Today was a beautifully uneventful first day of the trip. For once I was happy to not see white horses and a big break when we arrived à la plage. I got pulled along by the tide with Jersey on one horizon and golden beaches on the other. The tides are my new clock, the moon perhaps now more important to me than the sun.

I thought of some good stuff to blog about but to be honest I’ve forgotten most of it. Some days I’ll be shattered by the time my feet are on the sand so apologies in advance for those ones.

The bad things were my bum was numb for the first 3 hours and it was mostly cloudy. The good things were the sun came out and my bum stopped aching. I take from this that bad things come good with time. To be kept in mind for later in the trip. I also saw lots of barrel jellyfish and invented the soon to be classic combo of dates, honey and salami.

Right now I’m sitting on a deserted beach, sun setting and sand working its way into every bag in my boat.

Thank you to mum, dad and Isobel. Jim and Annabel at epic kayaks UK, everyone at Kirton kayaks, the GB squad and everyone in the ocean racing community, and the man who helped me carry my boat up the beach. I’m super grateful to all of you for making this adventure possible.