Sea kayaking hardship in Loch Fyne.

There is an excellent pub with fine food in Furnace but it was only 16:00hrs and so we decided to cross to east shore of Loch Fyne. David and I soon left Phil behind as we set off on a close reach across the loch.


Unfortunately we could not point as high as we would have liked so we dropped sails and prepared for a windward slog.


Phil was soon nowhere in sight, far behind and downwind of us. Away to the north, the windmills on the new wind farm at Clachan Flats at the head of the loch were billing round. Beinn Bhuidhe (the yellow mountain) 948m towered above the loch.


Phil was in David's kayak and had not realised that the hydroskeg/rudder does not work as a rudder when paddling at 45 degrees into a fresh wind. He ended up at least a kilometer downwind of us. To compound matters, David's "seat" had come adrift and Phil had developed David's famous sore back!.Phil was not happy when he came ashore and cursed David's boat (and all "fittings" therein) loudly. David was quite offended, as his own design flexible seating arrangements have some fame in the west coast sea kayaking world.


After a stop at Newton...


...we continued south down Loch Fyne past another roadless shore.


We were sweating a little due to the fresh head wind.


After a while we came to the ruins of 15th century Lachlan Castle, which was quite recently abondoned by its owners...


...in the 18th century, when the Lachlans moved just round the corner to the new Castle Lachlan.

The tide was out in Lachlan Bay but we made a long trek to its head. There we entered the precincts of...


Inver Cottage restaurant where we partook of some Guinness and an excellent evening meal. Phil soon recovered his composure, if not his sore back!

It's a tough place to paddle, Loch Fyne.