At
Carnage Corner the waves ramped up blocking our view of the way ahead. Even from the crests, I frequently lost sight of Jim in the troughs. As the wave length shortened, Jim and I saw an opportunity to catch the others and really started to paddle hard to catch the waves for some decent surfing.
Then it happened. Just as he was applying a power stroke, two closely spaced waves lifted the bow and stern of Jim's Taran, leaving free air in the trough beneath his keel. He went over in a flash and from the wave crest, all I saw was the underside of Jim's keel. I thought a rescue would be inevitable but before I could drop the sail, Jim came back up. He was leaning heavily on a low brace, as the wave at his stern now hurled him forward.
It was a magnificent demonstration of Jim's skill and seamanship and we carried on as if nothing had happened. At this point, Jim is completely hidden in the trough just ahead of me.
The seas gradually moderated as we approached Dunure castle but I noticed that Jim was no longer sprinting to catch the waves...
...where Phil assisted our landing in a surprising size of surf that was getting into the harbour.
David pumped his boat. Not from water that had got in round Carnage Corner but from getting swamped while landing...
...at the harbour. Jim approached cautiously as it would be a shame to...
...scratch his new Taran.
In the pub, we swapped tales of monster waves and congratulated ourselves on such a fine paddle. Then Jim told everyone about his timely low brace but we were concerned to hear he had hurt his wrist.
Interesting and dramatic results from the Go-Pro Douglas,and the quality is more than acceptable.
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Hi Phil, there was no way the 5D Mk2 was coming out in those waves. These were stills captured from video on the GoPro, I think that its still photos may be even better.
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