trip around Ireland

Yesterday I woke up quite early but still felt pretty knackered from the heat and 6 straight days of paddling. I did some shopping for food and then went for cafee to a pub by which I carefully parked my kayak the previous day. And as I went to the toilet and sat down I fell asleep. After a little power nap I decided that it is time to rest for the day and I just slept in a shade, under a boat, next to my kayak, on a slipway by the pub on the beginning of the bridge which was new with a shop on the other side. The following day I decided to set of really early at 3.32 exactly I was woken up by a combination of my horrible alarm and a screaming crow who was jamming with a seagull. I managed to snooze the alarm but the bloody birds were out of reach and I had no spare shoe. It was beautiful morning and great paddle with not much heat. As it was 6 oclock and I was paddling already I heard a cock doing his morning singing ritual and I just said to myself “You are late you lazy sod...

The alarm goes at 3.02 an outrageous time to wake up. Just in case I set up two alarms one on my watch and one on the phone and I selected the most horrible sound I could find, just in case. There are no taking chances for this section. The previous part was almost too much fun and I did not expect this to be any better. I checked the forecast and decided to wait another day and go with calm winds f 2 offshore the only problem was that the window was from 4 am till 9 am. Some of you may wonder why I do such a small hops. So let me describe the coastline. Once one passes Sleahed the coast line is just vertical cliff all the way to Brandon with very few places to run away if the weather turns nasty. And as it was not committing enough you get the swell pounding the coastline which creates amazing rebounding waves. To explain that... whatever hits the cliff bounces back and collides with whatever is going at the cliff which is of course another wave and as they meat up the...

There is actually three of us on this trip: Me, Myself, and I. ME……. is the EGO. Arrogant prick who knows best and can do anything and he is the one who gets me into trouble anytime when I listen to him. Basically one of the main reasons of all my trips is to get rid of this little bastard. On the other side is MYSELF…...the lazy pussy who is scared of anything and do not want to be challenged in any way. And    I….. is the real Petr the one who is like between two grinding stones and tries to make the right decision in the right moment anonymously of listening to those little  two sitting on my shoulders. I hate sitting out weather especially when there is a difficult section in front of me as was crossing of Dingle fjord. The way I do assessment for a section of coast I am going to paddle is that prior to forecast I imagine the worst case scenario of conditions, make contingency plan, exits and then I either give it green or red light. T...

The forecast for the day was force 4 gusting 5 northerly. Here we go the winds are here, I looked at the map and saw simple route -  it is gonna be 20 km of railing the coastline then lunch at Dursey Island after that if conditions allow hop 17 km across Kenmare river (fjord) to Deenish Islands and then we will see. Normally I would go in as straight line as possible just cutting across bays and make the shortest route but after 10 days of pretty no wind I did not fancy the feeling of being blown into the Atlantic at all.   I find that when I spend while in an area I get the feel for the weather pattern but so far there was no weather pattern it was just bloody Bahamas all the time so I played it safe and hug the coast. When I got to White Ball Head I had to do turn to the north and go into the wind for a km. It was definitely more to the upper part of force five scale but I noticed that the wind might be accelerating from the valley in front of me. I w...

I created little dictionary about speeds and paddling technigues. The speed chart.   Slog………..any speed below 7 km/h - usually style of a gazing tourist avoided at all cost by performance paddler.   Mach1 ……...standard cruising speed between 7 and 8 km/h - recomended to maintain at all cost.   Mach2 ……...higher cruising speed between 8 and 9 km/h - the macho speed I think I am going to maintain all the time however the gps watch has different opinion it reminds me that I belong to mach1 category.   Mach3……...10 to 13 km possible only with assistance of wind and waves. It is the grin factor speed.   Supersonic …..anything above 13 km/h -  it is the OH YESSSS I do not care which direction I am going speed. Unfortunate side effect of experiencing supersonic is that everything else becames slog for period of time.   Paddling styles ...

After day of rest in Baltimore I had an objective to pass Mizen Head and do open crossing to Dursey Island. 30 km of open water plus 17 km jump from Calf Islands to Browhead is not to be taken lightly. 47 exposed km of 65 but I had rested for it and i was ready for it too so 7.30pm I set off for 12  hours on the water with favourable forecast. As I was going through islands in Roaring Bay i saw two sleeping seals in the water just their noses bobbing up and down. At the moment I remembered all the injustice those fluffy bullies did to me. At least 6734times they sneaked on me from behind  and splashed so loudly that i soiled my pants. The dark side got the better of me,  I pointed my finger at the monster and said “u are gonna pay for all your cousins did to me u little fluffy bastard I am gonna tickle you on your whiskers”. My brain went into hunters override and I started to sneak in to my position for payback. What I did not know was that th...

It is day eight and so far i covered cca 400 km which was great fun and lots of hard work but i love every moment of it perhaps exluding the sore arse moments but Benny Hill style actually sorted that. I am really enjoing the scenery even if farther of shore than I would like to be. But that is a curse of a circumnavigator, the objective is different than going for a weekend explore paddle. I am passing caves and arches and think hell i would like to explore that but it is not gonna be now. I am sure of one thing I am gonna come back with my amazing woman and few friends and we are gonna poke to every cave and cove and explore really small coastline very intimately. I said to Barbora that  am gonna do this as a scouting trip for our holiday 😎 Anyway as I am alone on the sea I got plenty of time to think and I can see the transition of my thinking I am coming back to the caveman mode and enjoy the simple things in life. The last 4 days were just about paddling an...

After night under a clear ski I did think again  about church town (the holiday town) and said to myself they really have nice toilets. The plan for the day was to cross from carnsore point to Hook head an open crossing of 39 km With Saltee island in the middle . Is started earliish in the morning and set of into flooding current snailing my way forward in sluggish 5 km.h (anything below 7 km.h i decided to call snail pace) As I was rounding Carnsore point i started feel the swell coming from the south which was mixing into opposing current flowing out of the bay completely Windles weather created amazing clean waves and really great rides it distracted me for a while and i had to slap myself and remind  me that i am here on business and not for play so i carried on and snailed my way forward. The temperature vas baking 22 degrees but it felt way more. 2 hours into the crossing i pulled my secret weapon. A golf umbrella and made snack break in lovely shade of my weather ...

It all started day before. Total failure of colossal proportions. I COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO COOK DINER.!!!! In the morning i felt great ,made breakfast posted lovely pics of my cooking skills and fafed about a bit (actually bit more) and then i set off. business as usual first hour i just moved about and try to get into rhythm.Which I did not. My leg was killing me and the waves where too choppy the wind was to windy and basically I felt sorry for myself big time. At the moment i realised what has happened (not the first time) I had no dinner which disturbed the body routine blal bla bla etc. I eat breakfast and set off exactly 3 hours after eating and paddled for an hour and then run out of fuel literally . Through the previous expeditions i figured out that i can go for four hours on one fuel tank but the catch is I have to eat just before i go on the water. That is where the thermos flask comes in . Usually I eat next to the kayak in my soggy kit and then i set of. Anyway ...

Day 2 The sound of crow screaming woke me up at 5.00 sharp. exactly 2 minutes before my alarm was scheduled. When it finally went off I hit the snoozer and the crow instantly screamed again.”ok ok I am up “ Crawled out of my sleeping bag and made my morning 6 spoon espresso in percolator for 4. It usually wakes me up . For years i have strict policy of no multitasking while drinking coffee it is sacred time for me get up early and have 40 min cafe siesta .I sat on the harbour wall and enjoyed the quiet morning. I have finally had some proper sleep. the previous 2 days I slept about 6 hours of which 4 on the ferry so for most of the first day paddle i was thinking mainly about my sleeping bag. This area has really strong currents so i decided to play it with the tides and set of about mid day so i would pas Wicklow head in the last two hours of tide and then have the flow with me for the rest of the day. After scrambled egg with bacon and more coffee there was time to s...