i'm finally back home after our epic adventure!
the short story:
unfortuantely we failed to achieve our goal of kayaking around the Cheshire ring in single kayaks, (almost) unsupported and non-stop in 24 hours. we had paddled for over 13 hours before we realised that we weren't going to make it - for a number of reasons. we knew it was going to be a very tough challenge, and that's exactly why we wanted to do it. we had a great experience, learned a LOT, and raised some money for a good cause. thanks again to everyone who donated!
the long story:
ok... you asked for it...
myself and Steve got the idea of kayaking the Cheshire Ring back in February. Steve has kayaked for years and always wanted to do it. i had never kayaked before but was prepared to give it a go. neither of us had any marathon kayaking experience so we were in unknown territory! our training started off well, but as the weeks went by we found it harder and harder to find time for it. with a couple of weeks to go we trained and planned the best we could, trying to fit it into our hectic lives. we had many problems and made some bad decisions. it's so easy to see with hindsight how we could have done things differently - always the way!
these are some of the problems we had:
- we started last thing at night when we had both been working and travelling all day, because this seemed to be the most convenient option for us. we should have started first thing in the morning when we were both fresh. we underestimated how much this would affect us. towards the end i was struggling to keep my eyes open and was very close to falling asleep in the kayak. my eyes we so red i looked like i had mask squeeze.
- our kayaks were not really ideal. they were fairly slow sea kayaks. great for carrying loads of gear, but too slow and heavy to maintain the speed required to complete the entire circuit in a reasonable time frame - 24hours. my kayak was the slowest and heaviest and weighed around 35kg - half my body weight!
- we had a very narrow time window to pass through Manchester city centre (5-6am) because you have to carry the kayaks along a main street! we started 30miles from Manchester, and so it was hard to get there at the right time. as it turned out, we were paddling too slow and so we arrived soon after rush hour which meant that we simply could not go any further. at this point we knew it was over and we had to turn back.
- we allowed ourselves to become dehydrated and extremely low on energy during the night. we were trying to maintain speed and sacrificed time to drink and eat. i only eat 2 museli bars and drank 2 litres of water in 9 hours of continuous paddling - don't try that at home kids! this was my downfall. ultimately we had over-estimated the speed we could maintain.
- the weather worked against us. yesterday was a baking hot day and the sun was beating down hard. even if everything else had gone well, i think think the sun would have eventually beaten us. we should have planned the event earlier in the year when cool weather is more likely. we originally planned for June 21/22 because it's the longest day and there was also a full moon.
- even our decision to go round clockwise was not ideal, because it meant the sun was in our eyes and reflecting off the water in the morning, and would have been in our eyes later in the day as it set West.
- we probably didn't train enough, but this was not an major factor. i had been kayaking 8 times before the event and had clocked up about 85 miles during those. yesterday was my ninth time in a kayak
neither of us had any problems with muscles, tendons or even blisters (not a single one!).
ultimately, we failed our challenge because of lack of experience and a few bad decisions, but we did the best we could with the knowledge and experience we had. on the day we really gave it 100% so i'm very pleased with our effort. we might try it again next year. but if we do, we will do it in faster racing kayaks with more support, and on a cool day!
....so, no more kayaking for now.... back to freediving.
