Big thanks to Elizabeth for letting us use her house in Port Gaverne. Our first shower in 6 Days. Not sure we really needed it (ha!) but we took advantage of the opportunity.
Port Gaverne was a great example of why we love doing these trips – the people you meet. As soon as we landed the harbour master Adam came over to see if we needed anything. He even gave us a lift up the hill and offered to store our kayaks for us.
On the water the following morning against the stream for first 3 hours/10 miles knowing it would turn in our favour for the last 22 miles or so. We stopped and refuelled on toasties in Boscastle. The tide was so low we had to land outside the harbour and walk up the river to the cafe.
Back on the water the stream was in our favour. For the first time this trip we sang a few songs to keep spirits high and as we hugged the coastline and had a chance to marvel at the amazing rock formations and waterfalls cascading over the north Cornwall and then Devonian cliffs.
As we approached Hartland Quay at High Water we could see it might be a tricky landing. The swell was looking a little lively and breaking over a reef. A little adrenaline rush for the end of the day. We hauled the boats up, changed into some warm clothes and had a rehydrated meal.
Till now all of our days have been pretty straight forward. Just making progress along the coast in whatever conditions we are faced with. However, over the next few days we have some of the most challenging days of the whole expedition: crossings to Lundy, Pembrokeshire and Ireland.
Today we tackled the first of those. We up early, ate breakfast and were packed away by 8am. We hatched a plan to make the crossing to Lundy – it would be a relatively short day but a very technical one. The tidal stream that flows in and out of the Bristol Channel can move pretty quickly especially when we are on Spring Tides (which we are). It is possible to get close to Lundy only for the tide to sweep you away in the opposite direction. There are also a couple of tricky tide races on the south of the island that you need to avoid.
We decided to launch 3 hours before the end of the ebbing tide, heading NNW with the aim of being directly south of Lundy before the flood tide commenced. That would allow some contingency if we were slower than planned and the flood tide started to take us east again.
As it turned out we had perfect conditions, other than Lundy was hidden in a fog bank. So we had to trust our calculations and hope for the best. After about half of the 13 mile crossing, Lundy started to appear out of the fog. If we had our plan right, Lundy would appear on our starboard bow and slowly move across to our port bow. “By jove it worked!”
Landed after 3 hours and 50 mins.
Wildlife highlight of the day we saw our first Puffins!
162 miles completed so far.
Midlifekayak 