Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Cloud watching on a long crossing to Cara.

As we paddled north the Kintyre coast became gentler. The main road to Campbeltown follows this section of the coast and we passed an occasional house , farm or hotel.

Leaving the mainland of Kintyre on our 15km crossing to Cara, the Mull of Kintyre was now a long way behind us.

 At first we had a gentle tailwind but...

 ...the tide changed against us and as it did so the wind dropped to nothing. Ahead lay a very distant Cara backed by...

...the Paps of Jura away to the NW, I found it harder and harder to keep up as I could not pull properly with my left hand due to my injured shoulder. I began to develop really bad blisters on my right hand which was compensating.

 It was great to stop to take some photos of Islay and the cloudscapes were amazing.

 The others slowed their pace to

 accommodate me and gradually...

 ...the Mull of Cara came closer despite the increasing speed of the adverse south going tide.

Just south of Cara we saw a seal repeatedly leaping out of the water. There was a large "something else" in the water too but whether it was another sea,l or something likely to eat it, was hard to say!