A shilling, a whole horse, in Loch Creran

We set off into Loch Creran before stopping for a luncheon...


...at a rocky headland. A channel had been cleared through the rocks; we were not the first to land at this lovely spot! The low lands surrounding the outer loch...


...contrasted with the mountains, which crowded round Creran's inner recesses.


In the distance, Below Beinn Sgulaird's steep slopes, the loch narrowed at Creagan where the lands of Appin and Benderloch nearly meet.


A ferry ran across these narrows until 1903 when a railway bridge was built to carry the new railway from Oban to the Ballachulish slate quarries. At the end of the 19th century the ferry manifest showed the fares to be: a single horse, sixpence; a whole horse, a shilling; a single person, thruppence. I wonder if that means the fare for a whole person would be sixpence?

The railway bridge was designed by the same team that designed Tower Bridge in London. The railway closed in 1966 and the bridge became a foot bridge. Cars still had to drive round the head of the loch. The railway bridge was replaced in 1999 by...


...this modern road bridge.


We had timed our arrival at the narrows for the end of the in going flood. We arrived at 1350 and the ebb was not due to start until 1508 but it was neap tides and there was almost no flow.

Caolas Creagan tidal streams
in going 5knots -0520 HW Oban (0906)
out going 5knots +0025 HW Oban (1508)


We had now entered Loch Creran's hidden inner sanctum.

P&H Skeg support statement

P&H sea kayaks have just released the following statement about the warranty support for any owners who may have had trouble with the new skeg system. I have been testing three Cetus and two Cetus LV kayaks over the last year. Two had perfectly functioning skegs, one had a stiff skeg and two became so stiff they could not be operated and had to be returned to P&H. Throughout, P&H have been highly supportive as they worked to find a solution. This degree of customer support has so impressed the four staff of seakayakphoto.com (who were involved in the testing) that three of us would like to buy a Cetus/LV. Indeed, Tony ordered his on Saturday.

Here is the statement:

P &H Skeg

The P&H Rope skeg system has been in production for more than 3 years, and has mostly proved extremely reliable and made kinked wire issues a problem of the past; allowing your skeg to retract when you ground and then flex back once the water is deep enough. Indeed we are not aware that any skeg has ever broken in any impact.

However, mostly during late 2008 and up to autumn 2009 we have had a few issues with over-tight tolerances, especially on the Cetus LV and Scorpio LV, causing friction and sometimes making it very difficult to operate. Due to the few troublesome skegs we’ve seen it has taken some time to properly assess the problems, and provide fixes.

These fixes are now available under warranty. Production improvements and QC revisions have all been in place from autumn 2009 on PE production, and early 2010 on Composite production and now all skeg systems take no more than 1.5kg (3 lb) of effort to operate.

We are extremely sorry for those who have been inconvenienced and will provide fixes if paddlers will get in touch with us. In the first instance anybody with a stiff skeg should check out the instructions provided on our web site

If this doesn’t resolve the problem fill in the online form. We will then contact you to guide you through fixing the problem, and provide any replacement parts free of charge. If you do not wish to or you are unable to sort the skeg please return the kayak to us here in Runcorn or Derby, or Asheville NC in the USA, and if arranged in advance we should be able to do it whilst you wait.

Under doctor's orders

The recent hiatus in posting has been caused by a little knee surgery. Being a humble physician, I am not quite sure what the orthopaedic surgeon did, but it took twice as long as the guys who had knee replacements. However I was really quite pleased to escape the catheterisation that one fellow patient required afterwards. Indeed, I quickly sussed that the passport to an early discharge was whether you managed to get up to the toilet during the previous night. So I disconnected myself from the ever so pleasant, self administered morphine machine and attended to some partially ambulatory nocturnal ablutions. I hobbled back, past a large white board, which had patient's name in one column and EDD in another. EDD? Estimated date of death? Felt like it. Estimated date of delivery? I hope not, not at my age anyway. Estimated date of departure? Maybe, but it was still several days too far away.

On the ward round, the next morning, the consultant surgeon was explaining to his entourage, the rationale for performing a complex series of procedures (normally performed on footballers in their mid 20's) on someone who has no recall of ever being 25! "This man," he said quite clearly, "is an uber athlete". Wow, such insight!

His sidekick then asked "On a scale of 1 to 10 how much pain are you in?"

"Oh, less than 1" I whispered, through gritted teeth.

"Discharge!"

So now I am immobilised for 6 weeks, with strict instructions not to weight bear. Bloody hell, footballers in their mid twenties must be tougher than they look. Weight bear? My leg is somewhat nippy and the instructions to not weight bear seem to be ever so slightly superfluous.

I am under doctor's orders.

Loud, discordant, half naked and very hairy Celts in Loch Creran!

We continued round to the east side of Eriska. It is sheltered from the open sea and prevailing winds.


I knew there was a well known crannog on the south side of the island but I was very surprised to find another large ring of semi-submerged boulders connected to the shore by a line of boulders. It was another crannog! These were ancient artificial islands topped by dwelling houses and dating back some 5,000 years. They would have been built up with wooden stilts with a large wooden house on top. It just goes to show that you should keep your eyes open and not just do headland to headland, if you want to discover things and learn about the coast.


We then crossed to the south shore of Loch Creran and came to the old ferry jetty at South Shian. The ferry connected the lands of Benderloch to Appin on the way from Oban to Fort William. A rowing boat ferry operated here until 1948. A century before, in 1848, Lord Cockburn crossed here in his carriage. He said afterwards" These are disgraceful ferries...jerked by bad rowers, with unsafe oars, amidst a disorderly tumult of loud, discordant, half naked and very hairy Celts.."

In 1996, a 1797 copper two penny piece was discovered beside the jetty, perhaps it was intended as a fare.

In 1941 a German bomber dropped a bomb on Sgeir Caillich, the reef to the SE of the jetty. It is thought that from the air, the long thin reef looked like a camouflaged battle ship. The reef survived.


After paddling through the gap at the inshore end of the reef, we came across the 57m well ship, Ronja Nordic. She was offloading a cargo of mature live salmon at the South Shian fish processing plant. She sails under the Norwegian flag and was built in fitted out in 2008 by a yard in Norway after her hull was built in Poland.


We stopped for a second breakfast on the South Shian shore...


...and admired the view to the distant snow covered ridges of Ben Sgulaird, 937m. Our route was to take us 13km from the mouth to the head of Loch Creran which lies below the Ben.

The hidden entrance to Loch Creran

Travelling south from Port Appin we paddled below this interesting former sea stack. It has a wooded summit, steep wave cut cliffs and it sits high and dry on a raised beach which connects it to the Appin mainland.


It even has a natural arch cut by a former higher sea level.


From the sea, the wooded isle of Eriska almost completely blocks the tortuous entrance to lovely Loch Creran which lies hidden below the distant mountains.


Suddenly this barge appeared from the midst of the woods! She is the MV Rose of Lorne and was built in 1965. She ferries supplies to the Glensanda quarry which has no road access but is one of the biggest quarries in Europe. In 2008 she gained a second storey to her wheelhouse. She was contracted to transport 8 giant dump trucks from Oban to Glensanda. The captain needed to be higher to see where he was going! Normally the Rose of Lorne operates between Barcaldine in Loch Creran and Glensanda.


We now entered the winding entrance to the loch. It is fringed by great banks of gravel, which were left by the melting glacier that once carved its way to the sea here.


Once we passed the gravel and woodlands of Eriska, we began to see our way round to the hidden loch.

Little and large on the road north to Appin

Back at the beginning of February, we took the great road north again past Buchaille Etive Mor, 1022m, and through the dark recesses of Glen Coe beyond.


At Loch Linnhe we turned south and entered the lands of Appin which were controlled by the bold fortress of...


Castle Stalker sitting on its little island. On the bigger island of Shuna beyond, you can just see the tiny remains of its rather inadequate neighbour, Castle Shuna.


Soon we were kayaking out into the Lynn of Lorne...


...where we set a southerly course.

An excessive attachment to the land.

Today we enjoyed a fantastic trip to Holy Island off the east coast of Arran.


Holy Island is an ancient Christian site (St Molaise) but is currently owned by Buddhist monks. Although the "No Landing" signs have been removed (after a complaint by us to the Ayrshire and Arran Access Officer) this new sign has appeared. The monks clearly have little concept of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act. We resisted the temptation to burn the sign but will write again to the Access Officer.

The Master of Ballantrae

Soon we were at the south end the great sweep of Ballantrae Bay. There was a bitingly cold north east wind blowing...


...so it was with some relief when we finally entered the shelter of the harbour.


We did not hang around and...


...as I issued instructions, the faithful support team warmed themselves by carrying the heavy kayaks up to the cars...


...while I swanned off to take in the glorious view.


I felt just like the Master of Ballantrae, as I surveyed the...


...magnificence of Ayrshire's Atlantic coast.

A pillow for a tired sea kayaker's head

All to soon it was time to leave delightful Portandea and...


...head north again, along the lichen encrusted, yellow cliffs of Ayrshire's Atlantic coast.


Despite the fact we had just passed this way, a change in tide and direction gave new channels to explore and we soon lost each other in the maze of skerries.


Sea kayaking is a very companionable activity and we discussed in depth...


...the amazing pillow lava formations that erupted under the sea from a long extinct volcanic vent. The examples here are some of the best in the world apart from the freshly formed pillows in Hawaii.


By now we were getting tired and hungry. Time for third luncheon.

Fast birds and boats...

We continued in a southerly direction along the South Ayrshire coast leaving Ailsa Craig far behind.


We passed Dove Cove, where there are usually hundreds of rock doves. Today we saw only this fellow, a peregrine falcon, who was sitting bold as brass on his perch. I wonder what peregrines eat? (Sorry about the small image, I had my wide angle lens on at the time.)


The superb coastline continued...


...for headland after headland...



...until we came to Portandea...


...where it was time to partake of a second luncheon.


We watched the ferries enteringand leaving Loch Ryan at very scary speeds. You would need to have your wits about you to cross their path in a sea kayak.

P&H Cetus LV comparative test

We have nearly finished testing the P&H Cetus LV for Ocean Paddler magazine. We just needed some further comparative testing. Unfortunately the Cetus LV did not compare that well with this particular opposition! When up against the...


...Cetacea Delphinidae, she was well and truly outgunned. The Cetacea accelerated more quickly, was faster, more manoeuvrable, less affected by waves and wind, able to get out of the water more quickly... in fact, the only area the Cetus LV proved to be superior in, was nose diving!

Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Seakayaking desktop wallpaper calendar, March 2010.

March. Pladda from the old red sanstone slabs, Kildonan Beach, Arran.

The March calendar is now available for download here.

Curarrie Port, any port in a storm.

There are few breaches in the line of cliffs along this coast but Currarie Port is one. In 1869 the crew of the schooner Louisa had a lucky escape here. She came ashore here on the night of the second of November while sailing from Belfast to Ayr and was totally wrecked. By great good fortune all of her crew were saved. If her final course had been just 50m to either side, she would have been wrecked in deep water at the base of the cliffs and all would have been lost.


We decided the shelter of the port would make an excellent location for an early luncheon.


As we compared the lines of the P&H Cetus and Cetus LV, the skies cleared and the sun...


...warmed the rocks where we found some shelter from the chill wind. We chatted about how lucky those sailors were to end up here.


Fortified by our refreshments, we continued on our exploration of the south Ayrshire coast.