AFTER looking out from her living room and seeing Eddystone Lighthouse for many years, one Hope Cove resident is planning to kayak from there back to Hope Cove.

Jill Beavis, 65, has been training for the Eddystone to Hope Cove Challenge she has set herself, 19 miles in a kayak, with Ben Sherring, managing director of Sea Kayak Salcombe, who has been getting her ready for this huge undertaking, despite the fact that she is ‘terrified of the sea’.

Jill said she was ‘extremely nervous’ about the challenge which they hope to complete on Sunday, July 31, weather permitting.

‘We’re leaving Salcombe at 3am’, explained Jill, ‘and plan to set off from Eddystone Rock at around 5am. I’m hoping for a nice, flat, calm day with a following breeze, but you know, nothing too boring!’, she joked.

Jill has been training since September with Ben, who is a British Canoeing Five Star Guide and an International Sea Kayak Guide Association Advanced Guide, so she is in good hands. She has been spending hours on an ergonometer (think rowing machine but for a kayak), doing yoga ‘I hate it’, said Jill, playing badminton and golf and getting out on the water as much as possible to prepare her for the challenge.

Jill is an experienced adventurer, undertaking many challenges since turning 50 in aid of charities, mainly for Sense who support children and young people who are blind and deaf, including hiking across the Himalayas, Patagonia and the Atlantic Rainforests in Brazil and has swum from Burgh Island to Hope Cove.

‘I think I’ve probably raised a couple of hundred thousand pounds for Sense over the years’, Jill said, ‘This time the money I raise will be split between Sense, the Fisherman’s Reading Room in Hope Cove, of which there are only three left in the country and The Hope Cove Lifeboat.’

Jill may be known to you in other guises. She is a First Responder for Hope Cove and Salcombe area, the original Director of Fundraising for Hope Cove Life Boat, Secretary to The Fishermen’s Reading Room and Secretary to Hope Harbour Commissioners.

Explaining why she decided to take on this challenge, Jill explained that she had spent years looking at Eddystone Lighthouse from her home in Hope Cove and thought ‘that’d be fun’.

‘I mentioned it to a friend of mine who had recently moved from Salcombe to Hope Cove and he suggested I speak to Ben and he’s been stuck with me ever since’, she laughed.

Ben explained that they had a week-long weather window and the timing was all down to nature. ‘Wind is our main concern’, he said, ‘Wind brings swell and that could hinder us, the ideal conditions would be a tailwind.

‘This challenge is about stamina and fitness in the end and I have no issues with Jill in that respect. We’ve planned our food and hydration and we will both be in single sea kayaks with an offshore support boat around one or two kilometres away so it doesn’t create too much noise or swell.

‘2017 is our year of expeditions at Sea Kayak Salcombe and we train to a high levels so I have no doubt that Jill will complete this challenge without a problem.’

She is receiving huge local support and has already raised around £1,000 on her online fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Eddystone2016 and from friends and family. The Hope and Anchor Inn staff are donating their tips for July, as are the staff of Sea Kayak Salcombe and Bo’s Beach Cafe.

Jill wanted to thank everyone who has supported her in this challenge and thanked Bob Whitting who will be skippering the offshore support boat ‘Aqua Santa’.

You can find out more about the work of Sense on their website: www.sense.org.uk, The Fisherman’s Reading Room on the Hope Cove website: http://www.hopecove.com/hopecove/fishermen-room.php and The Hope Cove Lifeboat on their website: www.hopecovelifeboat.org.