September 7th, Day 86. Woke up to gorgeously flat and calm water and the most orange globe of a sunrise. There were dolphins coming up to breath in the bay and a smell of warmth in the air. Today was another big milestone day - Malin Head. I put the bags of things they brought up in the sand dune for them to collect later and set off. The dolphins were still there and I sat while they came up close enough that I could hear their puff of breathing as they surfaced. I kept going and paddled by some of the most incredible cliffs and bright great dramatic hills and scenery. It was so gorgeous and I was reminded how much I was enjoying the trip. Such bright sun and flat water felt like a total gift. I was paddling with purpose because I had a time goal to meet to be going around Malin head so that I wouldn’t get the intense tide that runs around there when it’s at its max.
Today absolutely was the only day for it because the weather was closing in again and it was perfectly calm enough to be doing it. So I went along and had a bite to eat and water with electrolytes, the sun was hot and I was sweaty. I was a bit late for my window so got right back in and started going around the corner. The tide was totally rushing like a river and that was only in the first hour of the tide (it gets faster in the first three hours then slower in the second during a 6 hour tide). So I saw lots of people standing on the hill top looking down at me as I navigated through the swell and confused water around the head and it rushed me right around until spitting me out on the other side. Huge relief and accomplishment that I had ticked that one off the list and didn’t have to be thinking about it anymore. Stopped for a pee and a snack and then because I knew I wouldn’t be paddling the next day I figured let’s push as far as possible to get to somewhere where I can be collected as well versus then stop short and have to paddle a bit further in the force five wind that’s coming. So I had a lovely smooth paddle across just before Dunaff head, crossed to Fanad lighthouse, which at that point I was against the tide but I had to keep going anyway so made it to the lighthouse right at sunset. This is when things took a bit of a turn.
I know how to navigate at night. I know how to navigate in fog. But the two of them together I wasn’t so sure about. As the sun set, a deep rosy hue spread across the sea and sky and everything got very quiet. I was enjoying the deepening of colors when I saw the literal wall of fog coming and wasn’t so calm anymore. The worst fog I’ve had all trip, it was such a sharp distinction of this body of fog coming towards me and covering all the land in its way. Suddenly I was in the darkening sea and it was foggy. Once all the way dark I turned my headlamp on but because it was so foggy I couldn’t even see my deck compass with the light illuminating all the water droplets in the way. Paddling then in the total darkness, every once in a while I turned my headlamp on to see where I was going and after several minutes when I checked I realized I was going the wrong way. Without telling if I was going completely straight, I had accidentally turned myself around and was so disoriented with trying to keep the waves at my back right. Finally I saw a light around the headland I was going to and could head for that. Still using just the sound of the waves around me and being hyper vigilant to hear if any reef waves were around me, I made my way around the headland and to the beach I wanted to land at. It was a section that was more protected because there was a rock in the middle which meant the beach wasn't surfing, but that I had to navigate around the rocks. So listening and sightless, but looking at my google maps location to see where exactly I was on the map, somehow I shot the gap through the mainland and the rocks and hearing the waves hit them on the side of me, I finally could hear the ripple of waves in front of me on the shore and my boat touched the sand on the beach. Thank goodness, that was such a stress. I got the boat up on a patch of grass where a couple of camper vans were, set up my stuff, ate a tin of tuna and went to sleep. Some of this I wrote in the moment, and some after the fact, I just couldnt do it that night.
