Innishmurray

With a high pressure system anchored over Ireland since the weekend we have made great progress, over 250km in the last five days. It has not been easy paddling though, in the mirror like conditions the sea seems to have the consistency of treacle as we plod on sweating through what has officially been classified as a heat wave.  Met Eireann has issued a National top level 'orange' alert high temperatures, (30deg.+) the first time ever such an alert has been made. 

We are now on Innishmurray which has a fascinating history stretching from a Bronze Age fort and 1400 yr old monastic ruins to a more recent history of being the source of the best potcheen in the country - Old Inishmurray. It's inaccessibility made access by Revenue officials difficult and time consuming. The island had been uninhabited since 1948. The difficulty of access made our landing tricky or impossible so we had leisurely four hours on the mainland leaving about 6pm so we would arrive at about high tide, then if there was any chance of landing we wouldn't have to move the kayak very far over the rocks to be well above the high tide level. 

As it turned out landing was easy and once we'd emptied it of all our gear we soon had the kayak up the rocks and well above the water. 

As we'd arrived late in the day we decided on the luxury of a day off, time for a rest but also time to explore the island instead of rushing off towards the Donegal coast a 21km crossing to the North. 

We awoke this morning to thick sea mist with visibility of less than a kilometre, the thought of a 2 1/2hr crossing on flat calm oily seas with absolutely nothing to gauge progress made us very happy that we had decided to stay here today. 

It's now about midday and the mist has thinned somewhat but visibility is still only a couple of kms. Despite the mist the filtered sun is hot, strong enough for the solar panel to be cranking and there is just the occasional glimpse of blue sky.