Thursday 23rd July: ashore

I slept through my alarm this morning, and by the time I awoke it was a simple decision to spend the day ashore attending to chores. Paddlers sometimes compare these extended expeditions on the basis of the number of kayakers involved - the (valid) assumption being that solo trips are a bit harder - but I suspect that the degree of shore support available makes a far greater difference. The chores: of camping, eating, re-victualling, laundry, mending kit, charging electronics, passage planning, getting weather forecasts, and (no complaint intended, esteemed readers) keeping the blog up to date, all eat into time and energy reserves. Meanwhile the weather is all at sixes and sevens.
Very soon I need to make a decision: whether to round the Mull of Kintyre or take the Crinan Canal. In a perverse example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, it seems that the Health and Safety people make kayakers portage the locks of the Crinan Canal. Now heaving 100kg of boat and kit up steep, slippery grassy banks sounds pretty dangerous to me so, apart from preferring the scenery, other things being equal I'll take my chances with the Mull. If I've misunderstood, and you know that the lock-keepers can be relied on to let me lock the boat through, please speak up, as the surface pressure chart for the weekend looks atrocious!