Midlifekayak

We were up at 4.30am yesterday after an ok night’s sleep on the harbour wall in beautiful Clovelly.  We had a little cover under a walk way but Geoff, who was in his bivvy bag, can confirm that it rained during the night and that the rain was wet on his face.

We paddled 11 miles across Bideford Bay trying to find the figure of 8 stream that a local fisherman had told us about.  He suggested we aimed for the 5 star hotel at Saunton Sands – slightly ironic given our accommodation arrangements.  About 5 miles across the mist came down and we lost sight of land.  We took a bearing and tried to keep the kayaks on a heading of 45 degrees.  Around an hour later and to our delight (and a little surprise) the cloud lifted and hotel was still there – we were on course.

We pulled into Croyde Bay at high tide and thankfully very small surf.  By 10am were in a local holiday park cafe eating an enormous breakfast while we waited for the tide to go out and turn back in our favour.  We wanted to avoid the peak of the tide race around Ilfracombe but still get the benefit of some tidal stream as we completed the last 11 miles.  The downside of this master plan was that it took us 25 minutes to carry the kayaks (each around 100kgs) down to the water.  Mmmm – still figuring out the most efficient strategies.  The split shift (paddle twice a day with the tides) seems to work though  – and suspect we’ll take advantage of this more in the weeks ahead.

We’re now under a roof in the Oceanbackpackers hostel in Ilfracombe and weather bound for a couple of days as we wait for the Bristol Channel crossing – 22 miles to Port Eynon.  We would normally be out in a F5 head wind but not when crossing the Channel.  Best to be safe and we prefer to be conservative with some of our decisions, even if that means adding a few days to our expedition.

So time to eat, wash, dry kit out, let blisters dry out and inspect sore bits and make some funny videos – really sorry we haven’t been able to post any of therm yet we’ve had a few techy problems. But hopefully we’ll get this sorted soon.

We are loving the messages of support – thank you so much!  We are all a little tired and aching but in high spirits and growing more confident by the day that we can do this.

Anyway better go we’ve got a brew on…..

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