Seekajaktour: Umrundung Irlands im Seekajak 2015

Learnings – wee “wisdoms” or touring mantras
a few sayings helped keeping my discipline and my gear in order
Land when you can
When chasing the weather windows I especially was tempted to push on for another
mile or going a “wee bit further on”. This sometimes led to some exhausting
situations, for example when we had to paddle as far as Kilkee due to crossing seas.
So stopping a bit earlier and leaving the next miles to the next day was something we
learned the rough way.
Wait and See
Patience is not exactly one of my virtues. In the beginning, I had difficulties to wait for
the conditions to settle a little. So I was the driving force for poor Mirco doing our
famous afternoon paddles in force 5- 6 and swells up to 4,20 m. Later on during the
trip I tried to wait a bit more … and sometimes it worked.
First the gear than the beer
“Look after your gear, and your gear will be looking after you” is the more politically
correct proverb …or the German “erst die Arbeit dann das Vergnügen (First work
than fun) is the even less joyless German equivalent. Anyway, I used to expect from
gear being made for outdoors to last in what it is designed for, but on a trip of this
length or longer nothings lasts if you do not care for it. This seems normal and
sensible and easy. However in daily life it was not as easy for me, as this meant
(although being cold and soaked in salty water) to pitch up the tent first, clean the
gear and my drysuit and then finally start cooking and to begin the more joyful part of
the evening. So this little mantra helped me stick to a certain discipline and still
helped me to let my gear last for the length of the trip. Just to give you an idea of
using up gear: I needed a new set of tent poles, my neoprene boots were completely
© Christian Dingenotto 2015
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