We got off the water early on Monday, day 3, due to strong SW winds. It was still blowing as we hit the hay. During the night the wind veered north and about 2:00 am the waves were crashing on the beach licking at the stern of our kayaks. I looked out of my tent to check and all was fine on the beach but the tent swayed under the onslaught of the wind directly on shore. Around 5:30 I saw lights. It was Dean and Hazen checking on things. I took this shot and crawled back into the sleeping bag.
In the harsh reality of daylight on Tuesday it was obvious we would not be going anywhere right soon.
I heard the guys nearby so I got up to help put up a tarp for protection from the elements. It wasn't pleasant even with the tarp so, after a while we decided to seek the protection of the woods so we went for a walk along the old road passing the stone church again on our way to St. Kyran's. There the water was calm protected from the northerly wind.
Back at St. Leonard's the forecast was for more of the same for the next day. It seemed the wind was somewhat less so we decided to ...
... make a dash for St Kyran's. We'd have the wind behind us and we'd be exposed for only 5 kms and inside St. Kyran's Harbour we' be in kinder conditions. The grey sky began to give way to cloudy blue skies as we left just after 1:30.
We made our way down the shore and ...
.. reached the entrance to Presque and St. Kyran's Harbours with its Little Goat Islands an Goat Island protecting the inner waters.
Calm prevailed again as Hazen paddled by the easterly dipping red shales, punctuated by a bed of grey shale.
Looking at the location of the former community of St. Anne's we pressed on to St. Kyran's. As I came out of Green Cove I could see the great church of St Kyran's 3 kms away right in front of my bow. I floowed Dean down the harbour at some distance an gradually ...
... the church got bigger and ...
... bigger.
It loomed over our camp spot. We were there earlier in the morning at the end of our hike. I took lots of pictures which I'll post next time.
In keeping with our normal practice we collected wood which was in abundance long the shore, driven to the north side by prevailing southerly winds.
We ended the day under vastly more placid conditions than those we awoke to. From St. Kyran's we looked 8 kms down the harbour around which other communities such as Presque, Murphy's Cove and St. Anne's used to exist.
Fireworks in St. Kyran's as we let the fire burn down before hitting the tents.
The captains log showed 17 kms on the day. A short day but we escaped St. Leonard's and were in position to avoid strong northerlies forecasted for the next day.
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