Mission Accomplished!

51.5 km

5hrs paddling

With plans to make the most of the flooding tide, we woke early and were well underway by 7am. Setting off at low water had the obvious disadvantage of a long way to trolley the boats before we found the water. The plan was to catch the flood, shoot past Silloth and finally reach Beaumont, where we finished our Eden descent just as the tide was at its highest.

Once afloat we paddled off into an eerie mist, keeping well offshore to avoid extensive sandbanks. The sea was completely flat, land was out of sight and it was really quite difficult to paddle on a compass course with no features to act as reference. The GPS showed that we were being carried along nicely at speeds varying from 8km/h to 19km/h.

Just after passing Port Carlisle we caught up with the flooding tide and found ourselves surfing a very small bore. It was a bit odd to be surfing a wave with the bow of the boat hovering over sand, but it added to the interest and kept us moving in the right direction.

It wasn't long before we were in the river channel paddling against gentle flow, past Rockcliffe and on to Beaumont, our intended finish where we found Jimski waiting armed with the biggest camera I have ever seen.

Is this mission accomplished? Water levels were low in the rivers at the start of the week so we didn't start quite as high up as planned. The gap between where we started on the two rivers is 16km as the crow flies, and a little longer by boat or walking. In all we have paddled the greater part of two fantastic rivers and had a wonderful 4 days on the sea. We have covered a total of 340 km. Yes, I think it's mission accomplished.