Taking the rough with the smooth in the Sound of Canna.

By the time Ian and I returned to our camp site on the south side of Canna, the ebb was well established and Canna harbour was well dry both to the east and...

 ...west of the foot bridge to Sanday. This meant that we would need to launch to the west of Sanday and paddle along its exposed south shore before crossing the Sound of Canna back to Rum.

To the west of Sanday the coast is sheltered by a series of offshore skerries but in the distance big water was breaking on the rocks of An Steidh to the south of Canna. The wind had not dropped as much as we had hoped. The wind was SSE F3-4. The XC weather forecast for the afternoon at Canna was S F4 and the BBC coastal forecast for north of Ardnamurchan Point was SSW F4-5. Off the east end of Sanday the ebb tide runs SW at 4- 5 knots springs  between Canna and Rum and an E going eddy runs along the south side of Sanday to its west end, where it joins the main SW going race. To add to this the air temperature with wind chill was -5C, though the sea temperature was a balmy 7C in comparison.

We set off through the skerries to the west of Canna in the last third of the spring ebb tide. At first we were sheltered by the skerries but even so it was bitterly cold.

This is what we met as soon as we left the shelter of the reefs. A 2 meter SW swell was creating a lot of clapotis as it reflected off the cliffs and met the wind blown chop from the SSE. The east going eddy managed to stir things up a little further.

Ian and I paddled side by side so that we could keep an eye on each other. I found it impossible to take photographs. I had a head-band mounted GoPro in my forward day hatch but felt unable to get it out. I didn't want to risk rafting up with Ian as heavily loaded kayaks can be lethal to hands in those sea conditions.

There are some great caves on the south coast of Sanday but needless to say we kept well out! As we approached the west end of Sanday, the swell built up as it became compressed in the funnel between Sanday and Rum. Ahead we could see confused water where the two tidal streams met. Then we were in the thick of it with water tying to leap off the surface of the sea. Despite the waves and swell we could see and feel huge swirls in the water and sweep strokes and braces were the order of the day. For an hour the conditions had our full attention as we slowly but steadily crossed the tide race.

Half way across the Sound of Canna, we at last entered the lee of Rum. The sea conditions calmed as the Sound widened and the tide approached slack. This is the view up Glen Guirdil on Rum.  Guirdil Bay in front of the bothy was a mass of white water. We were so glad we had not spent the previous night there...we would have been trapped!

 By the time we rounded the north end of Rum, we entered another World where all was calm.

 What a contrast! We paddled into...

...the sands of Samhnan Insir where we stopped...

 ...for first luncheon and a well deserved shot of Golden Steadying Liquid.

Sadly this sea urchin did not feel quite so refreshed.

Ian's account can be read here.

Several shags, an Earth movement and a bridge too far.

Leaving Portandea, we entered Loch Ryan. The rockhopping continued to amaze us but you need to be careful. There are frequent ferries here, including high speed catamarans, and their wash can be dangerous, if you are in a tight space. This is MV European Highlander, operated by P&O. She was built in Japan and completed in 2002. She is 162.7m long, 23.4m wide and weighs 21,188 tonnes and cruises at 22.5 knots.

 As the light faded, we wended our way  through the skerries at the foot of Finnarts Hill.

 Burns tumbled down from the rocky slopes above and...

...the ledges were crowded with shags preening their new breeding plumage. A peregrine falcon perched on a rock high above. It was watching and waiting.

The cliffs of Craigantezart were vertical strata of greywacke which had been upended by some ancient upheaval of the Earth's crust.

The entrance to the cave at Garry Point is crossed by a rope bridge. It did not look safe. It is easily missed as the finish of this route is at Finnarts Bay, just round the point.

False impressions at Blackwaterfoot.

Back on the water, we set off on the third day of our circumnavigation of Arran. We caught our first glimpse of Ailsa Craig as we rounded Drumadoon Point. Mist was curling off the Craig's summit, giving the impression that it was still an active volcano.

The point was also a turning point as far as our sailing was concerned. We set off for Blackwaterfoot on a beam reach and were to continue sailing for the next 37km, all the way round to the north end of Holy Island!

We took a brief diversion into Blackwaterfoot's little harbour.  Our sailing rigs stopped dog walkers in their tracks, and even delivery van drivers waved! At high water you can enter the harbour's inner basin...

...and paddle right up under the bridge over the Black Water burn. It all looks very impressive...

...until you see it with the tide out, like this view from our visit in January 2010. The harbour is little more than a river channel.

It was still early morning and the adjacent Kinloch Hotel was not yet serving so...

...we hoisted the sails again and set off from the harbour towards Brown Head. As we rounded each headland on the southern end of Arran, the wind freed and strengthened and we sailed on an increasingly fast broad reach.

The Clyde, a river of change.

From the Kingston Bridge we continued down the River Clyde towards the Clyde Arc bridge. It was completed in 2006 by Halcrow. It is a tied bowstring arch of steel box section, which supports a precast reinforced concrete deck. From this view, the Glasgow Tower (beyond the bridge) looked like an arrow set for launch from the Arc's bow!

The Arc crosses the Clyde at an angle and is therefore, quite logically, better known by its alternative name: the "Squinty Bridge". It was built to service the growing media centre which has developed on the south bank of the Clyde.

The tower of the University of Glasgow can be seen from the now empty Finnieston Quay. At one time it would have been lined with rows of ships, several deep, which would also have extended into the now filled in Queen's dock.

The Finnieston crane now stands motionless above the river. It is the furthest upstream of several Titan cantilever cranes on the Clyde. It was used to load steam railway locomotives from the Springburn locomotive works onto ships. At the height of its industrial power, Glasgow manufactured 25% of the World's railway locomotives.

The tower was built by Cowans, Sheldon of Carlisle, on piles by Sir Willam Arrol of Glagow and the cantilever was by the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company.

Continuing down the north bank and Finnieston Quay, we approached the Clyde Auditorium, which you will be unsurprised to learn, is popularly known as the "Armadillo". It was designed by Foster and Partners and built on the site of the now filled in Queen's dock.

The Glasgow Harbour Tunnel was built in 1896 and connects Finnieston Quay on the north to Plantation Quay on the south.  Two rotundas provided a lift down to two vehicle and one passenger tunnels. This is the Plantation rotunda the Finnieston rotunda is just to the east of the crane. The vehicle tunnels were closed in the mid 20th century but the passenger tunnel remained open until 1980. The tunnel was never a financial success as it faced strong competition from the Finnieston Ferry, which had an unusual lifting vehicle deck so that it could load and off load at a vertical quay side, regardless of the height of the tide. It started service in 189o and operated until 1966.

Plantation Quay on the south bank has been renamed Pacific Quay and is now the centre of Glasgow's Digital Media Quarter. This is the Scottish Television building.

Pacific Quay is now linked to Finnieston by two footbridges. The first, Bell's Bridge, was built in 1988 to service the Glasgow Garden Festival which took place on the filled three arms of Princes Dock, which lay behind Pacific Quay. Bell's Bridge was engineered by Crough and Hogg and its two main spans are supported by cable stays from a rotating pointed tower, which opens the bridge and allows bigger ships to pass through. Until 2001 the paddle steamer Waverley regularly went through the bridge to her berth at the Broomielaw but she now berths below the bridge at Pacific Quay.

Once through Bell's Bridge, our view of Pacific Quay was dominated by the BBC Scotland building, the Glasgow Science Centre and the Glasgow Tower. At 127m high, it is Scotland's tallest building. It has a teardrop cross section and rotates 360 degrees, so that its slimmest outline faces into the wind.

The curious bulbous building behind the Science Centre is Glasgow's IMAX cinema. So far it has avoided being called the "Glasgow Blob".

We now passed under the most recent of the City centre bridges. It is the Millennium Bridge completed in 2002 and engineered by MG Bennet Associates. It is built of steel lattice supporting a sheet steel deck. Hydraulic rams lift the two centre spans to allow vessels to get further up the Clyde.

One thing is for sure, this river city has changed out of all recognition over the last 3 decades and it is changing still!

Famous for not being able to walk in a straight line.

Below the King George the Fifth bridge, the north side of the Clyde is bounded by Broomielaw quay. This was the main Glasgow terminal for passenger ships and it was from here that the World's first commercial paddle steam ship started in 1812. In later years generations of Glaswegians took their holidays "doon the water" by taking a steamer from the Broomielaw to the Clyde resorts. Now it is the home of Glasgow's International Financial Services District.

On the south bank, the Tradeston district has not fared so well. This sad old three storey Georgian villa at One Tradeston Street is the only survivor of a long terrace.

The Tradeston pedestrian  bridge was opened in 2009 with the idea of injecting some life into the area. According to Glasgow City Council, "It links the successful International Financial Services District (IFSD) with newly developing Tradeston area on the south bank and was built along with a new riverside public realm project on both banks to provide a new destination on the river". So there!

It is a steel cantilever bridge and was engineered by Halcrow.

Of course us Weegies don't call it the Tradeston bridge. Oh no, it's the Squiggly Bridge. Apparently the gentle double curve allows enough rise in the centre of the bridge for barges to pass below, without the need for steps, that the locals might trip over. It's just as well Weegies are famous for not being able to walk in a straight line.
 

Further downstream  we came to the 1970 Kingston Bridge, which carries 10 lanes of the M8 motorway, right into the heart of Glasgow. The design, which I believe is called brutal modernism, was implemented by W A Fairhurst & Partners  and is a cantilevered prestressed concrete construction. The span is 18m above the river because when it was built, the Clyde was still dredged up to the King George the Fifth bridge. Indeed, I remember redundant oil tankers being berthed upstream of the bridge in the 1970's oil crisis.

By 1990 the supporting piers were collapsing into the Clyde and, by the end of the millennium, a major engineering project was required to repair the bridge.  The deck was lifted by 20mm on huge hydraulic jacks to allow the construction of new piers without interrupting the traffic. I know the bridge quite well, I have crossed it about 12,000 times, but I hadn't seen it from this angle before.

Berthed below the Kingston Bridge is the sad remains of the old Renfrew Ferry which crossed the Clyde 8km downstream from here. It's now an entertainment venue where local bands play...

...but it used to rock to the clanking of chains by which it dragged itself across the strong currents in the Clyde. It made its last crossing in 1984.

Sea kayaking the River Clyde: Glasgow Green to the Merchant City.

On our voyage down the tidal River Clyde by sea kayak from Glasgow Green, the first bridge we came to was the riveted wrought iron Albert Bridge, built in 1871 by Bell and Millar. Through the arches, the next one downstream is the City Union Railway Bridge built in 1899.

Just downstream of the Albert Bridge, the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies is appropriately situated right on the south bank.

We paddled below the City Union Railway Bridge. It was the first steel bridge on the Clyde and carried 4 tracks into the now demolished St Enoch's station. It is a very low bridge because it was built under a now demolished higher bridge so that there would be no disruption to the rail service.

The Merchant City, an old part of Glasgow, lies north of the river here. Many of the old steeples have characteristic blue clock faces. This is the Merchants Steeple, which was built in 1665. It is all that remains of the Merchants Guild Hall and Hospital which was built from 1659 but demolished  in 1817. The merchants could watch for their ships coming up the Clyde from its high balconies. In 1873, the Briggait Fish Market was built on the site round the steeple.

We next paddled under the 1854 Victoria Bridge, which is now Glasgow's oldest surviving complete bridge. It replaced the Bishop's Bridge, which was built in 1345. This in turn was built on the site of the first recorded Glasgow bridge, the wooden "Glaskow Bryg", which was built in 1285.

On the south bank the Clyde lies the area known as the Gorbals. The imposing Georgian Carlton Place was built in the early 1800's as a speculative  attempt to create a wealthy suburb for the city's merchants on the south of the river. It failed as the city grew so quickly that the surrounding land was used to build cheap tenement slums. These housed the hordes of workers that flocked here from the impoverished Highlands and Ireland. The merchants moved west of the city as the prevailing westerly winds meant they smelled the Gorbals less frequently.

The South Portland Street Suspension Bridge is downstream from Carlton Place. It was completed in 1853 by George Martin but only the stone towers are original. the deck and hangers  were renewed in 1870 and 1926.

Behind the suspension bridge on the north bank, the Victorian Riverside House on Clyde street now stands alone, surrounded by modern buildings.

You can find out more about the Clyde from Clyde Waterfront Heritage.

Sea kayaking from a dear green place.

The following kayak posts are about sea kayaking from Glasgow Green, in the heart of the City of Glasgow, down the tidal River Clyde to Port Glasgow at the head of the Firth of Clyde.

This morning we met at the Newark Castle car park in the upper Firth of Clyde. We then ran a shuttle on the M8 motorway into the heart of Glasgow, the "dear green place".

We were bound for Glasgow Green, the oldest of the city's many parks.

It marks the upper limit of the tidal River Clyde. Above the tidal barrage is the preserve of several rowing clubs.

Below the barrage there is a solid railing fence to discourage the locals from going for a swim, especially if they are pished.

You can drive a car and park at the West Boat House. The best entrance to Glasgow Green is off Ballater Street on the "north" bank of the Clyde. There is a "no entry approved vehicles only" sign. Assume you are approved and drive through the park at 5mph with your hazard lights on (local bye-law). On a winter Sunday,  I left my car here until 17:30, well after dark, with no problem. At 09:00, when we arrived, there were about 5 rowers' cars, mine was the only one left in the evening. From talking to the rowers, they would not leave a car here after about 10pm, due to the local nocturnal wildlife.

Downstream of the barrage, there is a locked pair of yellow gates. In the past you could only paddle down the Clyde as part of a large organised group, on a specific day and an annual paddle has been held for several years now. Recently the Scottish Canoe Association has negotiated access for individual kayakers to put in below the barrage and to paddle the Cldye through Glasgow harbour to the Firth of Clyde. You can contact them for the combination for the padlock. Directly below the gate the bank is steep into deep water but 60m downstream you can launch here...

...in the corner of the Albert Bridge.

Before setting off, you should contact Clyde Estuary Control on VHF channel 12, tel: 01475726221 who will inform you of any shipping movements or whether seaplanes are expected to land/take off and warn of areas to avoid, which side of the river to follow etc..

You can download the Clydeport Marine Leisure guide from their website.

You should also contact Clyde coastguard on channel 16, tel: 01475729988 and contact them again once you are off the water. You need to carry a VHF and listen for warnings on channels 12 and 16. You also need to leave your VHF call sign with the coastguard.

Another consideration, before paddling this route, is the water level in the Clyde. In periods of heavy rain or thaw the Clyde can rise dramatically. The week before we paddled this route there was a major thaw and at Daldowie, 11km upstream of the barrage, the level was 1.4m compared with a base level of 0.2m. Down at the barrage the water was going straight over the top, creating a nasty stopper and at high tide launching would have been very dangerous down a steep bank into deep fast flowing water.

We put on when the level at Daldowie was a much more reasonable 0.4m and had little difficulty. You can monitor Clyde river levels p to 24hours previously at the Sepa website.

There is a risk of a serious bacterial infectious disease called leptospirosis or Weil's disease, which can be caused by coming in contact with fresh water contaminated by infected rats' urine. Running through a city, the Clyde has an ample share of rats so you should take precautions. Don't paddle if you have an open blister or cut. Don't let any river water get near anything you are going to eat or drink. (We normally paddle with drink bladders/tubes on deck, we didn't this time. Don't put your hands near your mouth or nose if they have been in contact with water or with grass or soil on the bank. We used alcohol gel to clean our hands before eating. You should also avoid licking your lips if water splashes on your face. We decided it would be prudent not to practice rolling in the Clyde!

The incubation period of leptospirosis is about 3 days to 3 weeks after exposure. If you develop some or all of the following: high temperature, severe headache, muscle pain, nausea, red eyes, skin rash, you should see a doctor as an emergency and say you have been paddling in the Clyde and are worried about leptospirosis.

We believe we are the first small group to make use of this new concession and it was with some anticipation that we set off below the Albert Bridge. What would we find? Some of our friends did not come fearing pollution and urban decay.