Night time in Troon harbour

In the darkness we swung round the outer harbour wall at Troon. The moon and constellation Plaedes could be seen behind the lighthouse.


From far out at sea, we had heard a strange roaring noise. It turned out to be a huge shredder which was chipping logs. This grab crane was feeding about 20 logs at a time into this tree slaughter-house. There was no fine end as bedroom furniture for these pine trees!


Recently we had seen a huge pile of logs on Portavadie pier. Perhaps it was these ones which were now being chipped. By shipping logs to Troon, the west coast roads are spared a lot of heavy timber lorry traffic.


We made paddled past the High Speed Ferry terminal and made our way into the inner harbour where the fishing fleet was unloading.


The welcoming lights of the Wee Hurry fish and chip shop can be seen on the quay. Fresh fish is cooked to order, it is well worth a visit. They serve a variety of seafood dishes including things like cullen skink soup, squat lobster-tails in spring rolls, battered langoustines and of course haddock and chips! For those with a more sophisticated palate, McCallum's Oyster Bar is right next door.


We then explored the rest of the harbour. At low tide a series of tunnels, linking the inner and outer harbour, are big enough to paddle through but do so on a falling tide! We then paddled past the Trent class RNLI lifeboat. In the distance multi coloured containers under floodlights marked the RORO freight ferry terminal for Ireland. This opened in 2001. In the 1960's this was a ship breaking quay and I remember destroyers and submarines meeting their end here.


Finally it was time to go home and we paddled round from the harbour back to the Ballast Bank. The lights of the rest of the returning fishing fleet stretched away into the darkness of the Firth of Clyde.

Please note this is a busy working harbour, even at night. Look up the P&O ferry timetable before you come and avoid ferry arrival and departure times. Fishing boats and yachts can arrive or leave at any time so keep a sharp lookout and have a bright white light on each kayak.

01/04/2009

Petition to save the clipper ship City of Adelaide.

I have previously written about the clipper City of Adelaide whose hulk lies on a slipway in Irvine on the Clyde coast. There is a real threat that she will now be broken up.

Adrian Brown of Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Preservation Trust has created a petion to 10 Downing Street for UK residents or UK expats living in South Australia.

'We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to acquire the world heritage clipper ship ‘City of Adelaide’ and offer her as a cultural gift to the people of South Australia for their 175th birthday in 2011, or to the Royal Australian Navy for its 100th Birthday also in 2011.'

He provides further details of her current situation.

The Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM), which owns the ‘City of Adelaide’, has been served notice to vacate the site where the clipper is located. The SMM cannot afford to move her and have applied to demolish her with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Preserving the clipper by gifting her to the people of South Australia would be a far nobler outcome than the international community witnessing HLF funds being used to destroy this important piece of British and Australian history. Historic Scotland describes the ‘City of Adelaide’ as a vessel of high cultural significance at international level. Eminent History Professors have described her “as the only surviving sailing ship built to give regular passenger and cargo service between Europe and Australia, she represents a whole foundation era of Australian social and economic history. It is difficult to imagine a more vital icon of the making of modern Australia and of the relationship between Britain and the Australian colonies.”

The petion can be accessed here.

Read more about Australians' view of the City of Adelaide here.

Another World on Lady Isle, just three miles from home!

Last Wednesday evening we found ourselves drifting round Lady Isle in the Firth of Clyde. Far to the SW the great rock of Ailsa Craig was merging into the twilight.


The lighthouse beam flashed white every two seconds. It was originally built in 1903 and was gas powered. It was refurbished in 2004 and converted to an electric light powered by batteries charged by solar panels. More of the early history of beacons on Lady Isle can be read here.


As we drifted round the island in the fading light Hundreds of herring and common gulls flew in from every direction to roost on the isle. When I was a member of Troon Sailing Club in the sixties and early seventies there was an annual race around the isle in dinghies. It was a fundraiser for the RNLI which has a lifeboat based in nearby Troon Harbour. In those days there was a large colony of terns on the island but these have now disappeared. Judging by the number of gulls which followed the fishing fleet into Troon, maybe the gulls came and displaced the terns when the fishing fleet moved from Ayr to Troon in 1996.


Although the isle is now rocky it was once covered with beautiful sand dunes backed by grass. Unfortunately early 19th century attempts to improve the pasture by burning the vegetation and introducing rabbits destroyed the dunes which were washed away by winter storms. There are still supposed to be rabbits on the isle but I have never seen any. Remarkably, there is a small freshwater spring on the island.


It was a wonderful atmospheric experience, with the mournful calls of the gulls filling the late evening sky above.


Slowly the lights of the Ayrshire coastal towns came on and the eastern horizon glowed with the orange of sodium lights.


It was now time to return. We lit our head torches as we did not want to be run down by the still returning fishing fleet.


Our lights made crazy reflections as the little waves danced in the darkening waters of the Firth of Clyde.


The night closed round us and we were soon in Another World, but Tony's house was less than three miles away! When sea kayaking, the adventure begins within minutes of wherever you launch from, especially here on the wonderful West Coast of Scotland!



01/04/2009

Luncheon in the banqueting hall of Little Cumbrae Castle followed by force 6 in The Tan!

Yesterday was cold, pouring wet and windy. The coastal forecast for the Upper Clyde was Force 4 SW increasing to WNW 6 by afternoon, with gusts to 37 knots. Max air temp was 6 degrees Celsius but with windchill was only -1C.

It was just the sort of day to go sea kayaking! Phil has been paddling a double for the last 4 months but has only paddled a single kayak for 3 weeks. It seemed like a good opportunity to extend his comfort zone. We assembled a little late at Fairlie on the Clyde coast, a gust of wind on the Irvine bypass had nearly caused Phil's new Quest to part company with his roof rack. Our plan was to take luncheon in the great banqueting hall of Little Cumbrae Castle!


Soon our little band was making slow but steady progress down the Fairlie Roads, into the teeth of the wind and rain.


An ebb tide against a force 4 SW wind gave some good conditions for the paddle over to Little Cumbrae.


All was calm in the lee of the island as we made our way...


...into the little bay to the north of the castle.


The castle provided fitting shelter to the cold, hungry staff of seakayakphoto.com.


We worked our way down the east of the island as we thought we had better take a look round Gull Point at the South end. Phil got his head down for the slog into the wind.


As we cleared the point, we met some interesting conditions. These impressed Phil so much that he managed to turn his kayak without falling in.


Looking back, even the high hills of Arran were obscured by great lumps of water, which were bearing rapidly down on us.


It was time for a sharp exit and we slid down the waves at high speed.


In the lee of Gull point again, Tony came over so we could check each other's GPS scores. Rats! He whopped me with his maximum speed of 16.8 Km/hr.


After a breather in the lee of Little Cumbrae we had to cross The Tan, a narrow body of water, which separates it from its greater neighbour. The west wind was whistling through the gap.


We crossed at a high ferry angle of 350 degrees. Look at the map and see how far we got blown downwind. Note the kinks in our track as the squalls hit us.


Phil made steady progress and learned how to adjust his skeg to prevent weather cocking.


Soon we were in the shelter of Millport Bay and we stopped to replenish depleted body fat reserves on the Eileans.


At first the crossing back to Fairlie was calm as we were in the lee of Great Cumbrae.


By the time we were in mid channel the wind had swung round to the NW against the now flooding tide. Again conditions were quite interesting. Unfortunately, when nearly back at Fairlie, Phil took just a tiny little swim but he held onto his paddle and we had him back in his boat in a jiffy. It was just as well a wave did it because Tony and I were going to throw him in anyway (just for educational purposes, you understand).

What an excellent day out and didn't Phil do well?! He joins a distinguished band of seakayakphoto.com staffers who have gone for a little dip off the Cumbraes...D____d, D____d, C___k and A__n!



04/04/2009

Nightfall over Lady Isle

Last Wednesday night we left work and the city behind.


We were bound for Lady Isle in the Firth of Clyde.


We launched from the Ballast Bank in Troon just as the High Speed Ferry from Northern Ireland came in. Fortunately the returning fishing fleet left smaller wakes.


They were also bound for Troon Harbour.


As the sun sank in the west, the light breeze dropped away and Lady Isle and the rocky dome of distant Ailsa Craig seemed to float on a sea of liquid gold.


The kink on our route on the way out was to slip behind the stern of the above fishing boat.

01/04/2009

Fularia Orientalis weed in Loch Fyne

As we paddled up Loch Fyne, David began to lag behind. The bottom of his boat had become coated with the sticky filaments of Fularia Orientalis. Unlike the harmless Fularia Caucasica, which is a native to our waters, this Pacific invader (also known as wireweed, japweed or Sargassum) has no natural predators in the Atlanic.


It first arrived in the Clyde in 2004 and has thrived in Loch Fyne, where it poses a real hazard to kayakers, fishermen, fish farms, oyster beds and yachtsmen. It has a predilection for growing on smooth fiberglass hulls and given good sun light, the filaments can reach 5mm in about 6 hours. This does not sound much but it makes paddling very hard work indeed.

David capsized his boat and got his pan scourer out and scrubbed the bottom of his kayak till it was gleaming. He then found his second wind and disappeared over the horizon!


Sea kayaking visitors to the Clyde (and Loch Fyne on particular) are advised to equip themselves with a scourer before setting off. Don't just get any one out the supermarket as it will be too abrasive and spoil your gel coat. Look out for the ones advertised for cleaning non stick pans. Kari-tek, the west coast sea kayaking business, can supply especially suitable large ones, these double up as bailing sponges.

Remember to keep your bottom clean. Sea kayakers could spread this unpleasant invader to further, as yet unaffected, waters.

19/03/2009

Of Kintyre buzzards and giants.

We lazed on the sands of Skipness for some time but finally, a dipping sun told us it was time to depart.


The Kintyre peninsula north of Skipness is a road-less wilderness, which tumbles from the hills into the sea. This buzzard was quite unperturbed by our passing.


Eventually we came to a sign of previous habitation. Winter storms kept carrying away the end of the wall which separated the Campbells' lands from the wilderness. Their livestock would escape each spring and be devoured by the beasts that roamed the wilderness. Eventually the Campbells approached the famous giant, Finn McCool, and asked if he could build a wall strong enough to resist the force of the winter waves.

After much deliberation (giants are not particularly quick witted) McCool said he could build such a wall but the Campbells would need to supply him with six red haired maidens, fifty buckets of mutton stew and one hundred and fifty buckets of heather ale. The Campbells agreed, the deal was sealed and McCool built his wall in just a day. He then fell asleep, partly due to his labours and partly due to the effects of a large meal and full strength heather ale. The maidens escaped quite unharmed.

McCool's wall still stands to this day.

19/03/2009