Early bounce

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 their height doubles that means 2 meter swell equals paddling in 4 m bumpy lumpy clapotis which is going all over the place and as if it was not enough there is current created by Shannon river which adds up to the chaos even further. Sprinkle it with f4 folovin sea and u get pretty lumpy ride.

After paddling the first section with wind I decided it to be too dangerous to do the second part from Ballydavid head to Brandon point. Mainly because of the distance.

Without the wind I knew I can handle the 2 m swell with rebound but I did not want the wind for this stretch.

It is 17 km wall of rock and 1 shitty exit spot in the first third.

The paddling was actually pretty cool just at the start of the section I had few deep swallows when the (2m wave) met the current going out of the bay. Then it was just to relax and think of something positive.
Which is hard at 5 in the morning with low visibility and murky deep lighting and drizzle. I learned new skill today it is called,"just do not look back."

In some places the waves looked horrendous and Double Decker name does not give it a justification.

I looked at my watch and have seen the speed being over 8.5 km an hour so my (positive) thinking was hmm just 2.5 hours of this perfect...

There was bit of sightseeing too, but very little as I was being quite busy bracing.

After while I got into the rhythm and had an amazing ride, the waves are totally hypnotising when they bounce around you.

And each of them is completely different shape; it looks as if Neptune is stabbing the surface from underneath with his trident. To be honest I was glad when I passed this section and had a little break around the corner.

As this part was done I wanted to use the still good weather and hop across Brandon bay another 7 km before the weather comes in.

The forecast was f4 gusting f6 and later f5 gusting f8 from the south (of shore)

It was calm as a lake compare to what I just paddled just gentle rolling 2 m swell.

As I am half way through the crossing slight wind touches my cheek and then it is calm again. And I am in full alert!!!

I do not like slight wind touching my cheek whatsoever too many unpleasant memories...

I altered the course more into the bay so when the wind from side starts blowing I do not miss the headland.

The wind skipped the forecasted 4 gusting 6 and went straight to solid 6 breeze the conditions went from gentle 2m swell to 2 metre swell with steep wind chop rolling diagonally over them in a matter of few minutes I was working my way deep into the bay and had the waves from the side which was not a problem that is what Quantum was built for. Brutally solid secondary stability...

And when I got deep enough into the bay I just zapped it downwind at mach3 into my planed landing spot.

As I was not able to use my pee bottle AGAIN I had to go for dip into the sea and then found a camp spot on really cool place.

Kilshaning with overlook of the mountains an sea full of whitecaps.

And now it is time for cupateee.