July 31, Day 48. Unbelievable crossing. 25 miles! Woke up at 5:45 to be on the water at 7:30, beautiful sunrise and started the crossing looking far across the bay to Loop Head. Looking across it was hazy and felt like it was certainly about 20 miles to the head it’s self and then more around the corner. Early on I saw a mystery fin quite close to me which I think might have been a sunfish, some googling to do. About half way through I needed to pee desperately and I thought “well if I’ve learned anything on this trip it’s that the mentality of ‘can’t’, just doesn’t have a place here” so I thought I need to figure this out now. In the past I have flipped out of my boat on accident so I rigged my paddle with my paddle float and stuck in the bungees like an outrigger support so I could lay flat over the cockpit to unzip my drop seat on my dry suit and pee on my sponge. Not ideal but very doable, and can’t believe it took me a month and a half to actually try it. Well now I know.
The nice thing about crossings is I get so motivated when I put on one of my favorite playlists and sing for how ever many hours. No one can hear me so I have a good time. Coming up and around loop head was pretty wild, but beefy reefers breaking around the head and lots of big clapotis beyond the bit. Being at sea for a month and a half I have started giving “scary” things fun names. So when waves break over reef and rocks and shallow areas, I call them beefy reefers. Sounds like a fast food item. How can you be nervous about something called a beefy reefer? In my head it instantly makes the worry disappear and I just focus on finding my lines through them or going around if I can. So I get to where I think I should be finding the cove to enter and there are massive reefers happening. I call Matt, a local paddler who is going to meet me there and ask him and he guides me towards it, and then after our call as I’m approaching, he’s right there just barely a 50 foot wide entrance into the cove. He’s up on the cliff telling me where to go on the vhf and I’m signaling back to him that I’ve copied his message and he guides me into the twist and turn to the hidden calm area to get out. Just awesome. We replaced my deck lines, put a new handle on that has broken last week and went to the pub with Emma G for food and pints. I’m in good hands with some of the best paddlers on the west coast, they are all incredible paddlers. I’ve met them before at the Irish Sea Kayaking Association Symposiums that I usually go to. Matt took me home to his place and I had a rewarding sleep.
