Sennum Cove- Waiting for the Weather Window"

We made our way from Falmouth on last Sunday once exiting the harbour hit bad weather only making 6 or 7ks.
Due to some funny circumstances Chris and I managed to loose one another just after Coverack, I returned to the port while Chris carried on accross the Bay from Black Head to the Lizard, carrying to Mullion leaving me to paddle the Lizard on my own, slightly nervy but very enjoyable. Having a brilliant time in Mullion meeting some lovely people.

Currently stuck at Sennum Cove westerly winds haven't eased up for the past four days or so. Not a bad thing though as this enables time to be spent in the surf.

I will be carrying on North While Chris waits for a weather window to the Isle of Silly's.

Lyme Regis to Falmouth

Sorry for the update being such a long time coming. We arrived in Falmouth yesterday afternoon to a flag “Welcome Chris and Vaughan”, written by Janet and Franklin, friends parents from college.

A well needed freshen up, and a few beers in Falmouth were on the cards for the evening, travelling in style back in the evening from Falmouth to Flushing on Franklin’s Ferry Boat.

Getting to sleep actually turned out to be more interesting than the town, just before falling asleep, an all mighty bang came from the river, after hearing a few cries for help, I woke Franklin up and we both hurried to the rowing boat, heading out into the river, we could see a boat on its mooring spinning around like a dog chasing its tail, getting closer you could see a speed boat bedded into the starboard side. An in shore life boat crew arrived at the same time, as the cries for help had stopped I thought we would be looking for floaters; one couldn’t swim but managed to hang onto another boat. In the end the two lads got rescued by the life boat crew.

In the meantime sleeping beauty didn’t even batter an eye lid in the house.

We have enjoyed some great paddling over the past week or so, the scenery has been spectacular both Chris and I have been amazed.

Chris has been spending more time teaching various techniques, which has enabled me to stay up right in some challenging waters, finding the change in seas amazing as we are kayaking in more exposed waters.

Even though the seas are getting more serious, we still find time to have a laugh, when we have a short day or finishing a long day and there is surf around, the game of touch the beach with the paddle starts.

First time Chris showed me this game things went slightly wrong, he caught the wave landed the paddle on the beach, gleaming in glory started retreating backwards paddling straight into my boat, consequently turned sideways, picked up and then thrown upside down by the incoming wave, as he hadn’t put his split paddle together properly it came apart, leaving him gasping for and banging his against the floor, wet exit required.

My sides are still hurting from the laughing, quote for that day, “Mother Duck bleeps Up”

On Wednesday night we arrived in Polperro, a sleeping but beautiful village, while pondering the village we somehow found ourselves in a pub called The Blue Peter Inn. A few Cornish ciders later we got chatting the bar lady about our trip, the pub was heaving as a local band was playing. In the brake Chris got on the mike and started to explain about the charity and the trip, everyone put their hands in pockets raising £100, a huge thank you to everyone in the pub.

Also Chris from the Cawsand Bay Hotel in Kingsands offered us a hotel room after hearing what we were up to, once again the delight of a bed for the night was very welcome.

We have been working on my diet over the past few weeks, as I was suffering from dramatic drop in energy levels. Both Chris and I have been trying to solve this issue, it seems to be working as I am managing to paddle for much longer. Cheers to Chris for his help.

To Lyme Regis

Chris and I have spent from 11 to 14 June in Lyme Regis working on our boats - Chris' was damaged from the Faulklands and mine needed a brace within the cockpit. We managed to fix them with the help of the Boat Building Academy based here in Lyme and we wish to pass on our thanks to all those people who helped us and made us feel so welcome.

As you can see from the pics it has been hard work for us! Lyme Regis is such a beautiful place in the sunshine, it has been hard to move on!

As the weather has been so kind, we have also taken the chance to rest here to help build up our energy levels for the endurance required for the long trek down to Cornwall and beyond.

Even though we were supposed to be resting the kayaks required testing to check that the work undertaken had been successful - a great opportunity to get out on the water and have a relaxing paddle in the shelter of the habour.

As you can see from the pics I decided to do some posing!!

While Chris and I were getting our boats fixed, my brother and sister (Andy and Jen) took the opportunity to visit us in Lyme Regis. They certainly choose a lovely weekend, as Lyme was bathing in sunshine!! It was great to see them and thanks for making the effort to come down and see me!

Chris and I are now on our way down to Cornwall and a further update will be added soon!!!

All the best

To Lulworth Cove " A touch of human Kindness"

The past few days have been extremely hard both mentally and physically, I was becoming slightly over whelmed by the extent and size of the trip.

Saturday morning before heading to Lulworth Cove, both Chris and I were abruptly woken up at 5.45 by a 4x4, the wheel only a few feet from my head as he was rushing to get past the tents to the catch the tide.

We arrived at Lulworth Cove Inn on Saturday afternoon, the weather was a North Easterly force 4, once I got rid of the feeling of being totally intimidated, I enjoyed the rough weather. Chris was his usual self, calm and collected.

Sunday was an extremely hard day I felt both mentally and physically exhausted. Trying to find somewhere to keep warm after a windy and wet night, I stumbled into a pub, where a Scottish lad called Dom was getting it ready for opening. He said the pub was shut and not opening till 12, I asked if I could stay for a while in the warm and after explaining to him about our trip he was more than welcoming. After hearing about our trip the owner David of Lulworth Cove Inn came from behind the bar and said we could stay the night in a double room, have a roast dinner for lunch and breakfast in the morning. When you're down in the dumps, struggling and needing some normality, human kindness was there to pick you up.

We are just about to leave the cove and head around Portland Bill, hopefully the tidal races are kind.

Thank you to my family and friends for all the texts and conversations of support over the past few weeks, cheers guys.

Chris and the duckln

We crossed for the Isle of Wight last Sunday, my first crossing complete. Things got a little exciting for a few minutes when a Catamaran sprung up from behind a couple of tankers, some quick back paddling was called for, fun and games.

Really appreciated the Isle of Wight as we finally got the chance to see some beautiful landscape, any one who hasn’t paddled there before, its well it worth a trip.

Monday was a hard day,an excuse to chill out in the sunshine.

Chris has been spending time teaching particular kayak strokes and techniques, I thought the title was appropriate as I tend to feel as though he’s the mother duck and I’m the duckling following behind.

The needles were pretty spectacular, would have been fun at a spring tide. We have literally just arrived in Bournemouth, slight de-tour so we could meet up with my sis.

Thank you to my brother’s wife’s parents Morrine and Nigel for the treats, both packs of Harry’s disappeared in one day.

Brighton Pier and Beyond

The days following Chris’ arrival have been slightly mixed; we have spent two days off the water due to not feeling too great.

Bad weather meant we had another two days camping under the pier in Brighton, although I did brave the sea for a play and enjoyed my first take off in the boat landing upside down. Chris seemed to be disappointed when he could not find guys walking the streets of Brighton in cowboy outfits.

The south east coast in not what I would call beautiful, every turn you take you are welcomed by another town and pebbled beach. To be honest the impact human’s have had on the landscape is incredible, out of the 100 or so miles maybe 5% has not been affected by humans.

Even though the landscape hasn’t been that interesting, the people we have both met over the past week have made up for it.

We were accompanied while camping under Brighton Pier by a guy who we nicknamed Gollum from Lord of the Rings, really lovely fella, but not sure how much of what he said was truth. When we left he decided his would walk all the way back to Plymouth.

After leaving Brighton we ended up in Worthing where we met the nicest family I have ever come across, the Buckley family. After we talked about what we were doing they started to explain that five years ago they packed up their jobs bought a big HGV campa and have been travelling around the UK, home schooling their children, living place to place, they were actually a really inspiring family to meet.

Once we had set up camp in Worthing, a bloke walking his dog suggested we could use his shower and wash our clothes. We now know him as Arran the kiwi, he was a diamond of a fella, understanding what it was like to be unwashed for days as he had spent much of his life travelling around the world, both Gollum the Buckley’s and Arran won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

Our next stop was Bognor Regis, the only funny story for this town was Chris ended up having a stone fight with a group of kids who took a liking to Chris’ tent, and please be aware NO KIDS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THAT STORY.

Finally I got the chance to meet Taz John, he has kindly picked us up with our kayaks so we can sort out this blog before we set out for to Cross to the Isle of Wight on Sunday. Hence I am sitting up in front of a computer at four o’clock in the morning. Very worthwhile detour as Sarah cooked a stunning lasagne…yum yum.

Before I forget… cheers Cheryl and Andy for coming to see us today at Bognor Regis, lovely to see you both, cheers for the food.

The First Few Days

The trip finally got underway on the 20^th May 2009, I decided to change where I would be leaving from, the new location was Camber Sands in Kent, a few family and friends were there to see a nervous Vaughan off to sea.

A few days prior to my departure date I received an email from a gentlemen called Chris Millington consequently Chris came to see me off. Having a few nervous cups of coffee with my family and Dom, Chris started to explain how he was due to leave the Army the day after my departure. As Chris was also a kayaker I suggested that if he was at a loose end he was more than welcome to join.

With this conversation put to one side the trip was underway, admittedly a few tears came from my eyes, not because of fear, just pure happiness as the sun was shining, the sea was flat and the unknown ahead, the talking and planning of the expedition was all behind me.

My first lunch break was on a cove just around the corner from Camber, after landing I noticed how the man in front of me had no clothes on, then another and another and another, yes you guessed it, Vaughan, Forest Gump and Borris the bear had landed on a nudist beach, probably the quickest pit stop known to man I made a sharp exit leaving the naked men behind me. Later on that day I found out that my Dad had been following me up the coastline keeping watch, honestly when we met up a few hours later I found it hard leaving him on the shore.

The first night I received a call from Chris explaining his wife Jackie had giving him the go ahead, consequently my new paddling partner would be joining from Eastbourne on Friday. In many ways relief was felt on my behalf, I no longer had the worry of being on my own when paddling, or lugging the boat to camp each night plus I had someone to bore with my usual chit chat. Chris’ attendance on the trip also gave my family large amount of relief.Chris recently circumnavigated the Falklands in January and February 09 with Tim Carter and Richi Simpsom . This also gives me a great opportunity to learn faster and push my limits as I had an experienced eye watching over me.

The second night was spent on Eastbourne seashore, while relaxing in the sun shine waiting for Chris to arrive, I heard a shout “oh, you are in my spot” to which I replied “well it aint yours now love”. The shout turned out to be from a woman called Charlie we spent the evening chatting, to my surprise later on Charlie turned up with fish and chips.

Chris turned up ready to go, in many ways he was like an excited kid going on an adventure, maybe that’s what we all are, just grown men living boy’s adventures? I was amazed at the small amount of gear Chris had bought with him, a few days later I asked if we could spend some time sorting out which gear I could send back home, basically half of my gear was put to one side and sent back home, Chris still thinks I have there is too much, but I had to put my foot down on certain belongings like my music.