For richer and poorer in the Hunterston Channel.

I have not paddled on the Clyde since my mother died in July and as Sunday 16th November was forecast to be such a beautiful day I decided it was time to get back out. A trip to Little Cumbrae, Bute and The Eileans from Largs seemed in order so after a few texts I met up with regular paddling buddy Phil but also Andrew, Colin McM, Colin R and Maurice, all from my old home town of Ayr.

 We used the ebb to head down the the Hunterston channel past...

the Hun 5 starboard channel buoy,...

 ...the coal and ore terminal and...

 ...the "robbing the poor to pay the rich" offshore wind turbine test bed. This so called green scheme is funded by a tax on every citizen's power bill and subsidises multinational companies and land owners to build these expensive, inefficient and resource greedy monsters. There is nothing renewable about this industry which damages the environment and the sea bed during both construction, running not to mention disposal after their short working lives have expired.

As we drove into Largs, the Kelburn and West Kilbride windmills were all turning. Do you notice how much wind there was? They were being turned by electricity generated by the Hunterston B nuclear power station, which is just to the right of this photo. It is a common public relations stunt when it's calm. Then when it is windy they don't turn because they break or go on fire like this one at West Kilbride. What is needed is another nuclear power station station but we are unlikely to get one in Scotland while the Nationalists hold power in Edinburgh, as they are in bed with the Greens. Anyway, back to the test bed, these monster turbines are prototypes for thousands which are planned for off the west coast of the Hebrides. I really doubt the politicians and the industrialists have a clue about how much it will cost to build and maintain them in the harsh conditions out there...

Land based wind factories also have problems. They are destroying the wilderness across Scotland and developers and land owners are getting away with it because most politicians and "green" city dwellers (who all leave their lights and chargers on) don't give a monkey's cuss about the countryside.

Wind farms represent the biggest redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich in this country since the Norman invasion of 1066. (Even that proto-nationalist, Robert the Bruce, was a Norman!)

Talking of the rich, this lovely little ship, the MV Hebridean Princess, was anchored in Millport Bay. She was built in 1964 in Aberdeen and as MV Columba served as a ferry on the Inner and Outer Hebrides for what would become Calmac. When she was retired  in 1988 she was the last Calmac ferry to load cars with a hoist. She was bought by Hebridean Island Cruises who operate her as a luxury cruise  ship for 50 passengers. A double cabin in peak season will cost you well over £1000 per night. Since the Royal Yacht Britannia was retired, the Queen has chartered the Hebridean Princess several times for Royal cruise parties. I would love to go on a week's cruise on her but don't have the spare cash. I had better go and switch the heating off and start saving.

Light my fire, on Gigha.

Nothing beats a fire on a wild camp but the machair on so many beautiful campsites is scarred by charred circles surrounded by blackened stones. Everyone seems to set up a new fire ring so the beach is scarred not just once but multiple times. It is much better to build a fire well down the beach so that the next tide sweeps it clean. We don't bother with a circle of stones.

Last year's bracken fronds make great tinder but it can be useful to have some cotton wool balls or pads in case things are damp. You can use a match or, as in this case, create sparks from a flint.

 Soon you will have a lovely fire to bake potatoes in and to...

...while away the hours until sunset.

Relationship between sea kayaking and the environment study.

Increasing numbers of participants in sea kayaking may be affecting the environment of the places we visit. There has been special concern raised about "honey pot" areas such as the Sound of Arisaig, which are also much used by commercial operators. For its size, Scotland has an enormous coastline and there should be more than enough space for all. Most sea kayakers think sea kayaking is environmentally friendly but if you see a flight of waders rise when you pass, think of the energy cost to their survival, especially in winter. Then think of the cost when other sea kayaking parties do the same to the same flock of birds time and time again.

A Scottish sea kayaker is doing a masters level study into the relationship between sea kayaking and the environment. Part of this study includes a questionairre that anyone who has paddled in British waters in 2012 can complete and contribute to the research. The questionnaire can be found here.

The SSSI coastline of Culzean

The magnificent structure of the castle dominates the great Ayrshire estate of Culzean. The coastline extends for 5km from Maidens Bay in the south to Croy Bay in the north. The coast is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. It has many igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic geological features, which create varied environments within a short distance and as a result, it is rich in marine and terrestrial plant and animal life.

The whole estate is now managed as a Country Park by the National Trust of Scotland. I have a particular attachment to this place. In the early seventies I worked as a volunteer conservation worker when the Park was being established. I was then very fortunate in spending my summer holidays from university as a seasonal ranger naturalist. Happy days in a fantastic environment working with great colleagues!

27/04/2008

Melting glaciers, kayaks, interconnectors and ships.

On our journey south along Ayrshire's Atlantic coast, the volcanic cliffs are breached in only one place. The low winter sun played a warming light on Curarrie Port but the air was icy cold. The wooded glen follows the line of a geological fault but the tiny present day Shallochwreck Burn is not big enough to have cut the deep glen. However, at the end of the last ice age, it would have been a raging torrent carrying melt water from the glaciers of Galloway to the sea.


Currarie port is just about the only landing spot in 10km of this rocky coastline. Even so surf often breaks heavily on it and you need to be prepared for a cockpit full of water on launching or landing. I do love the fine lines of the Valley Nordkapp LV hull. I just wish it had a Rockpool cockpit!


Northern Ireland Energy Holdings.
In 2001/02 the construction of the Moyle Interconnector allowed the export of electricity from Scotland to Ireland. The route of the 500MW cables also took advantage of this breach in the cliffs. Fortunately there is no trace of the excavations.


Just offshore from Currarie Port this mystery ship loomed out of the sea mist. Her course was much closer inshore than the normal shipping channel. She was flying no flags to identify her origin. The large crane may be for lifting and lowering a submersible. Perhaps she is a cable inspection vessel?

One way or another, lots of things today are linked to a meting glacier 10,000 years ago!

21/12/2007

P.S. Stuart A. has kindly identified the ship and her role:

"The ship is the MV PHAROS which belongs to the Northern Lighthouse Board. She is used for the maintenance of navigational marks - hence the crane for lifting large buoys, etc. and the reason why she was off the beaten track."

The NLV Pharos came into service in March 2007. She was built in Poland. Her smaller sister ship is the NLV Pole Star. She was commissioned in 2000 and was built by Ferguson's on the Clyde.

A tale of lamb chops, coal, caesium, sand, fog, wind mills, government and the environment.

One of my favourite launch spots on the Solway Firth is Dhoon shore on Goat Well Bay. Today I learned from BBC News that SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) are investigating the sands for any evidence of radioactive contamination from the Sellafield nuclear plant on the other side of the Solway.

I have no strong feelings against nuclear power but I do expect the operators to run a tight ship and there have been lots of careless lapses both in the UK and elsewhere. There are areas of the Ayrshire and Galloway hills (north of the Solway) where sheep and lambs are still not fit for human consumption due to radioactive caesium fall out from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.


Elsewhere today, 5,000 Shetland sheep have been slaughtered and buried. They were intended for export to England in the autumn for lamb chops but a government research lab leaked foot and mouth virus. The resulting restrictions on animal movement meant they had to stay on Shetland and now there is no pasture left to feed them.


Now it is not sheep but the wind that is farmed in these hills. Despite the government's recent enthusiasm for wind turbines (and there is a huge offshore development currently being constructed in the Solway) I cannot see that these will meet all our energy needs. Monday dawned in Scotland under clear cold and windless skies.

Cycling through the wind farm in the foggy but clean air of Sunday brought back memories of the smogs of the 1950's caused by burning coal for our energy needs. Of course all the cheap Chinese manufactured goods that are flooding into western Christmas stockings have been made by burning coal but that's on the other side of the world. Isn't it?

Adventure begins at home!

At the weekend I got thinking about adventure on the water. In Scotland we have what must be some of the best paddling in the world, mostly within a day's drive/ferry trip from the main cities.

On Sunday we paddled past three ancient castles, old harbours, small coves, wide surf beaches, caves, stacks, headlands and waterfalls plunging off cliffs into the sea. We had great views of an ancient volcanic island rising sheer out of the sea and the western horizon was filled with another island's lofty granite ridges disappearing into the clouds. Seals followed us while the air was filled with flocks of oyster catchers and sandpipers. Curlews, herons, geese, mallard ducks and swans were feeding round the shoreline and rafts of eider duck were forming offshore.

The waters ranged from flat calm (where we were sheltered from the southerly winds of up to force 5) to quite interesting round the headlands. There was even a pub that serves dry suited thirsty paddlers at the half way point! All in all just about a perfect days paddling. Had we driven far? Had we flown to another land? Had we burned large amounts of precious hydrocarbons getting to this exotic location? Well the photo above is just 50km from my front door and our landing spot was 30 minutes drive from home.

I guess the message is that we do not always have to traverse the planet to look for adventure, sometimes its on your own doorstep. The other side of this coin is that you should never become complacent sea kayaking on your home waters. As soon as you leave the beach you enter another world and you should be prepared for adventure. All my unexpected "epics" have been on home waters on the Firth of Clyde.

Cailean and Michael have also written (more timely posts) on environmental themes, I meant to post this yesterday but was up all night preparing documents for work.

Blog Action Day was yesterday!

A national Marine Park for Scotland.

Staffa

Staffa is an island of volcanic origin with its basalt colums and melodious Fingal's cave, which inspired Mendelssohn to write Hebridean Overture. It is now at the heart of an area proposed for Scotland's first National Marine Park: the Argyll Islands and Coast.


Proposed area of the Argyll Islands and Coast National Marine Park.

If you ever get stuck in a pub with a a bunch of Scots, and they guess from your accent that you come from elsewhere, they will soon tell you that Scots invented just about anything of importance in the world: modern economics, steam engine, iron ships, anaesthetics, antibiotics, medical ultrasound, telephone, TV, IrnBru and most other things besides, including conservation of wild places. Conservation of wild places? Well The Sierra Club, the world's first environmental protection organisation, was founded in San Fransisco in 1892 by a Scot, John Muir.

Unfortunately Muir's homeland was less receptive to his ideas and the John Muir Trust charity was not established until 1983. Scotland's first National Park, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, was set up as recently as 2002.


Loch Lomond National Park

I think Muir would have been disappointed not only by the long delay in its establishment but in the direction it has taken. I stand to be corrected, but many people see it restricting established residents who want to put a dormer window in their roof whilst encouraging big businesses to build golf courses, hotels and timeshares that few locals can afford. While they have been busy doing that they have done nothing but encourage that essential component of any national park: the jet ski. It is hardly surprising then that the Argyll fishermen and crofters are concerned in case a Marine Park is imposed upon them. Ian MacKinnon, a local fisherman, said on BBC Scotland tonight "The local referendum we are seeking is not to block the National Park, it's to make sure that the National Park goes ahead in the right place. A place where the community, who will have to live with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, support it." Ian is a born diplomat, what a polite way of saying "get stuffed!"

Don't get me wrong, I am all for a National Marine Park. One that has the interests of the environment, the locals and visitors to the fore. Let's just leave big business, golf courses and time shares out of the equation.

Cuan Sound.

One of the most fun things to do in a sea kayak is to play in a nice tidal race. Between the islands of Seil and Luing lies the narrow Cuan Sound.



The flood tide is compressed as it travels up the great Sound of Jura and through Shuna Sound until it squirts out through the Cuan sound at up to 15km/hour.



As the tide turns the flow reverses and unlike the tide in more open waters it reaches maximum speed very shortly after turning.



In a recent post about wind farms Iona commented that tidal power is efficient and less intrusive. The Cuan Sound is one of the sites under consideration for a tidal barrage or fence to generate electricity.

We enjoy the Cuan Sound while it is still a free ride through!

Wanted: Mink Men!

Mink on Bhacsaigh, Loch Roag.

For the attention of non vegan, unemployed sea kayakers! Scottish Natural Heritage seek persons with the following skills:

• Boat handling skills.
• Experience with firearms.
• Ability to walk over moorland between 8-20 kilometres per day.
• Good knowledge of the Western Isles.
• Experience of using working dogs.
  

Successful applicants will take part in the eradication of the mink from the Western Isles. Natives of North America, these relatives of the weasel escaped from fur farms in the 1960's and 70's. They have spread throughout the islands as they are strong swimmers and are ruthless predators of ground nesting birds. A programme of eradication was started in 2001.


Mink trap on Berneray.

I can proudly hold up my head and say that I have played a small but vital part in this public service. During 2004 we were camped on Boreray. In exchange for some fresh water, I did a favour for the island's sole resident Jerry. I transported a dead mink to North Uist so that he could claim his bounty. It was a very stinky minky.


Boreray, sea kayaking paradise.

Imagine you are at the edge of the sea on a day when it is difficult to say where the land ends and the sea begins and where the sea ends and the sky begins. Sea kayaking lets you explore these and your own boundaries and broadens your horizons. Sea kayaking is the new mountaineering.

Return of the white tailed sea eagle.

This rather poor photo can only hint at the magnificence of the sight of a pair of white tailed sea eagles wheeling in the sky off the wild west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Sea eagles were persecuted in Scotland and became extinct in the 19th century. In 1975 birds from Scandinavia were reintroduced to Rum in the Inner Hebrides. They have slowly spread and this year there were 33 breeding pairs and 29 chicks were successfully fledged.

The west coast of Harris, what a place to paddle!

What was once common and taken for granted.

Common blue, butterfly.

While on the machair at Uig, Isle of Lewis, I spotted lots of common blue butterflies. These were once a common sight on grasslands throughout the UK but intensive farming has greatly restricted their habitat and numbers. Thankfully the Lewis machair had remained unchanged for centuries prior to this July day. It was very windy and the grass it was perched on was waving about. This meant I could not drop the shutter speed enough to get really good depth of field for a crisp photo.

In the background, I heard the "croak croak" of the corncrake. This bird is another once common species which is just hanging on in the fringes of the country.

Sea kayaking takes us to special places. We have two responsibilities. First of all we should not harm these places and secondly we should do our best to ensure their future survival. It is encouraging to see local inhabitants developing businesses that exploit the tourism benefit of a pristine environment.

There are proposals to build two huge wind farms in Scotland. Both would be bigger than any other land wind farm in Europe. One is near where I live on the SE of Glasgow. The other is not far from Uig in Lewis. I am completely in favour of the one near Glasgow.

The Lewis one is very difficult with many pros and cons. Lewis is already self sufficient in electricity generated from hydro electricity so the power will need to be exported to the mainland. They plan a new grid to the central lowlands where the cities are but Scotland also exports electricity so this new power will need to be transmitted a long way to where it will be finally used. A lot of power will be lost through the cables. Jobs will be created during construction and crofters will be able to rent the land which otherwise generates little income. New roads and heavy construction will need to encroach on one of the last wildernesses in Europe.

In city offices we will be able to leave our computers on overnight.