Monday, May 09, 2011

Sailing into the lee of Holy Island by sea kayak.

 From Kingscross Point we crosssed the southern entrance of Lamlash Bay to the south end of Holy Island.

 The brisk crossing was rewarded with a wonderful view from the Holy Island inner light into Lamlash Bay and the Arran mountains beyond. Since 2008 the north part of Lamlash Bay has been a protected marine reserve with a complete ban on commercial and recreational fishing. The great news is that fish, shellfish and sea weed stocks are recovering quickly after the bay had been turned into a virtual desert by scallop dredging.

The wind increased as we rounded the end of Holy Island and...

...we had great fun overtaking the waves. We hit 14km/hour here.

 The wind eased as we passed below the outer light and...

...entered the wind shadow of Holy Island. The east side of the island is a wild place with Tertiary lavas topping steep cliffs of Carboniferous red sandstone. We didn't see a soul, access was clearly too difficult for the legions of geology students that were visiting Arran on their Easter field trips.

As we approached the north end of Holy Island, Goatfell came into view again and the wind dropped. This brought to an end 37km of continuous sea kayak sailing. The final section of our round Arran trip was about to begin.