A rescue and two ice cream heads at Auchmithie.

On the May Bank Holiday Saturday, Maurice, Mike, Phil and I drove from Ayrshire and Glasgow to the old fishing village of Auchmithie on the Angus coast NE of Arbroath. We met Duncan and Joan who had driven over from Fife and Ian who had driven south from Aberdeenshire.

 We had paddled here quite recently and enjoyed it so much we were back for more. Until the mid 19th century Auchmithie was a thriving fishing port but the fleet moved to Arbroath when its harbour was improved. Auchmithie was the home of what is now known as the Arbroath smokie, a type of smoked haddock.

Just south of the village we came to Lud Castle a sandstone tower whose rocky ledges are the nest sites of countless sea birds, guillemots, black guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, kittiwakes, gulls and cormorants.

 This pair of guillemots caught our eye.

This one has the rarer white spectacle variant though they are all the same species and interbreed at random. They should not be confused with the spectacled guillemot which is a different species and found in the NW Pacific.

 A pair of puffins flew out of this cave

This cave had a "sky light" that let in a narrow shaft of light...

....that illuminated a patch of emerald green water in the depths of the cave..

It also had a second door that exited on the far side of the headland.

Kittiewakes added to the auditory and nasal experiences with their onomatopoeic calls and their guano.

This cave did not look very promising but...

...it extends 150m deep inside the cliff...

...where it opens into a gloup called Gaylet Pot where the roof has collapsed.

We managed to land this time, last time some big swell almost wiped us out!

The pebbles on the gloup's shore were very smooth and colourful.

It was time for first luncheon at Cove Haven below...

...these ancient red sandstone cliffs.

These sedimentary rocks were formed when Scotland was an equatorial country. The coarse layers with large water worn pebbles were formed in periods of high rainfall when huge rivers carried their deposits and dumped them in a shallow sea.

Photo courtesy of Joan Barwise.

We enjoyed our first luncheon at the head of the bay. Ian had brought some truly excellent  traditional Speyside malt.

We had this great view of the Angus coast as we chatted over our extended first luncheon. We waited for the tide to go out then come back in again so that no carrying of kayaks was necessary.

Just south of Cove Haven we came to this former sea stack called the Deil's Heid. It is now above sea level but this and many caves and arches that are now dry are evidence that once the sea was higher.

Photo courtesy of Ian Johnston.

Then it was back to more stunning caves. Just south of the Deil's Heid we entered a truly remarkable cave with an extremely narrow exit.

It was reminiscent of the caves that riddle Dun in the St Kilda archipelago.

In the many narrow channels, Phil found a great way to stop the barnacles getting to his new VE carbon paddles.

Next up was Dickmont's Den, a huge geo formed by a collapsed cave system. There is a way round the back that leads to another entrance. Phil and Maurice were so taken with it they went round twice and so now we call it Phil's Pott!

Another tight through route can be found at Seamen's Grave geo.

The Needle's E'e is an arch which is now high and dry.

After one last cave we emerged to find the wind had got up to F4. The inshore forecast for the afternoon was F4-6 southerly.

We stopped in the shelter of a tidal channel at Arbroath for second luncheon. A tour boat had the same idea.

We enjoyed ice cream in Arbroath but...

...we heard on the VHF channel 16 that a yacht was in distress a mile off shore. I got an ice cream head trying to finish my ice cream too quickly.

The yacht in difficulties had dropped its sails due to the increasing wind and started its engine. Its propeller got tangled in a long piece of rope attached to a buoy. The yacht was stuck fast. Ian did a superb job communicating with Aberdeen coastguard and the yacht. Ian and I paddled out to see if we could cut her free so she could sail. After a real high energy paddle into the F4 wind and with a 1.5knot cross tide  We almost reached the yacht but the RNLI Arbroath allweather and inshore lifeboats just beat us to it. They thanked us and wished us a safe passage to Auchmithie.

Clouds had gathered and the sea was now very lumpy with the ebb tide against the wind but Ian and I had a most enjoyable paddle back to the others who were making their way up the coast. At each headland there was a small tiderace where we experienced bumpy seas. Off the headland at Lud Castle it was particularly rough. It was a surreal situation as we paddled through rafts of guillemots and razorbills that were quite unconcerned by either our passage or the rough conditions.

Only 3 out of the 7 of us had sails so to avoid splitting the party we did not use them until near the end when we were in the relative shelter of Lud Castle.

Once the sails were up, Phil and I caught some decent waves and got the speed up to 20.9km/hr. To finish off a really great day. Ian, Mike and myself did some rescue and rolling practice. I did 10 rolls on each side and ended up with my second ice cream head of the day (the water was only 8C). So that's my rolling practice done for another year.

We might only have done 15km but everything about this day was superlative, not least the exceptionally fine company!

For the full 3D trivision blogging experience you can read Duncan's account here:

Perfect Auchmithie: Paddling back...inside the planet.
Ice cream on deck...and a rescue operation on the North Sea.

and Ian's account here:

An Angus congregation.
Sea kayaking under the farmland of Angus.
Luncheon in a lost world.
Narrow places - exploring the geos of the Angus coast.

A Rum do of geos, boulders and apparently yummy kelp.

 By the time Ian and I got on the water at the Loch Scresort pier on Rum it...

 ...was nearly 12:30. At first we could only see the distant mainland beyond the mouth of the loch but...

 ...soon we could see the distinctive outline of Eigg. However, we were going to leave Eigg for another day and as we...

 ...left the enclosure of Loch Scresort, we turned left to paddle round the north coast of Rum. The Cuillin of Skye dominated the northern horizon.

 The coast consists of low cliffs and the sea is either blue if paddling over kelp and rock or...

 ...turquoise if paddling over sand.

 We took our first break on the delightful sands of Camas Pliasaig as...

 ...the MV Loch Nevis was returning from Canna.

 As we paddled on everything grew larger like this enormous geo and...

 ...this huge boulder beach that had been modelled into a series of terraces and mounds by winter storms.

As we rounded the entrance to this bay we startled a red deer hind and her calf from last year. They had been feeding on kelp at low water and bounded away in a shower of spray as their ears swivelled round to focus on the noise of our paddles. Coastal populations of red deer and reindeer feed on kelp when there is insufficient grazing on land.  Ian and I don't like startling wildlife, particularly in winter, but we were certainly not expecting to see deer feeding up to their knees in sea water! The real issue is not Ian and I startling two deer but why is the population of deer on Rum apparently starving and eating kelp. Maybe they like the stuff (though I have not seen deer eating kelp in summer) or maybe there are too many deer on Rum?

Portandea, any port in a storm.

Although the geology changed south of Currarie Port on Ayrshire's Atlantic coast, the interest continued unabated. Below the dark cliffs of Craigangal, we explored geo...

...after geo until...

...we came to the huge geo of Brackness Hole. After this there was even better rockhopping as the swell slowly increased. I couldn't resist chucking the Delphin into every gap. Its robust construction and my bracing skills got well tested so there are no more photos until we arrived at...

...the sheltered cove of Portandea. This part of of Ayrshire is the Glenapp Estate, which belongs to the Inchcape family. In the 1920's they built a holiday bungalow on the flat ground above the beach. In recent years it had become increasingly damaged by both the weather and vandalism, so I was not particularly surprised to see that it had recently been demolished and the rubble removed. A new road has been cut down to the cove on the track of the original footpath. A water pipe and electricity cable have been laid, so I expect the bungalow will be rebuilt. I hope it remains free from vandalism.

Once landed, victuals for third luncheon were unloaded from the kayaks.

 What a place for a luncheon stop, but a word of warning...

...Portandea is a surf trap. If you land through the surf, you need to be pretty confident in your technique to get back out. This photo was from an earlier trip on 21/05/2009 and is from the same viewpoint as the previous photo.