Queuing up the Clyde!

As we left the dark rocks of Portencross...


...we could see the vast bulk of the Bellatrix, a 225m bulk carrier, coming up the Clyde behind us.


It looked like she was heading up the Hunterston Channel between Ayrshire and the Little Cumbrae. We were headed across this channel to the distant isle of Bute beyond.


Rather than cutting straight across, we went well up the channel towards the channel marker buoys. Big ships keep between them, so it is quite safe to sit there and wait until they pass.


It turned out that Bellatrix wanted to go up the main Firth of Clyde channel, on the far side of Little Cumbrae. We realized this when we saw the Navigo emerging from behind Little Cumbrae. The Navigo is a 142m Swedish tanker and she was the first of many ships to make her way down the Clyde that morning. Bellatrix was in for a long wait!


We were not sure if Bellatrix would so patiently wait for us, so we nipped across the channel as quickly as we could!

A new dawn for Portencross castle

After leaving two cars at Ardrossan ferry terminal, we drove 10km up the Ayrshire coast to Portencross.


It was high tide, so most of the evil, slippy rocks that characterise this shore were covered. Tony and Phil launched my kayak, then helped me into the cockpit. My recently injured knee was hurting, just at the sight of those rocks.


A lovely dawn light reflected on the little waves.


Soon we were on our way, paddling past Portencross castle, which is currently swathed in scaffolding. Centuries of weather and neglect had caused the castle walls to decay to a perilous state. It is now undergoing a restoration thanks to the Friends of Portencross Castle.

A trinity of tideraces: circumnavigation of Scarba

Circumnavigation of Scarba: a day trip of 38.5km from Crinan, October 2009.


We rush to pull the kayaks out of the clutch of the sucking white tendrils of the Corryvreckan whirlpool!

The seakayakphoto.com school of sea kayaking: lesson one, paddling in a current.

Crossing the Rubicon in the Dorus Mor

A whiter shade of pale in the Sound of Jura

Pool of the Song in the Sound of Luing

Sleeping Grey Dogs

Friends to watch over you

Free fall on Scarba

Menace hung in the windless air, even for the most daring and venturesome.

Showdown with a goat in the Corryvreckan!

Calculating slack water in the Corryvreckan

The mystery of the goats of Reisa an t-Sruith

Back for more in the Dorus Mor!

End of another Glorious Dorus Day

Crinan's pyroligneous past.

Dawn till dusk

We paddled from dawn till dusk.

Crinan's pyroligneous past.

As we entered Loch Crinan, the setting sun lit the north shore with a crimson light. The lonely farmhouse of Ardifuir nestles in a bowl in the hills. The agricultural land between it and the sea is a former raised beach.


Further into the loch we passed below the ancient walls of Duntrune castle.


We entered the shade at the head of the loch and, as we paddled through the yachts in Crinan Bay,I thought I caught a whiff of woodsmoke. A tall chimney betrays an interesting facet of sleepy Crinan's past. It was a factory for making pyroligneous acid. The process involved distilling wood and it operated between about 1840 to 1890 until the market for pyroligneous acid evaporated.

It was high tide and we pulled our boats up the little slipway in the heart of the village as darkness gathered round us. It had been a really great day. We had covered 38.5km, albeit with some tidal assistance!

End of another Glorious Dorus Day

The Sound of Jura, beyond the Dorus Mor, is a beautiful place but the tides still run strongly as the ebb from Loch Craignish mixes with that from the Dorus..


Despite her powerful engines, this fishing boat was slewed sideways several times by the strong eddies.


The temperature began to drop as the sun...


... dipped towards the western horizon, bringing to an end another Glorious Dorus Day.

Back for more in the Dorus Mor!

From Reisa an t-Sruith we were transported on a tidal conveyor belt across the Sound of Jura.


We were propelled through the Dorus Mor at 12km/hr.


We broke out into a counter eddy on the north shore of Garbh Reisa and went back for more, several times!


Once through the Dorus Mor we were on the home straight to Crinan.


To the south, the Paps of Jura soared above the dark rocks of Eilean na Cille.