"Doon the Watter" on the Clyde

As the Ayrshire coast slipped away behind us, the weather front that had come in during the night moved away south. We were left in a cold, clear northerly airstream.


We passed the south end of Little Cumbrae Island and looking north we could see the distant mountains of Argyll behind the magnificent Stevenson lighthouse with its copper dome.


We continued on a north westerly course for the island of Bute. As we cleared Little Cumbrae we could see into Millport Bay on Great Cumbrae island. At one time this was a premier holiday destination for thousands of Glasgwegian workers. Steamers raced each other from the Broomielaw wharf in the heart of Glasgow to the piers on the Clyde resorts. It was known as going "doon the watter". The holidaymakers moved on to Blackpool, then the Costas and Florida leaving Millport as a sleepy little place, even in the height of summer.

18/03/2008

Portencross Castle

We left from beneath the ancient walls of Portencross castle.


The first leg of our trip involved crossing to the Little Cumbrae island.

18/03/2008

Winter Sannox sojurn

It was not a very promising start. Snow showers were rattling through the Glen Sannox Hills on Arran.


Sometimes it pays to keep going. It was still bitterly cold but the sun came out. We enjoyed one of the the most scenic paddles the Earth has to offer. The launch spot was less than an hour's drive from Glasgow. I have said it before....we live in sea kayaking heaven.


A jolly little 32km winter warm up then the ferry home. We went straight to the restaurant and had chicken curry rice and chips. Well I did say it was Scotland!

18/04/2008

An unexpected swim.

A force 6 NE wind was blowing down the loch and whipping a frenzy of white horses over its dark cold waters. It is the end of the Scottish winter but the summits of the mountains on Arran and the Galloway hills were still shrouded in a white covering of snow.

Despite the cold we were sweating in our high tech clothing as we battled into the teeth of the wind. All three of us were wearing helmets which shows how seriously we were taking the conditions. We were making slow but steady progress when all of a sudden Tony went over.

He disappeared from sight under the dark water. He had instinctively gone into the roll position but it failed and he was unseated. After what seemed like an age, he eventually surfaced. He was gasping with the cold cold and he couldn't get out of the water. Mike and I manouvered into position on either side of him and we each grabbed a shoulder strap and hauled him out like a fish. Water spewed from his nose, his mouth and his helmet but thank God he was still breathing, though he had completely lost the power of speech.

All the high tech windproof clothing and fleece was completely saturated with icy water. The NE wind chilled him to the marrow. It was a serious situation. Tony was already hypothermic and we were 28km from the nearest shore at Lendalfoot on the Firth of Clyde.

How did we get out of this mess and get ourselves home from this Scottish version of Deep Trouble?

Please scroll down for more....

Better Days #3

This old fishing boat has seen better days, her still stout timbers are now part of the sea.

In the county of Argyll, on Scotland's west coast, Loch Sween cuts deep inland from the tidal waters of the Sound of Jura. At its head, a dog leg leads into the hidden recesses of Caol Scotnish, a thin ribbon of the sea which penetrates deep into a land shrouded in mosses and oaks.


The shores are steep and rocky and the oaks lean over the sea dipping their leaves in salt water at high tide. We visited on a typical west coast day, the rain was running from leaf to leaf with the drips gathering in size as they went.


Wending our way under dipping and dripping branches we came across this forlorn old fishing boat.


She was just about as far from her old fishing grounds as was possible to get and still be in the realm of the sea. Now instead of her hull rising and falling over ocean swells, the tides rise and fall over her planking. Strands of bladder wrack are left hanging from her hull as the tide recedes.

Go on, get out there, enjoy your better days while you are able.

19/09/2004

Better Days #2

Maidens Harbour is protected from the sea by the rocky Maidens reef. In summer it is full of recreational boats but when a chill eastern wind blows in winter, only this old work boat lists and strains at her moorings. She is tethered with knotted scraps of rope and she is lying low in the water as her hull is flooded with rain and sea spray.

Despite her neglect she still floats, carrying the pride of the craftsmen who sweated her fine curves and lines from planks of stout wood and the men who fished her on stormy waters.

Those were better days, they were proud days.

09/02/2008

Primus EtaPower EF integrated stove and pan review

The Primus EtaPower EF integrated stove and pan.



Introduction
I first became interested in camping stoves with heat exchangers after a windy week in North Uist and Boreray in the Outer Hebrides. It was so windy and it took so long to heat anything that we ran out of gas. Fortunately we found where some peats had been left to dry. There were a few scraps of dry peat left, where the stacks had been built, to keep us going….

Then the JetBoil came along but as its name suggests, it is only really suited to boiling. The Primus EtaPower EF is the most recent development of this type of stove. Primus are a well established company with excellent after sales support. I still have, in working order, a 90 year old Primus half pint paraffin stove, which I inherited from my great uncle. I recently got spare lead and leather washers from Tiso.


Design
The Primus EtaPower is an extremely well thought out integrated design which is made from very high quality materials. It is a combination of a burner unit/base, windshield, pot, lid/frying pan handle, wiping cloth and insulated carry case. The whole thing packs into the cylindrical carry case which measures 22cm diameter by 12.5cm deep and weighs 850g. This means it will fit through the 24cm round hatch covers fitted on many sea kayaks.

Assembly
It is very easy to assemble. The burner unit including hose and piezo ignition can be detached from the base for transport but I usually leave it assembled. (Unless I decide to take a second 1l pot, which will fit inside the standard pot but it then is fiddlier to fit the burner/base combination inside the smaller pot without removing the burner from the base.) The base sits very low, directly on the ground because unlike other heat exchanger stoves which screw directly onto the gas cylinder, this stove has a hose which runs to the separate gas cylinder. This low position of the burner could burn an inflammable surface so you would need to be careful and not use the stove on a bothy table or dry grass. Once the windscreen is clipped to the base/burner unit, you can fold out three serrated pot supports. You can use the stove with bigger pots than that supplied but then you cannot use the windshield. Neither can you use the windshield for frying in the lid which doubles up as a frying pan.

The pot and lid
The 2.1l pot is made from hard anodised aluminium with a heat exchanger permanently fixed to the bottom. The internal diameter of the heat exchanger ring is 10cm so you could still use the EtaPower pot with other stoves in the unlikely event of a burner failure. The pot has a durable and effective non-stick coating. The pot handle looks pretty standard until you notice the little rubber pads inside the jaws which prevent scratching of the non stick coating! What attention to detail. The pot handle will not lift the tight fitting lid if you invert over the pot for boiling but the supplied cloth is big enough to use and stop burning your fingers. This is a further demonstration of the thought that has gone into the usability of this product. Only then will you discover you are still one step behind the designers! If you put the lid on the pot right way up, there is just enough bevel at its base to secure it inside the pot rim. In this position you can use the pot handle and you could keep a fried steak onions and mushrooms warm while you cook some other vegetables in the pot. If cooking something like porridge, you can boil it up then put the pot into the insulated carrying case, the case even has a dip on the side so that the handle fits in. You can then zip on the lid to let the porridge continue to cook for a few minutes saving more gas. When using this stove with the lid as a frying pan, you need to be careful not to turn the heat up full or you will warp the lid! However, this should not be a problem as the burner is so controllable.



If I am on my own I usually eat directly out of the pot to save dirtying a plate. I use a plastic spoon to avoid scraping the non stick coating. If you do this and hold the pot with the handle, you will find the heat exchanger now works in reverse and the wind will cool your meal very quickly. The solution is simple, put the pot in the insulated case. You can now enjoy your meal at a leisurely pace and it stays warm unlike your friends who are bolting their food off their plates before it get cold.

The burner and cylinder
The gas cylinder does not have a regulator like the MSR integrated stove but because it is on a long hose, you have several advantages. First is that the low height lends stability. Second, in a frosty morning you can turn the cylinder upside down to increase performance. Third, you can warm a little water in a separate pot then sit the gas cylinder in this to increase performance for the main cooking session. The piezo ignition works well except if it gets damp, when three separate examples of the stove failed to ignite, so matches or a lighter are still a good idea to carry. At full power the stove puts out 2kW of power which is pretty impressive but the flame is very controllable for simmering and so unlike a JetBoil you can use it for thick soups or stew. The wind shield and heat exchanger are so efficient that if you cup your hands round the pot with the burner fully on, you can hardly feel any heat.


Performance in the field compared with a conventional stove
This stove really works in a wind. I still got realistic boil times of just over 3 minutes per litre of water in breezy conditions when a JetBoil was seriously down on performance. Not only do you get short boil times, this stove is amazingly frugal with gas. So far I have used a single 450g cylinder pf Primus power gas which is a propane/isobutane/butane mix. I have used it for 10 nights’ camping for one person. Breakfasts were hot porridge and hot drink, lunches were hot drink and half the lunches had fried mackerel or sausage as well, evening meals were hot drink, hot soup and sachet of stew with quick cook rice or potato powder. I boiled or near boiled about 4l of water per day. I still have 1/3 of the cylinder or 150g left!!! In the past I have used nearly 900g of gas for 10 nights which is effectively two 450g cylinders. So in real camping conditions the Primus EtaPower stove is more than three times as efficient as my lightweight MSR Pocket Rocket stove used with a folding windshield and a hard anodised pot. In the future I will probably buy 220g or even 100g cylinders to use with the Primus to save weight and space despite the higher unit cost of gas. There is room inside the pot to store these smaller cylinders so the stove really is an all in one solution.

A question of weight!
Interestingly, the gross weight of the Primus EtaPower and 220g cylinder is 1180g and the gross weight of an MSR pocket rocket with MSR Duralite 1.5l pot (and lid which cannot be used as a frying pan) and folding aluminium windshield is 1410g. Despite being lighter 16% lighter, the Primus ETA Power combo with small cylinder will boil 50% more water in real conditions than the MSR combo with the larger cylinder! (Lightweight backpackers might stick with their Pocket Rockets for an overnight camp but for extended trips, the weight of the EtaPower is balanced by the extra weight of gas cylinders that a conventional stove requires.)

Other developments
Also available is the EtaPower Trail which comes with a lid intead of the frying pan, a smaller 1.7 l pot and nylon bag instead of the insulated case. Being lighter it may have more appeal for backpackers. The EtaPower MF is a multifuel version of the gas powered EF. It should extend the appeal of this stove to those who camp in winter conditions or high altitudes.

Conclusion
How do I rate the Primus EtaPower EF stove for camping from a sea kayak? Well, I have now bought one, so I must like it but I have also continued to use it and not gone back to my other stoves. Not only that, three people who I camp with have also bought one. It must score 12/10 then! Mind you, if Primus cannot supply spares in 90 years time, I (or my descendants!) would be prepared to reduce that to 11/10!