Upwind to the Basking Shark

We were up at the crack of dawn along with the fishermen this morning. Kilmore Quay is resident to a number of large trawlers who were all getting ready, loading various supplies and filling up with ice using the conveyor belt on the dock. Don’t think they’re used to leisure boats going out that early as they were moored two abreast, blocking the whole harbour entrance. Still they were quick to move and didn’t seem to mind the intrusion too much, the deck hands barely stopping from their tasks while the captain manoeuvred them to a spot further along the quay side.

It was a long motor out to where we’d lost the wind a week ago, but when we arrived the wind hadn’t yet filled in. This gave Stew an opportunity to try fishing (without any luck), while I caught up on some sleep. By 11:30 it had filled in just enough for us both to get going on the 15 meter kites. It felt so good to be moving again. Kilmore Quay was lovely (especially the ice cream) but we were ready to move on.

I’m rarely on a 15 metre kite, the wind has to be extremely light for me to need it, especially on the foil. So as the wind picked up I started to become over powered. It takes a long time to swap kites, and with the tide about 3 knots against us I knew if I attempted to change down a size we’d lose too much ground. So I held on as long as I could. The 15m kites are our biggest kites and they have a lot of bar pressure, meaning the kite tugs on your arms, especially when you’re over powered. I felt like I was hanging from a monkey bar in a playground with someone tugging at my waist while trying to do a pull up. Eventually the wind picked up too much and I couldn’t hold on any longer, so we decided to swap down. I was ready to move onto the 9m, but it wasn’t set up yet, so we opted for the 11m, as Stew was still comfortable on the 15m.

Having been going for 4hrs 45mins at this point, we also put in an order for a sandwich, PB & J, the easiest thing we thought we could eat on the move. I was lucky as I could sit in the rib to eat mine, as I’d packed down my kite, but Stew had to eat his one handed perched on the side of the rib. Unfortunately having him and his kite attached to us, it made the rib go faster downwind than we were otherwise so he could only rest for a few minutes before heading back out on the water. It ended up being a 20 minute lunch and change over stop, not bad!

I was overpowered on the 11m as soon as I got out, but it only had half the pull of the 15m, so my shoulders were thanking me. We’d only just made it back upwind to where we’d started swapping my kite when Stew said he was now too over powered on his. So we started the process again. Although this time Stew was going to go on the 11m and I was to take the 9m. Although the lines hand’t been walked recently we were pretty sure they’d be ok. A gamble we were willing to take given how tired and overpowered Stew was. I passed my kite over to Stew in the water and I was so grateful for Jeremy being willing to pump the kite. Not sure I had the energy left in me for that! In truth didn’t have the energy for the kiting either, but I knew I didn’t want to motor back to where we were tomorrow, so the further we could get today the better.

Today was the longest day of the trip so far, in hours on the water, beating the trip from Padstow to Milford Haven by only 5 minutes. We were all exhausted when we got in, excited to have got this far, Stew especially as he saw a basking shark on the way, but tired and hungry. Joe had been at the helm for 13 hours, and I felt as if I could eat all the food in the fridge. Need to do lots of stretching now as looks like it’ll be the 15 metre kites and light northerly winds again tomorrow. Can’t complain though, at least there’s wind!

Basking Sharks are the 2nd largest fish, after the whale shark, growing up to 12m. They are amongst 31 species of shark that can be found in UK waters. Other include: the Shortfin Mako, the fastest shark in the sea, swimming at bursts of 46 mph; Greenland Sharks which carbon dating of radio activite particles in their eyes have shown they could be around 400 years old; and the Velvet Belly Lanternshark which glows in the dark as a means of attracting pray.

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