Day 27 – 10 before 10

• Inverbervie to Ethie Haven
• 31 kms

I was up early and was on the water just after 6 am. No breakfast required, after yesterday’s big three course dinner. I was keen to get as many miles under my belt as I could before the forecast strong headwinds hit me.

There is a blog post I always remember from James’s Pacific Crest Trail hike – “10 before 10” – about how getting 10 miles in before 10 am is the perfect way to start the day. As a sea kayak can travel a little faster than someone walking, I’ve raised the bar a little to 10 nautical miles before 10. And as I tend to work in kilometres, I’ve raised it a little higher still by rounding it up to 20 kms before 10. I haven’t managed it so far this trip – either starting too late or getting hampered by locks on my Lowland Canal days. I use this as my motivation to crack on.

As I’m using a GPS to measure distance covered, it doesn’t matter if I take a few minor detours to investigate a couple of harbours on my journey south – every metre gets logged.

By 8am, I feel as though I’ve got it in the bag as I’m easily up on the halfway distance. However, a required relief stop ashore puts a successful completion back in jeopardy.

It is a murky day, and the last several kilometres north of Montrose are a featureless flat beach in the gloom. My energy stores are running low, and the chance  to complete the challenge is the main driver to keep going. At 9:52, the “distance travelled” field on the GPS rolled over to 20, and, as luck would have it, I had reached the beach below the breakwater at Montrose. An immediate exit and a trek inland to find breakfast. I thought I might have to walk a good distance into Montrose to find anything to eat, but luck was on my side again. The Traill Pavilion was only just out of sight of my kayak and served an excellent full Scottish breakfast and pot of tea. To celebrate a challenge completed, I even rounded it off with carrot cake and coffee before I left.

After rounding Scurdie Ness, the landscape got more interesting, and the sun started to make an occasional appearance. I was feeling refreshed and had the time and energy to get another 20 kilometres in.

Unfortunately, the forecast winds arrived halfway across Lunan Bay. Although OK for completing the bay crossing to Ethie Haven, it would have been foolish to attempt the next cliff section of coastline to Arbroath.

There were a few residents out in the small community at Ethie Haven. I chatted to them about my camping options. They generally have a no tent policy within and around the gardens of the cottages, but as keen sea kayakers themselves, they were prepared to make an exception for my single tent for one night. They even had an outside loo I could make use of. It was the perfect spot to make an early camp and get my wet kit dried on the now sun baked rocks above the high water line.