Portents of spiders and the early buds of March.

We made landfall on Arran under the slopes of Torr Righ Beag.

 The still waters were sparkling clear as we made our way...

 ...south along the Arran coast towards the King's Cave in which a defeated Robert the Bruce was hiding from the English during the winter of 1306/07. In his despair he watched a spider repeatedly trying to spin a web across a gap and finally succeeding. This gave him inspiration to continue the struggle for Scottish Independence and the major victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

All round Scotland and Ireland many caves claim to be the King's Cave...

 ...but this one certainly has a setting fit for a king: a sea view and a choice of rooms to boot.

As we left the caves, we paddled below cliffs that were bursting with early March buds. It is a pity that the promising heat in March has been followed by such cold windy and wet weather in April and May.

It was so still we held our breaths, not wanting to disturb the scene.

Once we were in the middle of the Kilbrannan Sound the haze lifted sufficiently to allow us a view of the mountains of Arran. We quickly got our cameras out...

...to try and capture some of the beauty of the seascape. 

There was not a breath of wind and this feather drifted lazily alongside us.

It was so still we held our breaths, not wanting to disturb the scene.

This view is looking NE up Glen Iorsa. From the left it shows Beinn Bharrain 717m, then in the distance,  Caisteil Abhasil 859m, Cir Mhor (with the Rosa Pinnacle) 799m, Beinn Tarsuinn 826m and Beinn Nuiss 792m.

In the sea below the mountains we could see porpoises breaking the surface in every direction, we even came across one that was sleeping on the surface.

We treasured these moments.

A record time, despite some trouble with the waterworks on the way.

 On Saturday afternoon, we emerged from the Dunure Inn to continue our downwind blast back to Ayr.

 The wind was now cross offshore and the resulting flat water conditions meant we could really push on.

I managed to get one blast of 19km/hr as we sped below the cliffs towards the Heads of Ayr.

Bracken Bay proved to be a convenient spot to get rid of excess fluid though it took David a little time to get his pump gushing.

 Then it was back at sea again for the final...

 ...5km dash from the Heads of Ayr...

...to Seafield. Because of the strength of the wind, we had completed the 19km trip from Maidens in 90 minutes less than our previous best kayak sailing time.

As idle as a painted ship, Upon a painted ocean.

Leaving Carradale Point on Kintyre a lovely NE breeze soon had us on our way across the Kilbrannan Sound towards...

...the dark wooded slopes of Tor Righ Beag on Arran. At 9km distant, this was just about the only landmark visible on Arran due to the haze. At first we made good progress: "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free" until...

... "The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand" Then the wind dropped and we were...

 "As idle as a painted ship,... 

...Upon a painted ocean".


With some apology to Coleridge.

Cold light of day in Carradale.

 The cold light of day slowly  stole across the grey rocks of Carradale Point.

 A hot brew slowly brought life back to our stiff limbs as we looked around...

...at where we had set up home in the dark of the previous night. There was just enough grass amongst the rocks to pitch our tents.

It was so cold we didn't waste time before getting on the water for the third day of our trip to Arran and Kintyre. Soon we had left the magnificent sands of Carradale Bay and the Kintyre peninsula behind us.

In the soup at Carnage Corner, Dunure.

Yesterday the Clyde forecast was for full sun and F3-4 W winds, which looked great for a blast from Maidens to Seafield.

When we arrived at Maidens, the Clyde didn't look very sunny, the wind was SW and my anemometer was averaging 28km/hr in the lee of Maidens harbour. Heavy squalls were blowing over the Arran mountains leaving dustings of snow on the high ridges.

The water was surprisingly unflat even while we were still in the shelter of the Maidens reefs. No sooner had we launched than Clyde coastguard issued a new gale warning. "Malin F8-9 imminent" and the inshore Clyde forecast had changed from "F3-4 W to F5-7 SW".

For some reason, I didn't take any photos at all on the incredible downwind blast across Culzean Bay and round Carnage Corner, off the headland at Dunure Point. My GPS showed that we were regularly hitting 17km/hr as we surfed down breaking waves. David had even put his spray deck on, which was just as well as several times waves broke over our decks and threatened to broach us. Fortunately, the sails are very good at keeping a kayak driving forward and resisting broaching.

Kayak sailing in these conditions can be quite exhausting at our age, so we decided to run into the shelter of Dunure, where it was a relief to get into the lee of the land. This view, towards Ailsa Craig, is looking back the way we had just come. As you can see there were some excellent kayak sailing conditions off Carnage Corner.

The Dunure Inn beckoned but it was some distance away as it was low tide. So first it was time for...

...first luncheon on the beach. David offer Phil some strawberries. At first Phil refused... "I'm still on my first course."

"Go on" said David, "treat it as an intercourse."

After first luncheon, we made our way up to the Dunure Inn for our second luncheon. The sea food bisque was delicious, there were bits of lobster floating about in my soup. It went terribly well with the Guinness. I've said it before, the Dunure Inn scores 12/10 as a sea kayaking pub.

A feeding frenzie and toasted footsies in Carradale Bay.

 As we left the harbour at Carradale, the Sun slowly sank behind...

 ...the hills of Kintyre leaving...

 ...a lovely pink afterglow...

 ...as we paddled towards the south end of Carradale Point.

Off the point, we saw an amazing display. Several porpoises had herded a shoal of fish near the surface of the sea and were feeding on them. Lots of noisy sea birds had joined in the feeding frenzy. I had never seen porpoises doing this before.

We rounded the south end of Carradale Point and turned to the north towards the wide strand of sand at its head. The campsite was still closed for winter so we were going to wild camp on the dunes behind the beach. However, lots of people were taking advantage of the unseasonal March weather and were enjoying the sunset on the beach. So...

...we found a little patch of grass on the headland that had been closely cropped by the feral goats. We soon had a fire going  under the light from the moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Across the bay, the lights of the the hamlet of Waterfoot twinkled as the fire sparked and toasted our footsies!