A grey Gigha day.

We woke on Cara to the rumble of the heavy diesel engine of this work boat. it was a grey cold day and...

...we put warm thermals and cags on.

Ceanothus UL72 from Oban set off out through the Sound of Cara as did...

...we as we were going to paddle clockwise round Gigha.

 It did not take long to approach Slocan Leim at the south end of Gigha, beyond which...

 ...we entered Grob Bagh where for a moment we thought that...

 ...the sun might break through the clouds but it did not quite manage,

 In Grob Bagh there is a striking quartzite dyke called Rubha Ban which extends well into the bay.

 The Gigha community wind farm had a fourth and larger wind turbine added in 2014.

 From Grob Bagh we paddled north through...

 ...the Gigha skerries until...

 ...we entered Poll Mor.

 Ahead heads of various sizes appeared in the pool.

 We saw several otters and seals and curiously...

 ...they seemed to be quite oblivious to each other and indeed...

 ...to us. Sammy the otter was quite happy munching crabs on his back before...

...diving down for some more.

A slip under the watchful eye of Mina.

 As we started our steep descent of Ailsa Craig...

 ...I was glad that Mike and I had brought walking poles.

 Mike soon forged ahead and arrived at...

 ...the castle before Phil and I. Unfortunately my left knee dislocated twice on the way down and I had two heavy falls, which hurt my hips. However, it was marvellous to be able to be out in this wonderful place. I could have stayed home and watched telly.

As we descended the fishing fleet were trawling round and round the Craig. This is Golden Ray, B963. She is registered in Belfast but her home port is Portavogie.

 This is Ambitious, B420. She is registered in Belfast but her home port is Portavogie.

Keeping a watchful eye on all this fishing activity was MPV Minna. She was built at Ferguson's Shipyard Port Glasgow and was launched in 2003. She is 42 metres in length and has a gross tonnage of 781. She has a crew of 15, a top speed of 14 knots and is used mainly for inshore fishery enforcement tasks.

All sorts of things on the go at Brown Head, Arran.

Shortly after leaving Drumadoon Bay we passed the Rebecca R  (RX 383) which seemed to be fishing very close inshore. At first I thought she might be fishing for razor clams but I thought it strange that a small trawler registered in Rye, on the English SE coast had come all the way up here. It turns out she is a fishing research vessel used by CEFAS for young fish surveys.

We continued south towards Brown Head which is another geological sill dating from Tertiary times. The modern day road traverses a raised beach, which is now 30m above present sea level.

707 is one of three Sea King Mk5 search and rescue helicopters based at HMS Gannet in Prestwick. She did the helicopter equivalent of waggling her wings as she passed over.

 Continuing round Brown Head, signs of continuing erosion are frequent. We were not sure if this car was fully aware of what was (or was not) beneath its wheels.

 Over the millenia, large granite boulders had tumbled down the slopes and made the beaches here almost impossible to traverse.

Some larger boulders had even bounced out to sea, where they performed as convenient cormorant perches.

A congregation of thirsty seafarers at Carradale.

The day was drawing to a close as we continued down the Kintyre coast towards the fishing port of Carradale.

The Viktoria Viking was also heading in for the night. She was accompanied by the Sarah Ann a small landing craft that acts as the tender for the new fish farm north of Carradale.

Viktoria Viking is too large to enter Carradale harbour so she tied up at the lnew fish farm. Sarah Ann then ferried the crew into the harbour at Carradale.

 We had to slow our own approach to Carradale to let the trawler Avalon II (CN690)...

...enter the port in front of us. No doubt several seafarers would be making their way to the public bar at the Carradale Hotel. Sadly we would not be joining them. We still had to find somewhere to camp and it would soon be dark...

Sea kayak fishing.

Sea kayak fishing is great fun and can supplement your diet with fresh food, especially if you are away on expedition for some time. Most of us fish, Billy and myself have favoured simple hand lines. Others prefer a rod...

 ...as there is no doubt that they are more effective at catching fish...

...like this pollack.

Of course sea kayaking takes you some great locations where you can fish from the shore and then a full size rod is an even greater advantage than a hand line.

However, a full size rod can be a handful to store assemble and catch fish on a kayak so I have stuck with my hand line until now.

Tony caught the top three mackerel. I caught the bottom one!  It was time to get some new gear.

So I got some advice from Dave Dominy at AB Fishing Tackle. He suggested their kayak fishing starter kit. This has a very short one piece fibreglass rod, the Zebco Kayak King.

It is coupled with an Abu Blue Max multiplier reel and comes with jiggers, lures and line. I found the multiplier reel more difficult to learn than a spinner. This one has a magnetic brake and a friction brake to control over run of the reel and the inevitable bird's nest of line. The magnetic  brake works well but I couldn't see much effect of the friction brake. I learned to use my thumb to create a little braking effect on the reel and I have been surprised how effective this little rod is at casting from a kayak. If I want to do some trolling, I simply stuff the rod handle down the front of my BA and paddle/sail away.

It stows really easily on the foredeck, even sharing space with my Flat Earth kayak sail! I am particularly fond of fresh mackerel and have found that a good time to catch them on the Solway is about an hour into the ebb tide off the headlands on the islands at the mouth of Fleet Bay. July is the peak month for mackerel in these parts. First time out with the rod, I caught a mackerel straight away at about 7m down. Since then I have not been so lucky but the mackerel seem to have been pretty thin this August and September.

By the way, who says men can't multi-task? How about kayaking, sailing fishing and photographing just for starters?

Seeing sand eels in the shallows is a good sign, as are diving terns and gannets.

Sometimes shoals of white bait explode out of the water as the mackerel chase them. This one landed on my foredeck and was promptly employed as bait.

This mackerel was so greedy it took a hook even although it already had a sand eel in its mouth.

If we catch mackerel, we land straight away, fillet them, sprinkle with sea salt...

...and get them into the frying pan with...

...a little oil and a sprig of rosemary.

Nothing is as tasty as eating a mackerel caught 15 minutes before!