Month: May 2017

I was well looked after on Sunday night by friends Graeme and Amber in Wicklow, board and lodgings, whilst the RNLI kindly looked after my boat. Theirs are a bit bigger. I explained to the friendly chap in the station that yes I was going out in “that” and yes, I was going south to Wicklow Head. It was a rather different day to Sunday, still pleasantly sunny but with rather more wind from the north-east. (F4/5). That’s good news for pushing me along in the right direction, but also causes a messy, lumpy sea. I wished the chap farewell and hoped that I wouldn’t be seeing him again. Wicklow Head was doing it’s thing, but wasn’t too bad in reality. It was grand.

So it was a rather bumpy ride down to Arklow, and section that I’ve paddled a number of times before. After an interesting landing onto the beach next to the harbour, for the view you see, it was then a bit chilly. I didn’t hang around.
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I’d hoped to get to Courtown, but that was just a bit too far for me, so I found a nice sandy beach a few kilometres sooner. There was just enough space to squeeze in my tent and the view was fantastic.

It took a while, but eventually I got everything into, or on, the boat and trundled down to Sandycove with Robin for the short hop to my official launch at Bullock Harbour. There I waa met by a bunch of friends from East Coast Sea Kayaking club who claimed they were only there to leave food for the bears. (I think they were just practicing for their own adventures.) Nonetheless it very nice to see them all again. After some banter and advice from the usual suspects, some of it helpful, it was time to go.

It was a fine day’s paddle, hot, sunny and almost no wind. Perfect conditions for a good start to my trip. Robin accompanied me to Bray where we met up with John and continued to Greystones for a spot of lunch. There I said goodbye and headed off to Wicklow, finally arriving about 6 hours and 35km after leaving Dublin.