Thursday, June 20, 2013

Mizen The Action

Another day plugging into headwinds, like banging your head against a brick wall but not so much fun. Spectacular coastal scenery though.

Mind you we did have mirror calm paddle in hot sun from near Baltimore to Schull yesterday but after a bit of shopping, the now obligatory feed of chips the westerly picked up so it was a long slog to Galley Cove.

Once settled in we were invited over to Chris and Fionn's campavan for a feed and a we dram or two or three as you do, as the evening progressed and the chat and laughter became louder and more outrageous. Great folks I really hope they make it to Tasmania as promised. I'd have to stock up on Bushmills!

We were really hoping the westerly would drop for today as we were heading around Mizen Head. A tricky bit of water by all accounts, a bit like rounding SW Cape in Tasmania but with two different tidal flows meeting right at the tip. 4kns at springs! As it turned out there was no action at all, we arrived a bit early for slack water but close enough that it made no difference, it wasn't exactly calm but the generally benign sea conditions meant there was no real action. There followed a full on bash more or less into the wind to Three Castle Head, then Sheeps Head then across into the western channel between Bear Island and the mainland for a very welcome late lunch. 6 hours full on paddling with only one little break tucked in out of the wind behind the cliffs of Three Castle Head. Lunch turned into afternoon tea, a second cuppa and Lynne even had a snooze in the hot sun as we were out of the wind. 

Well fed and rested we plugged on another 10kms or so to a great little cove, Black Ball Harbour with a slipway for easy landing, great camping and good enough phone reception for this blog update. 

No comments: