Gone Paddling Sea Kayak Circumnavigation of Britain 2010

It’s about a week since the grand finale back in Falmouth, and to say it’s been a shock to the system is something of an understatement.  

I’ve not quite adjusted to normal life again yet – often waking up from a dream involving being on the sea, momentarily wondering where I am, where the bathroom is, what the weather’s doing and how long it is until I need to be back on the water!  I’ve managed to catch up with a few friends, been interviewed for ITV news with the boat in the museum, emptied the (pretty smelly) van, washed the clothes and rinsed the salt off all the paddling kit and packed away most of the gear, and yet it still hasn’t sunk in that it’s over.  I imagine it’ll help when I sit down and go through – in one sitting – the photos from the last few months, re-doing the whole trip in a time-frame which is easier to digest; at the moment there are hundreds of segmented memories which appear disjointed and difficult to follow.  The trouble is, there’s over 2000 of them – in fact, it’s more than one photo per mile to sort through, which will take some time.

A few thoughts from the last week:

The 2233 miles paddled is further than Falmouth to Moscow,

which is over 600,000 times the length of the kayak,

or roughly 2,000,000 paddle strokes.

Over £10,000 has now been raised, with more expected over coming weeks.

Funds are low: in order to buy the kayak, I need to sell the van - which means once I’ve bought the kayak, I won’t have a means of transporting it.

Where are my work clothes, shoes, and razor?!   (and is there still muesli in the beard?)

There are an awful lot of people to whom I owe an awful lot; finding a way to express sufficienty my gratitude to so many people is proving difficult.

I’ve lost the ability to run for more than a few seconds.

The best ice-cream was Christmas Pudding flavour, in Aldeburgh; followed closely by Honey and Ginger flavour, from Aldeburgh, with third place going to Chocolate Orange flavour, again from Aldeburgh.

The best fish and chips were in Aldeburgh.

I’m heavier now than I was at the start.

I’d like to go back to Aldeburgh.

The photos have finally been extracted from the broken camera, and the camera replaced: here are a few, more to follow in a few days time.

Big swell, a few miles offshore.

The calm before the storm – Christchurch

Sunset over the Solent

A stiff headwind in the Solent, when a squall comes in.

Strong eddy lines around Portland Bill, sheltered by the land before turning the corner into a F3-4 NW headwind.

Calm seas along a stretch of the Jurassic Coast.

Falmouth, finally back on the map.

Early morning mist at Wembury, before crossing the last county border back into Cornwall.

Perfect evening conditions approaching Zone Point – the last headland of the whole trip.

Falmouth, finally back in sight.

10 more metres to go!

The kayak going on display in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, with Ben Lumby, Exhibitions Manager.

A long awaited pasty and pint: 3 days for the former, 3 years for the latter!

James

So today was the day, the finish of the circumnavigation, with the short crossing from back St Mawes to Falmouth.  We had parked up in St Mawes by the harbour overnight in order to be ready for the early start in the morning – though for once it wasn’t me needing the early start!

It’s less than three miles to paddle across Carrick Roads, and 30 miles to drive up to Truro through the narrow roads of the Roseland Peninsula and then back down to Falmouth; even if taking the shortcut on the King Harry Ferry, it’s still an hour’s journey – especially in the morning traffic at the end of the summer holidays – so in a straight race the kayak would probably win!  With the van needing to get to the museum half an hour before me in the kayak in order to help set up the fundraising stuff, Emma and Ben had to set off before 8 in order to make sure they had enough time.  This meant a bit of a wait in St Mawes harbour for me, during which a call from BBC Radio Cornwall live on air took up a few minutes of waiting.

Neil, a friend from home, had motored across from Falmouth in order to accompany me back to the Museum, so we set out from the harbour together. Wind SE F3, sea state slight, tide flooding: we raced across the bay so quickly that we actually arrived at the entrance to Falmouth Docks at just after 9am!   I’d much rather have arrived early than be struggling to get across on time, but half an hour was quite a long time to be sitting and waiting, without sticking the bow of the kayak into view of the museum!  The Crown Princess, with over 3000 passengers, was moored up in the Fal, and the small ferries shuttled back and forth carrying a tiny percentage of the passengers into Falmouth for the day.

9.30 came, and the tide sped me straight into the museum where family, friends, museum staff, a few people I’d met recently on the trip as well as people who happened to be around at the time – all waiting on the pontoon and along the museum’s balcony – just like at the launch on 20th April.

The museum had a display made especially for the kayak, adding to an existing display which I remember seeing in April – and the display even included a couple of collection tins to add to the fundraising effort for the two charities over the next couple of months.  I felt extremely honoured to have had something made specifically for the trip – many thanks indeed to Ben, Michael and the other museum staff for taking such an active interest in supporting the expedition, right from the first conversation in the museum cafe just after Christmas.

A buffet lunch was followed by a walk around Pendennis headland back into Falmouth for dinner and one last fundraising stint through the pubs in the evening made for another full day.

Fundraising total is now at just about £10,000, with quite a raised offline yet to be added to the account.

Over the next few days I’ll have a chance to sort through a few things including photos and hopefully I’ll be able to back-date a load of photos from the last few weeks – I realise my damaged camera has made things difficult to add anything other than plain text to the blog.

James

After leaving the north coast behind today, feeling much more relaxed than when arriving there a coupe of days ago, it’s now time to head back to St Mawes for the paddle across to Falmouth first thing tomorrow morning.  Wind forecast still looks fine, with the high pressure lingering.

A few people have expressed an interest in joining in for the last 3 miles – so who knows, there may be some other boats making the same journey into Falmouth at 8.30 tomorrow.

James

Another day up at Polzeath, climbing over rocks to explore rockpools and thinking “it would be very silly to slip over/fall off the rock and twist/break something, now of all times!”

Surf looked pretty good, 2-4 foot clean and almost glassy: if only I’d picked up my wetsuit and board…

Wind forecast looks ideal for Saturday – F3-4 SE, blowing from St Mawes straight over to Falmouth!

James

A high pressure system settles over Cornwall, which means decent weather for chilling out and relaxing by the sea.

Press Releases have gone out, arrangements for Saturday have (thankfully) been taken out of my hands, so finally, after well over 135 consecutive  days of uncertainty and worry about weather, kit and everything else, it’s possible to switch off for a few hours.

James