Each day has been unique. Our schedule is mainly driven by the wind, and sometimes the tide. Some parts of the country, such as the Pentland Firth (at the north-eastern tip of Scotland) the tide or current can flow at up to 15knots. At others, it’s under 1knot. If you have the tide against you this can really affect your speed, sometimes meaning its not worthwhile trying as it drags you so quickly the other way.
However, to give you a rough idea I’ve set out an example below:
07:00 Alarm
Joe is an early riser, so porridge is usually ready waiting for us just as the alarm goes. Talk about being spoilt!
07:30 Departure
Once we’ve all eaten breakfast, and used the onshore facilities we’ll set off. (We don’t have a holding tank, so if we’re in a Marina we have to go ashore to use their facilities. This is a general courtesy, as you can imagine the quality of the water if all the boats flushed overboard).
08:30 Motor to our starting point
If the wind allows we’ll try to stop as close to where we’re going to stop for the night as possible. But sometimes this doesn’t always happen. We’ve had to motor up to three hours to return to our finish point so we can start again. (The worst being Ramsgate and Kilmore Quay (Ireland)).
09:00 Launch the Dinghy
At night we’ll hoist the dinghy using the davits onto the back of the boat. This stops it from banging against the hull waking us in the middle of the night, but also means there’s one less thing to worry about when we’re anchoring or coming into the marina.
09:15 Rig up and launch
Towards the start of the trip it was taking us about an hour to get ready in the morning. But by the end we’ve now got this down to under 15minutes. Stew, Islay and Jeremy will all get into the dinghy with the chosen kites for the day, pump and two boards. We’ll then launch first Islay, then Stew from the dingy.
09:30 Mentor sets off
Depending on the wind direction, we’ll either hang around nearby Mentor while Jeremy motors back and connects the tow line. Or, if we know we’re going to be slower, we’ll set off and Joe will catch up.
10:00 Kite
That’s why we’re here! We’ll kite until either the wind dies, the tide changes, we’ve reached our intended destination or the light fades. Occasionally we’ll need to change kites due to a changing in wind strength, in which case Jeremy will be deployed with the new gear and we’ll launch from the dinghy (without going back to Mentor). If we’re lucky he’ll even bring us a snack.
16:00 Pack up
We pack up one at a time. Rolling our lines while we’re in the water. Jeremy will then pickup the kite and deflate it in the dinghy. To avoid getting our lines twisted we have to be careful when putting away the kites. If we do a speedy pack down, and just bunch the kite in the boat, it can take up to an hour later on in the evening to sort it out again.
17:00 Anchor
We don’t always stop kiting where there’s a convenient place to anchor or moor for the night, so we sometimes have a ways to motor before we can stop. This gives us a chance to get dinner ready.
19:00 Dinner
Stew is usually chef, Jeremy DJ and Islay/Joe the washers up. After a long day’s kiting we all have very healthy appetites. It’s going to be hard getting used to normal portion sizes again when we’re done!
20:00 Gin Rummy
Throughout the trip there’s been a healthy competition at night, with the winner often rotating each day.
22:00 Bed
On occasion we’ll organise anchor watch, where one of us will get up every hour to make sure our anchor hasn’t dragged, and we’re still in a safe location. But most nights as soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m fast asleep.
