Torrisdale Bay in the Kilbrannan Sound.

So sooner had we turned south from the rusting piles of Carradale than this amazing view opened up; right down the Kilbrannan Sound to Ailsa Craig (44km away) and the distant Ayrshire coast behind.


Carradale Point has the remains of an Iron Age vitrefied fort on its summit. I wonder what its residents would have made of Irn-Bru?


Carradale Point shelters the broad sandy sweep of Carradale Bay.


By now we were ready for a luncheon and we landed on this lovely shingle beach at the foot of the mountains and backed by a Caledonian pine forest.


From Torrisdale Bay we looked out onto the mountains of Arran...


... and Ailsa Craig while we enjoyed our simple fare finished off with Christmas cake and 18 year old Glenfiddich.

"Bru'd in Carradale from girders"

We paddled past Dougarie Point on Arran's west coast on towards the distant Kintyre peninsula. There is a raised beach round most of the circumference of Arran and it is upon this that the main road round the island and much of the habitation has been built.


We set off in beautiful sunshine but a chill northerly wind...


... brought in a front as we crossed the Kilbrannan Sound and approached Kintyre.

The windmills of the Beinn an Tuirc wind farm showed up clearly against the dark clouds on the horizon. There are many wind farms on the Kintyre peninsula and three offshore farms are planned off the west coast of Kintyre (126 turbines, 70km2), off the west coast of Islay (138 turbines, 93km2) and a huge development off the west coast of Tiree (361km2).


We made landfall at the little village of Carradale. I had a a lovely welcome to Carradale from a lady on the shore who was feeding sea gulls with New Year scraps.


We paddled up to the harbour wall. These steel piles were used to upgrade the old stone pier in 1961 and nearly 50 years of rust has created some really rich colours. An empty Irn-Bru can bobbed nearby. Having missed the local recycling bin, perhaps it was in hope of being refilled with water fortified by these girders. A solitary great northern diver paddled past, completely ignoring the bobbing can.


Inside the harbour there were only two fishing boats, I assume the rest of the prawn fleet was out at sea. Back in the 1960's the fishing fleet would have been tied up, five boats abreast right along the pier. The herring shoals which gave birth to Carradale are long gone and the small fleet now fishes for Norwegian prawns which are just about the only sea life left in the Clyde. "When it's gone, it's gone" as they say in the January sales.


FV Angus Rose III had not joined the rest of the fleet. There was a generator running on board and judging by the hammering going on below, there seems to be some remedial work taking place. Her owner is Duncan "Messiah" McIntosh. She was built in Arbroath in 1969 and is 15.18m long. She is certainly a boat with character, despite being built of wood, her hull was streaked with rust.

Carradale is now a deservedly popular holiday destination. However, when approached from the sea, it does not show its best side. On one side of the harbour wall there is a set of recycling bins. On the other side there is a scrapyard piled high with rusty old iron and with attendant caravan perched precariously on the breakwater with its sewage pipe discharging straight into the sea.

We wonder why Scottish kids litter the streets and harbours with crisp bags and Irn-Bru cans.

An early morning wardrobe malfunction.

Alan, Phil and I convened at the Ardrossan ferry terminal for the Arran ferry. We arrived just after 6am for the 7am ferry. We loaded 3 kayaks onto my car and were just about to get in when Alan remembered he had forgotten his dry suit. As it was minus 10.5C when I left my house, we thought a dry suit might be a useful part of his apparel for the day. He calmly decided to drive back to Ayr to get it.


Unfortunately he missed the ferry by just 3 minutes, so Phil and I off loaded his gear and kayak at Brodick and left it for him to collect when he got off the next ferry some 2 hours and 40 minutes later. He was going to paddle round Holy Island.


In the meantime Phil and I drove over to Arran's west coast via the String road which ascends to 234m. At the top the snow was banked on either side of the road. We got a great view of Goatfell, 874m, in the pre dawn light.


Arriving on the west coast we could see Sanda and Kintyre away to the SW.


We arrived at the outflow of the Iorsa Water, under the snow covered slopes of Beinn Bharrain 717m.


The sun rose just as we got ourselves ready, we could hardly feel our fingers by this time.

Alpen glow brings the 2009 sea kayaking year to a close.

As we crossed Fairlie Roads we left the navigation buoys marking the edge of the the shipping lane behind. In the distance to the SW, Ailsa Craig still peeped over the horizon though it was 60km away. A solitary yacht was also making her way back to Largs marina.


The sun was now beginning to set over Arran and the south end of Little Cumbrae.


As we approached the marina, the yacht dropped her sails and we heard the quiet phut phut of her engine in the still air.


The stone tower of the first Little Cumbrae lighthouse was silhouetted against the setting sun as the mountains of Arran slipped into shade.


Long after sunset we spotted the tiny figures of a lone walker and dog high on the Whatside hills. The snows were lit by the most beautiful shade of alpen glow.


This brought our last paddle of 2009 to a close. It was only 27km, which was not bad for just about the shortest day of the year. It brought my running total to 890km for 2009. It was a pity I had missed 3 months paddling in the summer after injuring my knee at the start of June. Nonetheless, in the circumstances, I was delighted to have achieved such a fantastic variety of trips in 2009. It has been a pleasure to have you along on this virtual adventure together!

I owe a great deal of thanks to all my paddling friends who have literally carried me through it.

:o)

Two piers, a lion and a smokeless chimney

From Millport Bay, on Great Cumbrae's south coast, we rounded Farland Point and entered the the Fairlie Roads channel. On the far side of the channel, the bulk carrier Wah Shan had wasted no time and was now discharging her cargo of coal (at 2400 tons per hour) at the Clydeport ore terminal. The deep water pier is 1.5km long and was opened in 1979.


On the Cumbrae side, Alan paddled under the much older Keppel Pier, which was one of the piers that served Great Cumbrae until the roll on/roll off slipway was built at the north of the island. It was built from wood in 1888. Nowadays the passengers are all gone and it serves as a support for a sea surface temperature monitoring device.


Just north of Keppel Pier, Lion Rock is a basalt dyke, which forced its way through the surrounding Old Red sandstone rocks.


To the north, the Cowal mountains were all covered by snow and at sea level, the Toward lighthouse was dwarfed by the disused chimney of the mothballed Inverkip oil fired power station.


The buildings of the town of Largs gradually took shape and we were nearly home.

Palm trees and snow on Costa Clyde

We left Sheanawally Point, at the north end of Little Cumbrae, as the clouds started to lift.


We crossed The Tan to arrive at Millport, the capital of Great Cumbrae.


We basked in the sun under palm trees...


...and enjoyed breathtaking views over Millport Bay...


...to the snow covered hills of Arran.

Sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar 2010

I wish a very Happy New Year to all visitors to seakayakphoto.com. As way of a celebration of the last year and in anticipation of sea kayaking adventures yet to come, here is the 6th annual sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar from seakayakphoto.com. The above link will lead to high resolution photos in four different desktop sizes.


January. Sunset over Bernera Island and Mull from the west coast of Lismore.


February. A lone kayaker crosses Loch Leven below the winter mountains of Glen Coe.


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


April. The Cuillin of Rum from Portuairk beach, Ardnamurchan.


May. Tricky landing and launch at Portandea, Firth of Clyde.


June. Sunset over the Islands of Fleet, Solway Firth.


July. Sunset over the Outer Hebrides from the NW coast of Coll.


August. Broken knee beach, Gunna.


September. Raised beach, West Loch Tarbert, Isle of Jura.


October. Balnahard Beach, Isle of Colonsay.


November. Approaching Glen Sannox, Arran from Garroch Head, Bute.


December. Rainbow Rock, Rinns of Galloway.

A buoyant character, a guru and two malts.

As we rounded Gull point at the south end of Little Cumbrae, we literally bumped into an old friend, Richard Cree and his two companions from Garnock Canoe Club. Richard is a very buoyant character in the waters of the Scottish Canoe scene. He gives a lot of his time to help others in the sport. In addition to being current commodore of the Garnock CC, he is also the Regional Coaching Officer for Strathclyde West (and a former Director) of the Scottish Canoe Association.


After a good chat, during which the merits of clockwise or anticlockwise circumnavigations were discussed, we retired to the castle for luncheon. After medium rare roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, we had home made Christmas cake washed down by two fine malts. We started off with an 18 year old Glenfiddich which was simply superb. This was followed by a 12 year old Speyside malt. This was good but the consensus was that it would have been better to start with this and move up to the 18 year old.


We chatted with the caretaker who is employed by the new Indian owners of the island. They plan to open the island as a base for the teachings of an Indian Yog Guru Swami Ramdev. I am not sure if roast beef and whisky will be on the menu. They owners waiting at Largs Marina to see if the weather would break. The caretaker tidied recent storm debris from the jetty in preparation for their arrival. He had also been employed by the previous owner. The quad bike looked a fun way to get round the rough tracks on the island.


As we left the landing site by the castle, we could see the promised weather had broken through far to the south. Ailsa Craig shimmered on a sunny horizon.