Day
1 Unprepared
2 Packing
3 The Hardest Day
4 The Wall / Victory at Clonmacnoise
5 Derg
6 Kilaloe
7 Home
Day 1 Unprepared
The Shannon is a Goddess I rode her for 7 long days and 6 dark nights. I have never seen so many stars in the sky as when camped on her islands. She has burned my skin, blistered my hands and tested me. The winds of Lough Allen drove me ashore my first night on her waters. My noble companions and I took refuge from Gale 4 winds in dying light. The Goddess laughed at us then as we shivered changing half naked beneath the moon trying to make fire and camp.
Sleep did not come easy that night. The enormity of our challenge kept me awake as I shivered in my sleeping bag which was briskly laid on a cold rock. When I closed my eyes unfamiliar sounds played tricks on my mind as I drifted in and out of sleep. The gentle lapping of the water kissing the shore not yet so comforting as it was to become.
There were two hatches in my Sea Kayak, "Old Yella", the stern hatch held my sleeping mat, tent, kitchen, and water and the front hatch on my bow had dry clothes and often my sleeping bag. My ditch bag was in the cockpit with me. The ditch bag is in case of emergency, in the event that you must abandon the boat your ditch bag should contain everything you need to survive.
What should it contain? This is a question that troubled me greatly on my voyage. Eventually I tried to put everything I used immediately after tying up the boat for the night. A down jacket, rain pants, head torch (one of two with me), woolly jumper, and often my sleeping bag. On reflection my sleeping bag should have always been with my dry clothes and sleeping gear in the bow hatch. This was an error that caused considerable discomfort as keeping the sleeping bag in my ditch bag took up to much leg space in the cockpit.
My first day made me realise how unprepared I was. The second day I thought of nothing but the enormity of our challenge and how to pack my boat more efficiently. Tuffy taught me to leave my dry bags open until I was packing them into the boat, until they were sitting the way I wanted, and only then to seal them. My day bag sat on my deck, strapped to the bow. It contained snacks, (chocolate or nuts), a head torch (the second of two), a fleece jacket and some cash.
The gear I wore changed depended on the conditions but I usually I wore old tackies (runners), a pair of neoprene socks, board shorts, a rash vest, a dry cag with latex seals, a neoprene spray deck with Kevlar lining, a sling (which I kept coiled), a rescue BA with platypus (generously lent by Ollie Duggan) and two river knives. My throw rope was attached to my deck beside my day bag, on my head I had either a helmet (depending on what I was running) or a peaked cap in the sun, and a beanie for the cold. I should of had two karabiners but I had forgotten them.
I could have used a cow tail and karabiner on our first night. we arrived at Dowra to find the river dry. We headed South and found Lough Allen Adventure Centre and sought some local knowledge.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
University of Limerick Kayak Club
The Banter Board