thinking abut this. Even sleeping under the canoe, as Jedi mentioned, would be a preferable alternative, though I’ve done that a few times also and can assure you mosquitoes will find you there too, unless its after a few hard frosts. Does that even happen in the Atchafalaya?
The notion of an inflatable might not be so out of line, though… but how to inflate and deflate it alone from a canoe? That might take some practice. And do you feel confident that you could get between the two boats without dumping?
This is what jungle hammocks are made for. In your place before departure I’d be studying maps for some spot where I could use one, or even a tent, and plan my route around that.
Do you know anyone who has done this area before you who you could seek advice from? There’s no substitute for experienced advice in the environment you’re considering. Before trying it solo, doing it once or twice with someone who knows the “ins and outs” of the area would be ideal.
But it does sound like adventure… I admire the spirit that drives it all.
PS: Here’s a shot of boyscout (who used to post here) sleeping in a canoe. See, it can be done if you’re tired enough. This is what an 18 mile day, followed by a 14 mile day with a windstorm that blew down his tent, followed by 9 miles with another 7 to go looks like. 
I’ve driven over The Basin many times. I was never interested in seeing it up close. Spooky looking place. We have similar swamps in SC but none of that size.
I hear banjos over The Basin with a distinct Cajun rythym.
If you can manage to flip a canoe while laying in the bottom, you have done something special, or you are in the open ocean during a hurricane.
It’s not as bad as it looks. As far as banjos, you might have to squeal like a nutria, but never a pig.
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Thinking about it more I think it might be easier than you think. You say your Merlin II has a kneeling thwart. So you could just open up the holes a bit on the thwart and use wing nuts instead of nuts so the thwart could be easily removed. With the thwart removed I think you’ll find the front thwart no longer traps you (I measure 11 inches from floor to bottom of front thwart in my Merlin II). I bet you’d have enough room to roll over or sleep on your side. It would be easy to try. You also have the option of making the front thwart removable with wing nuts. For top comfort I use two large Grade VI kneeling pads but a thermarest pad would also be perfect. Plus you can make a super easy spray skirt that will act like a mini-tent. Take any thin synthetic blanket. Clip it on your gunwales with pieces of clear plumbing tubing as shown in the pics. Viola, added comfort. I sometimes do this just to make a warmer environment for my legs and feet for cold weather paddling. Again, easy to try. It will cost you a few dollars for a couple feet of 1.25 inch clear plumbing tubing and another dollar for 2 wing nuts so maybe $5 total.
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Wouldn’t removing the thwart in a fully loaded boat compromise the boat’s structural integrity? Seems like the gunwales would close up.
I think removing the front thwart would not be necessary since you’d have a lot of room with the kneeling thwart out of the middle. But you can see in this pic of my carbon/kevlar Merlin II it held it’s shape even with the seat and both thwarts out and in the OP’s case there would still be a thwart in the rear. I don’t think a load on the bottom would cause the hull to deform much and I don’t think it hurts anything to let it flex a little. I’m just offering ideas that could be tried before committing to an overnight trip.
Good thinking. I believe that would work. I thought of taking a small inflatable that can be inflated by mouth and tether alongside for downloading gear. I use a 4’ long closed cell foam kneeling pad and my self inflating therm-a-rest over it would work. I kept the staves and nylon from a old dome tent to make an arched cover, a-la sampan style that would allow me to sit up under. It weighs about a pound and rolls up into a 2’ long by 1" dia. bundle. Thanks for the interest.
Not overnight. Back in the day when I was competing in Men’s Freestyle, the Women’s Champion, Karen Knight used to take the center kneeling thwart out of her Bell Flashfire and use it that way for the week to practice and instruct. (the center was unobstructed) It was not a problem. She moved all over that canoe during her routines, an absolutely spectacular paddler. She could do a stand-up Axle and roll that wide open canoe.
I used to nap in my 16’ Mad River Explorer by leaning my back against flotation cushions propped against the stern seat. But never overnight.
HERE’S a lengthy thread about how Mike McCrea and Joel Beckwith, an Everglades guide, built a tented sleeping canoe.
Solo paddling a 20’ canoe could become a new freestyle rage.