Slog to Easky Castle, fall cold snap is here

September 23, Day 102

Pretty annoying slog as the tropical weather has gone and we are back to typical cold and windy Irish fall. Paul brought me back to the beach after a stop at supervalue which I was happy to get some more bits. I got a family sized cottage pie to eat throughout the day. Got the boat from the dune and loaded up, wind started picking up and there was a gloomy chill in the air. Oh how I miss the hot sun from last week even though I was too hot.

Around the corner and down to a pee stop then started a crossing to Easky. A bit hesitant because I knew I would be fighting the wind with it being broadsided and shifting around to being on my front right but I still went for it.

I sang, I thought about life, what I’m going to do when I get back, both to Dublin and the states, and just had to keep plodding along. It was very slow going and a total slog but after a few hours I made it there. It was cold too, I had on all of the hat and hood options I have, my storm cag, and my neoprene gloves and that was just fine, but any colder and I didn’t have anything else to put on. After a long and fairly annoying paddle, I got to Easkey and hovered just before the pier and beach to see where I could land. I decided on the beach because I didn’t see any breaking waves on the seaweed and didn’t want to be surfed onto the slipway. It was a good idea until I had to haul the boat up 25 feet of knee deep squishy seaweed to get it up on a platform of flat rock to unpack the boat.

There’s a castle here in Easky that was built in 1207, which for the American mind is so long for a stone building to be still standing and in quite good shape. The wind was blowing towards the pier so I set up my tent on the leeward side of the castle and here sits my little safe home, being protected by someone’s bigger and older safe home. A sweet connection my mom made when I sent her the night photo. Luckily too there’s a public toilet here. I ate the rest of my cottage pie for dinner, cold out of the tin.