May is the start of the quiet half of the year. The North Atlantic lows have moved north, and the south-west of the island goes flat for days at a time. What arrives is small.
Twenty hours of daylight changes how you use a trip more than the size does. You stop planning around a two hour window and start waiting for the wind to drop, whenever that happens, including at nine in the evening. The water reaches 8°C, its first real move since October: two degrees is not much on paper and it is the difference between leaving after ninety minutes and leaving when you decide to. Full winter rubber all the same, hood included.
