Tuesday 29th May 2012

Many thanks to Jim and Jamie for their brilliant hospitality last night, especially the sourdough bread from Deva's in Ballinspittle and the drum rendition from Jamie. Good luck Jim, with the swimming and adventure racing. Good luck Jamie with the band!

Today Claire and Wendy did "ladies wot lunch" by sea-kayak, leaving Pete to recover, alone!

Hoping for a good day paddling tomorrow.

Left the foggy site in a clean state (Wendy and Claire took up the kind offer of a shower from one of the neighbouring houses - Pete declined as he felt it would make him soft), an d crossed Cork Harbour entrance in clear visibility, but a big swell.  30+km day took us to Blackstone Point point for the night, where we met up with Nick and Kath who came bearing apple pie, unfortunately, when they looked away, the three of us gobbled it in short order!


The following day was "interesting".  An early start with the intention of going through the hole which passes through the Old Head of Kinsale.  As we approached Hole Open Bay East, the swell built and the conditions became less than favourable or enjoyable, so we 'got the hell out of there', back to our campsite, where we admired the photos that Nick had taken from a headland.

we are in there somewhere!

That ended with another day off the water on Saturday, very sunny, but very windy.  


Another attempt at the Head on Sunday, in much better conditions, but the holes through the head appeared to have breaking water in them, so we opted to run the tide race off the head itself, which gave a tremendous paddle. 

The Old Head of Kinsale

Met Brian and Noel, local paddlers, as they went for a day out (in their Northshore Atlantics!). Crossed to Courtmacsherry, then camped at Coolmain. Pete feeling a little crock, so spent the day here, where Noel dropped in for a really pleasant chat.  Hopefully, he'll be joining us over the weekend.

Sorry about the absence for the last week, but t'internet has been a bit fickle.  This is a post we wrote a few days ago, but can only upload today -

Trundle with the boats (so glad we brought a trolley!) down to the out-going water.  Quick chat with some ladies who had been swimming and also Mr Casey, the owner of the campsite, who had been very generous to us. Lovely paddling day, straight across the bay to Helvick Head, round Mine Head and into Ardmore, to an amazing reception! Met Dave, who has been following us on Facebook, and Ronan, from Ardmore Adventures. Claire went to thank some fishermen for moving our boats and they gave her fresh fish for all of us. 

Mine Head

Goat Island Camp

Breakfast!  Dermott the star

Ronan and Dermott paddled round with us to Goat Island, where we camped on the beach, disturbed only at 5.30am by two youngsters with a bat and ball! Ready to get on the water at 9am, when we heard “Breakfast!”, and Dermott ran down the beach with a flask of coffee and bread, jam, cheese and oranges. Fantastic! We have had amazing support from Irish paddlers. We are really grateful for all the information, phone numbers and tea.

Paddled straight across the bay to Knockadoon, then round to Ballycotton, where we were treated to tea and biscuits at the RNLI station. Few more kilometres brought us to a campsite (OK – carpark!) where we have had an unscheduled stop, due to fog!  It’s given us a chance to catch up on a couple of boat repairs.  The two polars had suffered a bit of damage in one of the moves, so a bit of time allowed us to stop the damage getting worse.  Pete’s paddling pants have now started delaminating as well as the problems with the seams fraying.  A very poor do for any kit, let alone an expensive bit that’s only been used for less than three weeks.  Level Six gear doesn’t seem to be as robust as one might have been led to expect!  Luckily, friends are bringing old bit of kit out as replacement, as at this rate they’ll be in shreds in a couple more weeks

Absolutely fabulous day today.  Not only was it the first time we've managed to string four consecutive days of paddling together, but we left Tramore this morning with the help and escort of the RNLI inshore crew and lifeboat, including being waved off from the quayside.  Many thanks to Dave and Tommy and the rest of the crew.
Terrific day's paddling along the "Copper Coast" - over 30Km of cliffs, stacks, rocks and caves.  Just enough swell and clapotis to keep it interesting without being scary!.
Met up with three local paddlers who had come out to wish us good fortune  - Dermot (circumnavigated Ireland in 33 days with lots of good weather), Fitch  (who started all our connections in Tramore), and Fletch.  Ended up at the Clonea Strand campsite, which, as we are raising money for charity, we were given free.
All the comments we are getting on the blog mean a lot to us, please keep them coming.
Don't forget that you can support our charities by uimng the widgets on the top of this home page.

The arrangements for tomorrow morning would be easier to put together if Pete hadn't left one of the vital phone numbers in his trousers pocket when they went in the washing machine!

Wow, fourth consecutive day of paddling - things are looking up!!  Got to Tramore, by lunchtime, after battling a F5 gusting 6 headwind for the last 2km.  By the time we'd had a coffee and toastie, and decided to use the rest of the day getting both us and some clothes clean (stopping in Beach Haven Guest House), and made the arrangements, the wind had dropped off completely - bugger!
Anyway, met Fitch in the cafe, he arranged for us to leave our boats in in his mate Robbie's garden, and Steve and Tommy from the RNLI inshore station helped us get them there - photos will follow.  Robbie then gave us a lift to the Guest House.  A couple of phone calls in the morning, and it will all be reversed.  The help and hospitality we are getting is amazing!   Forecast is not too bad for tomorrow, and we'll be sheltered after the first couple of miles.  Looking forwards to some good cliff scenery.

Wayhay - we've finally made it onto the south coast!!!!!!

Got round Carnsore Point with the tide, after 5am start, but too windy to continue, so sat in sun reading for the rest of the morning.  When wind had finally dropped sufficiently, the tide was against us for the rest of the day, which gave a few "interesting" moments.  Ended at Kilmore Quay fairly knackered, but pretty happy, especially as we found a good chippie "The Saltee Chipper".  Surprise, surprise, another fine day followed, and we headed to Fethard via the Keeragh Islands.  A leisurely lunch regaled with tales by Tommy Roach, an old local fisherman, then on to Churchtown, just north of Hook Head.

Cleared that this morning with a favourable tide, but the wind has built during the day,and we are once again off the water, and camping at Portally, near Dunmore East courtesy of Bridget and John.

Forceast for tomorrow has improved from earlier, so we may even manage four paddling days in a row!

Lost 10th again to weather, so wandered into Kilmuckeridge and found a rather nice cafe - The Healthy Hub.  Left the hospitality and helpfulness of the Morriscastle Strand campsite with a surf launching, then against the tide south.  We hoped to reach St Helen's Harbour , south of Rosslare, but building wind and surf north of Wexford Harbour forced us off the water.  It was in this bit that Pete demonstrated the ease with which a very full and heavy North Shore Polar can be rolled, after getting knocked over by an errant breaker.  Wendy's birthday celebrations were postponed due to general tiredness.  
A much better day on Saturday - glassy sea, no wind, sun (were we dreaming?).  Left our campsite and headed straight for Rosslare, then down to St Helen's, then on to Carne, about 3km north of Carnsore Point and the finally the end of the East Coast.  Although we were off the water at 4:30, we didn't find a campsite until about 7.  But when we did, we were joined by the leaders and young ladies of the St Catherines Brigin Company from Piercetown, who gave us some much appreciated food, and kept us entertained for an hour looking at out kit and asking lots of questions.  I'm sure one of which was " Have you ever been blown through a whale's spout?"
Today has been another day off the water, it started calm enough, sunny and warm, but just as the forecast predicted, the wind built steadily through the day from about 8 o'clock.  It's now gale force and raining.  The forecast is not good for tomorrow either.  We managed to celebrate Claire's birthday with a meal and our first Guinness of the trip.

now 20km north of Wexford.  Had a cracking day yesterday 38km, mostly with the tide.  Forecast is not promising today, with strong winds this afternoon, and fairly strong tides against us this morning. Gale forecast for tonight.  We have a run of about 20km of surf/dumping beach backed by dunes before Wexford so we look like staying put here.
Wendy and Claire sampled wonderful hospitality whilst topping up with water near The European Club (golf) near Mizen Head.  Went for water, but had tea and home baked cheesecake as well.
Wendy's NEW waterproof camera has packed up - so much for the Olympus TOUGH!

Cracking day yesterday.  Sunny and the tide and wind on our backs.  Round Wicklow Head with the best of the tide at 15kph.  Pulled out at half past five just south of Mizen Head.  Wind blew up to F8 during the night with torrential rain.  Woke up to 5ft dumping surf - not an attractive sight!  It's calmed down a bit and sunny by lunchtime today, but still not fit to paddle.  A rest day on day three seems a bit excessive, but it's a long game......

Got on the water at 14:00 at Sandy Cove, just south of Dun Laoghaire.  Wind on our backs all afternoon, but cold with it, although generally sunny.  We managed to carry the tide until half past 5, and eventually camped at half past  seven, having covered 23km.  A very long day - we were in Shropshire at 6:30 am!


Just sitting waiting for the tide to turn south before we get on the water.


The support and donations we have had so far have been terrific, and really boosted our spirits.

There are some photos of the boats going onto the van for the trip to Holyhead

Trial packing - Hopefully, when all this goes in, there'll still be room for me.

and it will still float.