You never quite know whats going to happen on a circumnavigation which is one of the things I love about it but if anyone had told me we would end up staying in two of west corks finest hotels and going paddling with journalists from vogue then I wouldn’t have believed them. Yet here we are.

I’ve met jim kennedy briefly at symposiums in skye and jersey and knew he was a prominent kayaker who had won the devises to westminster race and been british champion in sprint kayaking but I didn’t expect him to welcome us with such broad open arms.he arranged for us to stay a night in the wonderful inchydoney spa hotel then when barry started feeling ill, he arranged for us to move to the equally impressive West Cork hotel right on the river in skibbereen. It is possible to paddle right from the hotel lobby to the open sea at baltimore..barry is still feeling a bit rough and needs to be close to a bathroom so its a luxurious way to recover. The rooms we are in are amazing with loads of space to spread out the contents of our ikea bags and an ornate free standing bath.this is our second day off paddling but weh are hopeful that barry will be well enough to start again on thursday or friday. Theres a possible weather window to get round one of the cruxes mizen head on saturday or sunday so dinners crossed that everything works out.

In the meantime roger and I went out to help jim s company, atlantic sea kayaking, to take out some Portugese journalists from magazines like vogue, and a national newspaper. I paddled a double with an attractive lady in a skirt, rights, heeled boots and designer subleases! WE all had a lot of fun! And aside from that, my body is glad of a break from thousands of paddlestrokes every day and we are getting to chat with jim and seeing a bit of the beautiful Cork countryside.its a lovely area for paddling our just sightseeing.