DAY 22 A COLD END TO A LONG DAY

We met up with Oisin Hallisey from Tollymore outdoors in Kilkeel and shared a few jars as well as yarns till close to midnight. Dropping us off at our exclusive Des-res at the docks he presented us with two bags of scones which served us well at breakfast time. Cheers Osh, great to see you.

We left Kilkeel into the same head wind of the previous day.  We are sure you are bored with hearing about the wind but it seems to be the third expedition partner in this project and certainly dictates our daily pace. We crossed the mouth of Carlingford Lough and then went straight into a longer crossing of Dundalk Bay, pulling our kayaks up a small beach besides the small fishing harbour at Clogher Head mid afternoon. Starting to eddy hop the beaches as far as Balbriggan, we got caught in several squalls and started to feel the pressure of tiredness creeping in. We ran our boats up the beach, part inflated our Sea02 vests and had a quick power nap slumped over our foredecks. This worked amazingly for me and as we entered the Skerries we started to pick up tide and a following wind and we flew down the coast.

Lambay Island which had been a feature on the horizon for most of the day was left in our wake, passing Irelands Eye we stopped on the north east corner of Howth and called Vaughan who we hadn't seen for three days now. We arrange to meet with him at 1am in Greystones but as we pass Dalkey Island to the east I started to feel the effects of hypothermia and we headed into the nearest set of lights which turned out to be Bray. By the time we had landed I was feeling pretty bad and if it hadn't been for Harry’s encouragement for the last hour of the journey and constant resupply of mule bars and energy shots I'm pretty sure I would have gone downhill rapidly. Anyway sat here now on the beach at Bray about to embrace the day. (By our rough reckoning about 125 km yesterday).
Cheers
Jeff and Harry