July 11, Day 27. Bit of a weird day. Beautiful morning camped next to the old fishing boats and had several dogs come by to say hello with not a trace of anyone around. Got on the water and about an hour in needed a pee stop and it took quite a while to find one. No where to land. Eventually made it to Baltimore with more offshore winds. Not sure which I like better, being blown into the cliffs usually with swell, or being blown towards the sea and short chop. Baltimore was beautiful and I got a really lovely pan fried hake with garlic butter and chips. Today was the first time that I really felt the lack on company while walking around and sitting at a cafe alone. Doesn’t bother me still, just nice to have the company. Then throughout my meal I started to feel the weight and the nerves of the Mizen crossing.
It’s the first big on and I can’t afford to get it wrong. Just started feeling more and more nervous about it and was going to get on the water but just sat at a picnic table with my charts in front of me and messaged some people about the logistics of it for a while. Need more planning time but felt the fear in this moment. Finally got back in the boat and tried to paddle to camp on Sherkin but the spot I was going to stay in was no good, hard to tell steepness on Google Maps and it was far too steep. So I had to head back and even this spot isn’t peachy. Steel and rocks but not as bad as the other so oh well. Asked the house near it if I could pitch my tent in their yard but their reaction made it sound like I was being a bother to them so I made the beach stop work. Asked another house if I could camp at the end of their field but it was an older lady on holiday renting so she said probably not. Just a bit bummed on the second half of the day but that’s okay. The sand fleas and jumping against my tent and off sounds like it’s raining.
Oh and was this shit. Around midnight three drunk teenagers showed up and were laughing and talking about their school drama loud and at one point I said “look I know you’re having fun but I am trying to sleep here”. They were literally right next to my tent I don’t understand how that made sense in their brains that that was okay. They ran away screaming.
