Seekajaktour: Umrundung Irlands im Seekajak 2015

Paddling
Being our first big trip and without any experience in the area, we planned 8 weeks for
paddling including 2 weeks of being weather-bound. Therefore going round meant for us
going from headland to headland and avoiding the “fun spots” (like big surf, tidal races, etc.).
Paddling in “standard” weather conditions – near the Great Blaskets
So from the technical point of view paddling the trip proved to be not very challenging:
o The challenging part was more coping with conditions like headwinds, crossing
seas, following seas/winds, surf Landings (if not avoidable). Moreover, especially
when paddling in the mist for hours on a flat sea we had to cope with boredom – I
once nearly fell into the water while nodding of …
o Covering Distances and sitting in the boat for hours without getting out, was in the
beginning, especially for Mirco as the “rough-water-guy”, mentally unfamiliar. He was
used to two to three hour sessions of power-play and then having a break. The
distances covered per day got longer during the trip as written above. So the time of
paddling and sitting in the boat increased as well from 6 up to 12 hours, depending
on the weather, of course.
o Another technique not directly related to paddling, proved to be essential: being able
to wee in a bottle. I never wanted to do trips where this was necessary. However,
with the crossings we had to do it could not be avoided. I remember being rather
proud of this “achievement” in force five winds near Golam Head. We even
developed the idea to make this part of the four star syllabus: the unassisted wee in
winds up to force three/ the assisted wee in winds up to force 5.
© Christian Dingenotto 2015
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