Up into Easky Castle, off the water

September 24th, Day 103

Upon looking at the forecast last night, it didn’t look like I would be able to paddle again today and that’s just what happened. Woke up to wind and rain so I slept in a bit, it’s so hard for me to get out of my tent when it’s raining, luckily it’s been a dry summer although windy. I texted Paul that the weather was shite, wind a force 5 against me and short choppy swell that is hard on the momentum, and he said he would come and get me during his lunch break, so I had some time to kill until then. The wind protection I had from last night quickly disappeared and I found myself in an intensely windy spot. In the middle of lazily packing my things, it got so windy that the whole thing bent inwards towards me and I had to hold it up from the inside. I thought okay well I’ve got to take it down now so between putting on clothes and holding the tent up from the inside, I got up, took the rain fly off and unclipped the poles from the inside with all my stuff still inside. Dragged everything around the corner to the new leeward side of the castle and packed my things from there. Kindof a mess I was laughing at myself for sure. Once I had everything packed I decided to check out the inside of the castle and I’m so glad I did because there was a small entrance on the inside that let you climb the stairwells looping around the whole thing all the way to the top. It was so cool, it just kept going and because they were built in the walls you wouldn’t know you could be inside it until you actually were. I pulled my boat up a little more out of fear of the crashing waves and left it there on the flat rocks.

Paul arrived a bit after that and we got chicken fillet rolls for lunch - a staple in Irish cuisine. Went back to the house and the whole gang was there so it was nice to be in good company. Rinsed my dry suit and other bits, Ronan made dinner and his mom made a lovely apple pie.