Bums on seats round Bennane Head.

We now set off exploring...

...the wonderful coastline...

 ...that leads to Bennane Head.

Despite the shiny newness and lightweight construction of his Taran...

 ...Jim got stuck in as the swells pushed us on through...

 ...the narrowest of gaps...

...on our way to the raised beach rock platform at the foot of the Head. 

Although we rounded the Head with two hours of the flood left to run, it was flat as a pancake because of the lack of wind. It can be a very different place on the ebb tide against a SW wind (see below).

We met two SUP boarders coming the other way, who heading out to explore the Head. Chris Saunders (L) is a well known west coast kayaker and obviously enjoys this new form of paddlesport. Jim and I were not so sure. We kept our bums firmly (out of sight) on our seats.

02/05/2009

On other occasions it is less easy to keep your bum on your seat as the waves steepen into a roller-coaster as you near the Head.

The tides round Bennane Head are rather interesting. As the flood rushes up the Firth of Clyde, through the North Channel, you might expect it to flow north all the way up the Ayrshire coast. However, it hits Bennane head and splits, so south of the Head the flood is south going!

On the ebb the two streams reverse and travelling at 2.5 knots, they collide off the Head.  This disturbed water can get even rougher against a SW wind.

For kayakers, unless you hit the Head at slack water, you will need to paddle against the tide on one side of the Head or the other.

Bennane Head tidal streams:

South of Bennane Head to Finnarts point

SSW going +0425 HW Greenock 

NNE going -0140 HW Greenock 

North of Bennane Head to Lendalfoot

NNE going +0425 HW Greenock

SSW going -0140 HW Greenock

Oa, what a place to see goats and sea eagles!

 The west coast of the Mull of Oa on Islay is rockhopping heaven. We paddled through geos and...

...under waterfalls that...

...tumbled straight into the sea from the hills above. But we were not alone...

...we were being watched from both the land...

 ...and the air, by the resident feral goats and a sea eagle.

There's a kind of hush, all over the Oa tonight.

We set of from Lower Killeyan Bay and were soon weaving through a series of offshore stacks and...

...channels through the skerries. To the north of the bay, the tidal eddy was running against us even more strongly than it had before.

We took a last look back at the Mull of Oa from Sgeirean Buidhe Ghil before we took a...

...well earned rest in the shelter round the headland.

From high on the next headland our progress was watched over by...

 ...rocky gargoyles until we were hushed...

...into silence by Shhhhh rock!

Sea kayaking the SW and W coasts of Hirta, St Kilda

The SW coast of Hirta falls sheer into the sea. Despite the sea level being unchanged for about 6,000 years and being exposed to one of the greatest average wave energies in the British Isles, there is no wave cut platform though there are many geos, arches and caves.

We were paddling NW towards the gap between Soay and Hirta, where we had arranged a rendezvous with the MV Cuma.

It was too rough for even Gordon to paddle through the arch at the foot of Mullach Bi (which we had looked down upon the previous day). However, Gordon and Callum went through a gap in the skerries, which had monstrous swells breaking through.

This wasn't enough for Gordon so he found an offshore skerry with a gap...

...that had jagged teeth at the bottom. After studying it for a while, he nipped round the outside...

...then successfully powered through before...

...the swell receded revealing those teeth.

Turning a corner, we now paddled below the equally dramatic west coast of Hirta.

Ken was doing a lot of paddling in the double as Simon, up front, shouted directions as he filmed our progress.

We now approached Soay Sound and we could see Murdani in the Cuma scouting the conditions beyond the stacs.

We had arrived early because the swell had precluded detailed exploration of all the arches and caves.

Murdani had judged that the tide race through the gaps between Soay, Stac Biorach 73m, Soay Stac 61m and An Campar 270m on Hirta was not still not conducive to safe sea kayaking. So he motored over to the SE coast of Soay and prepared a lunch for us while we waited for slack water by the stacs. One by one, we paddled across Soay Sound towards the Cuma.

Ian enjoys paddling the Etain in front of Soay Stac, on the way to a luncheon stop with a difference!.

Escape from the bustle of Hirta; by sea kayak through Dun!

On the morning of 14th June, Village Bay, Hirta was a noisy, busy place. First the peace was disturbed by the rumbling diesel of L105 HMAV Arromanches arriving with a load of oil for the power station. Then the interminable Health and Safety reversing beeper of St Kilda's heavy tractor echoed round the hills.

The "beep beep beep" was then joined by a "whup whup whup" as PGD helicopters' G-PDGN (a Eurocopter AS365N Dauphin 2) brought in Qinetiq workers  and supplies for the base and prepared to take relieved workers and the mail out.

In comparison our departure was in near silence. The weather was fair but the forecast was for a front to come in from the SW by late afternoon with force 4 to 5 winds and increasing swell.

So we wasted no time and quickly passed the Dun Gap...

...on our way to Seilg Geodha. This cave system goes right through Dun and two days before we had entered from the other side  but were unable to get through the slot due to swell from the NE.

This time we got through the slot into the main cavern where we had been before but frustratingly heavy swell, this time from the SW, meant we could not get right through again!

We emerged back into the calm of Village Bay...

...then made our way in increasing swell towards...

...the Great Arch of Dun. This is looking through towards the SW. The photo makes it look as flat as a pancake but this is a huge arch and the scale swamps the size of the swell. This was bouncing back off the right hand wall and breaking over a shallow reef that lies right in the middle of the channel.

With some careful timing...

...the passage through the arch was successfully negotiated....

...and we made our way along the SW coast of Dun.

The swell increased...

...as we approached the Dun Gap. Gordon made the most of the swell wrapping round Cul Cleite. We had now completed our exploration of Dun and were about to experience the exposed SW coast of Hirta!