I said the motivation became clearer. It changed as the trip progressed. When we set off we had a goal for every day, but soon we realised that not always we could keep up with it. It started to put strain on the feeling of well being. While I enjoyed that we were off the water and was satisfied with distance we made, Michal was fretting that we should have been somewhere else. Fortunately this lasted him only few days. Then we decided to just “enjoy it” with few goals along the way, without which we wouldn’t finish. So it was North Cornwall by the end of May (didn’t), Scotland on 1st of June (better than expected), Aberdeen by 1st of July (almost), home(we didn’t know).
This approach gave us time and flexibility. But then it was time to finish. Once we reached English Coast, we were on a last stretch. Then, waking up on Holly Island, that morning I decided it was time to go home. We checked the distance and divided it by days left to a date. And this was what guided our paddling for the next days. It all changed to be distance driven. Making it satisfied us, not reaching it didn’t. We had three days to spare if paddling according to target. We used two, and were nervous. The days were easy, get up, pack, paddle, don’t stop at places, paddle until possible (tide, wind, light, strength), check tomorrow’s distance and weather, sleep. What, where and when we ate wasn’t important as long as we were not hungry and had enough energy.
I am glad we experienced this approach, too. It was satisfying seeing the progress and nearing of the goal. But we wouldn’t be able to keep it up during the whole trip.
