Ebb tide in the Rhu Narrows.

Our peaceful reverie on the shores of the Gare Loch came to an end as the VHF crackled into life on channel 73 as HMS Raider asked QHM Faslane for permission to pass through the Rhu Narrows. HMS Raider is an Archer class armed fast patrol boat operated by the Royal Navy in a Force Protection role with her sister ship HMS Tracker.

As the tide had now turned it was time to make our way back to Limekiln Point where...

...we looked right then left then right again before ferrying...

...across the Narrows and the shipping channel.. As the tide was ebbing at 2 knots we crossed at quite a high angle before...

...breaking out behind the special purpose light that...

...marks the end of the tidal spit on the east side of the narrows. You can see the blip in mid channel where I stopped to take the 4th photo.

Then the ebb tide slowly but steadily carried us away from the mountains and the inner Gare Loch.

The elephant in the loch.

Once through the Rhu Narrows we paddled into the inner recesses of  the Gare Loch. After the constriction of the Narrows, the scenery opens out here and moody clouds hung low over the snow flecked mountains of Argyll. Although we were paddling on salt water, we were  completely surrounded by land. Only the 250m wide Rhu narrows connected us to the Firth of Clyde and we were 120 kilometers from the open sea at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde.

This remoteness from the sea and enclosed location was chosen to site HMS Neptune, the land based site for Britain's nuclear deterrent. We could see the base at Faslane Bay near the head of the loch.

As instructed by QHM Faslane, we kept to the west shore of the Gare Loch and although the MOD Police launches and RIBs gave us the once over with binoculars they left us in peace. We stopped for second luncheon on a little beach of...

 ...shingle and mussel shells. As we munched our sandwiches we looked over the Gareloch to the Faslane base. It was sited here to minimise the chances of a stealth attack by a Russian submarine.

Some 6,500 service and civilian personnel work at the base. By the time you add in their families you can appreciate that this base is a very significant part of the economy of the west of Scotland. Of course it doesn't make ploughshares and so it has attracted much protest from CND since it was established in the 1960's. For many years there was a big Peace Camp at the gates of the base but enthusiasm for that seems to have died out a bit over recent years.

In the late 1970's I did GP training in Helensburgh with an excellent GP called Dr Robin. He was GP to Faslane and arranged for me to get clearance to visit the base and see onboard a Repulse class Polaris carrying nuclear submarine and a smaller nuclear submarine with conventional armaments. I met a number of officers and crew and I doubt I would manage to live and work in such confined spaces for months at a time. The Repulse class submarine was cramped but the conventional submarine had a tiny living space, almost all the internal space was filled by tubes and machinery.

This is one of the current Vanguard class of Trident missile carrying nuclear submarines making her way up the Clyde to Faslane. It could be HMS Vanguard, Vigilant, Victorious or Vengeance but I don't know which. Subs like these do not have name or number plates.

One of the SNP policies, if the population in the forthcoming referendum votes for independence, is to do away with the nuclear deterrent. By nature I am a pacifist, I don't watch boxing or violent TV shows. I had my fill of street violence attending to its victims when working in Glasgow A&E departments. But I am also the first generation of my family that has not had to go and fight in a war. I have been researching my family history round about the time of First World war. Reading letters sent back from the front. Hearing about death, injury, disability and psychological trauma in the family and the loss of generations as maiden aunts' boyfriends were killed, leaves no doubt about the horrors of war. A great uncle who was left disabled and deaf after being blown up by a shell was awarded a medal for...

...meritorious service in Egypt during 1915. He went on to fight in Gallipoli where he was left for dead after the shell struck. He was so affected by what he had experienced in the war that he never discussed it afterwards and never told anyone about the medal. We only discovered about the medal 99 years later.

I believe that the presence of Faslane has helped to avert further war during the "Cold War" years and so (paradoxically as a pacifist) I support its presence. I wonder how the many thousands of people who work there will be voting in the independence referendum?

Swanning about in the Queen's Harbour.

As we paddled north towards the restricted zone at the Rhu narrows another MOS Police launch proceeded through followed by...

 ...this swan. Neither asked permission from Queen's Harbour Master, Faslane.  However, even the swan would have shown up on...

...the Queen's Harbour Master's radar!

 So we stopped before the narrows on got the VHF out...

...the regulations include: "Craft entering the Gareloch or Loch Long at any time, or if in doubt,
should contact the QHM Duty Controller on VHF Channel 73 or 01436 674321 (Extension 3555)." 

Before they were taken over, Clydeport used to have a nice PDF for recreational users with the various regulations, signals and prohibited areas in the Clyde. Unfortunately it has yet to make an appearance on the new Peelports.com website. You can download copies of both sides of the original leaflet from my public Dropbox folder here and here.

If you do not ask permission of QHM, you can expect the attention of one of the many armed MOD Police launches. The Royal Navy are very sensitive about sea kayakers in the Clyde. In the 1960's Hamish Gow used a kayak in a CND protest against Polaris nuclear submarines. He tried and climb the anchor chain of an American Navy supply ship in the Holy Loch. Later he and his wife became the first sea kayakers to paddle out to St Kilda.

The man eating heron of Rosneath pontoon...

The sign says it all really...

New Pesda Guide: Oileán –The Irish Islands Guide 2nd edition by David Walsh

This completely revised second edition of  Oileán –The Irish Islands Guide was published yesterday by Pesda Press. It covers 574 Irish Islands that can be visited by kayak or small boat. David Walsh the author has an encyclopaedic knowledge of them, he has visited 503 of them! I have not seen this edition but the first was beautifully written, informative but also capturing the spirit and essence of each island.

Sad ships and wrecks at Rosneath Pier.

We crossed Rosneath Bay in a flat calm. Another MOD Police launch  made her way slowly and steadily up to the Rhu narrows. It is not always so calm here. The Sugar  Boat is not the only wreck in these waters. In 1947, the motor launch Ocean sheltered here from atrocious wind over tide conditions off Rosneath Point. After a while she tried to round the point again but foundered and 20 people drowned.

At Rosneath Pier we came across MV Saturn. She was one of three "streaker" ferries in the Calmac Clyde fleet.

We often saw her on our sea kayaking trips. This was in January 2010 off Dunoon. Sadly she has sailed off into the sunset as far as Calmac is concerned, just like the Inverkip power station chimney which was demolished in July 2013, MV Saturn is no longer part of the Dunoon scene.

So Saturn is slowly deteriorating at Rosneath pier, how her star has faded. Now she shares a berth with the sad remains of ...

 ,,,the tank barge Furness Fisher. She was nearly 100m long and was originally built in the Netherlands in 1955 as a Rhine barge.

She was sold to a buyer in Lerwick in about 1976 but was based in Liverpool since 1982. She is currently being broken up and was only about half her original length when we saw her.

Also tied up at the Rosneath Pier was this sad old fishing boat. Ruaridh Morrison at West Coast Fishing Boats (Past and Present) thinks she is the "LK purser Zephyr built by Forbes in Sandhaven mid 70's, I'm 100 per cent sure of her builders but stand to be corrected on the name."

 We paddled under Rosneath Pier and...

...came across the ferry MV Isle of Cumbrae.

Again we have crossed wakes with the MV Isle of Cumbrae many times such as in Oban in March 2010....

...and crossing between Portavadie and Tarbert on a summer evening in June 2013. I hope she is just resting rather than waiting to be broken up.

The sea was flatter than Argyll's Bowling Green.

The calls of the Rosneath curlews were drowned out by the approaching thrum of heavy diesel engines. It was SD Reliable, an azimuth tractor drive tug, which is capable of handling the largest warships.

The tug passed quickly leaving the wooded shores of the headland at Robert Ness in silence, apart from a blackbird in early song.

The peace did not last long as a MOD Police RIB sped up the Gare Loch towards the Rhu narrows.

Ignoring a large caravan park on our left, we paddled across a glassy Rosneath Bay. Beyond the Rhu narrows, the Gare Loch was backed by the snow streaked peaks of Argyll. These are locally known as Argyll's Bowling Green but as you can see there must be a degree of irony in thus describing such a mountainous  switchback. Perhaps the eponymous Duke was so mighty that he could play bowls in the mountains? Perhaps some sarcasm was intended by implying the Duke's lands were so poor and mountainous that this lumpy ridge was his the best ground? Alternatively, the literalists argue that the name comes from a phonetic translation of  the Gaelic "Baile na Greine" (village of the sunny pasture) but that just refers to a tiny strip of land at the foot of the mountains.

I will finish by saying, without a hint of irony, that the sea was flatter than Argyll's Bowling Green.

Curlews and Guinness in Culwatty Bay.

As we passed Green Isle we were amazed by the birdlife. There were large flocks of oyster catchers and these curlews but...

...we also saw eider duck and widgeon.

In some ways I was glad for calm conditions as I had not paddled for 7 months and despite much physiotherapy my operated shoulder is still weaker than the other. After months of confinement it felt really good to be back on the water but my, it was hungry work...

...time for some luncheon.

We found a lovely cove off Culwatty Bay, which was framed by some conglomerate ledges.

As we ate our sandwiches we had a celebratory can of Guinness while we sat on a ledge with mussel shells at our feet and the calls of the curlews in our ears. It was hard to believe we were in the Upper Firth of Clyde and surrounded by towns and industry..

Our compass needles gave hardly a flicker.

 A little breeze got up as we left the wreck of the MV Captayannis and we wasted no time...

 ..in hoisting the sails. Despite low pressure all around the west coast of Scotland, the wind didn't stay or get up as hoped and sadly...

 ...it turned into a flat calm. This had its advantages as we spotted black guillemot, guilliemot and razorbills on the crossing.

We were not the only ones doing some spotting. An MOD Police launch and 4 MOD Police RIBs  had given us the once over as we crossed the shipping channel from the wreck of the Sugar boat. Their job is to escort Royal Naval vessels to and from HMS Neptune at Faslane in the Gare Loch. They also escort too curious others from the premises.

A momentary blink of sun lit up Helensburgh (from where we had embarked) but we were headed for the Rosneath peninsula where we made landfall at...

  ...MOD Rosneath at the Green Isle.  This facility offers electromagnetic signature services to ships and submarines at both 9m and 20m depths in the channel just offshore. Our compass needles gave hardly a flicker and so we passed on feeling completely un-degaussed but in need of some luncheon.

Betwixt and between two points on the Clyde.

Before we left the wreck of the MV Capytannis we savoured her fine position in the Firth of Clyde. Away to the west the Firth divides into three. On the left the exit to the open sea, Straight ahead the entrance to the Holy Loch and to the right, the entrance to Loch Long.The two points pointing together on the cardinal buoy mean it is safe to pass to its west.

The cranes of Greenock's container terminal rose into the mist to the south. Sugar refining, which brought the Sugar Boat to Greenock, began here in 1765. At one time Greenock had 12 sugar refineries but Tate and Lyle, the last, closed in 1997. Since then there have been no more sugar boats on the Clyde.

To the east lay the dark outline of Ardmore Point beyond which,.the Clyde stretches  upstream to Glasgow. Ardmore Point lies on the Highland Boundary Fault.which separates the Central Lowlands of Scotland from the Highlands. Ardmore has some very interesting geology including ancient conglomerate rocks. These are also found away...

...on Rosneath Point, which is on the opposite side of the outer entrance to the Gare Loch. The ancient rocks between the two points were cut away by the glacier which formed the Gare Loch in the relatively recent geological past.

The Highland Boundary Fault stretches right across Scotland and this view is taken from further NE along the fault. It is looking SW from the summit of Conic Hill across the islands of Loch Lomond. The fault line can be easily seen and Ardmore Point is just behind the hill beyond the islands. Both Conic Hill and the islands share the same...

...conglomerate rocks that are found at Ardmore and Rosneath Points. Conglomerate rocks were formed when Scotland was situated about the equator.The various sized pebbles that are trapped in the sedimentary sandstone are mostly greenish schist and whitish quartz.

Interestingly Loch Lomond, which is now a fresh water loch, was once a sea loch off the Firth of Clyde (just like the Gare Loch and Loch Long are today). After the last Ice Age, sea levels were higher and sea water covered the lip (that is 9m above sea level) that retainsLoch Lomond today. As sea levels dropped, Loch Lomond was cut off from the sea, isolating many shoals of marine fish. As the water gradually became fresher most of the sea fish died out but some survived and gradually evolved to live in what is now totally fresh water. These are called powan a freash water "herring" which are descended from a common salt water ancestor of present day herring in the sea. Powan are found in only a handful of lochs and lakes in the British Isles. They are only naturally found in one other Scottish loch, Loch Eck, which once connected to the Firth of Clyde through the Holy Loch. Each of the British Powan species is genetically distinct as they have been isolated from each other since they were trapped in their loch or lake.

New Pesda guide North & East Coasts of Scotland Sea Kayaking by Doug Cooper

This new Pesda Press sea kayaking guide book, North and East Coasts of Scotland will be published on 1st March 2014. It covers from Cape Wrath to Berwick upon Tweed. It is written by Doug Cooper who is Head of Paddlesports at Scotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre at Glenmore Lodge. I have not seen it yet but Doug's other two Pesda Books are classics: Scottish Sea Kayaking and  Sea Kayak Handling and Rough Water Handling.

I used to live in Dingwall and Edinburgh in the north and east of Scotland respectively and have done a fair bit of sailing and a little kayaking on this fabulous coast. Look out for Doug's book!



PS my own much delayed Pesda guide to the west and south west coasts of Scotland (from Mallaig to Gretna) is back on course. Unfortunately 5 major surgical and medical incidents since 2009 and subsequent ingestion of strong painkillers has rather blunted my creative writing but all the coastline has been paddled and all the photos have been taken and I am writing again..