And then our boat came in, without chips!

We had landed on a little sandy beach right beside the ferry terminal at Brodick. We had not long to wait until the MV Caledonian Isles arrived from Ardrossan. One of the great pleasures of sea kayaking in Scotland is being able to make use of the ferries that serve the islands or cross the long sea lochs. We frequently use them instead of a car shuttle and they open up a number of longer routes to paddle on a short winter day.


Calmac has two advantages as a ferry company. First of all they carry sea kayaks for free. Secondly, they serve an excellent chicken curry. My usual request is for curry with half rice and half chips. This simple request is usually met but not on this occasion. I was told it would need to be all rice or all chips but not both!


Half chips apart, we had enjoyed a really fabulous winter day's paddle to Arran. We left a car at Ardrossan at 8am, shuttled up to Portencross where we left the other cars and were on the water by 0905. We landed at Brodick at 1530 after 31km and had plenty of time for the 1640 ferry home. The vista of the Glen Sannox hills on the approach from Bute must be one of the best sea kayaking views in Scotland. We had it to ourselves, you should give it a try!

End of a winter's day on Arran

As the sun set a chill breeze set in...


...so we crossed Brodick Bay at a cracking pace to keep warm.


From the far side of Brodick Bay we watched as the clouds began to gather round the summits of Arran's rocky ridges


Below the darkening slopes of Goatfell, a few cottage lights came on and our day was nearly over.

A glimpse of winter sun

As we left the mountains of Arran behind the sun blinked through a gap in the clouds.


We basked in the low winter sunshine as we let the tide carry us round Merkland point.


The slight breeze faded away to nothing...


...and the clouds even lifted to reveal the snow covered summit of Arran's highest mountain, Goatfell, 874m.


The top of Goatfell was still catching the sun but at sea level the sun had already set. We now set off on our crossing of the broad expanse of Brodick Bay towards the ferry terminal at Brodick where we intended to catch the ferry back to Ayrshire.

Paddling under a cloud

We slid into the sands of Sannox Bay under cover of low grey clouds.


From the point, we looked back to Bute and the Little Cumbrae islands, which had been our stepping stones on the crossing.


Away to the east, the Ayrshire hills were lit by low winter sun. The blades of the windmills were stationary.


As we paddled under the mountains that rose above Arran's eastern coast, the clouds began to lift towards the summits.


Entering Brodick Bay, the sun broke through and we drifted gently in the tide. We were in no hurry, we were in plenty of time for the ferry.

Approach to Sannox

As we approached Arran, we paddled under the layer of cloud...


...that was swirling round the mountains of Glen Sannox. We made a good speed of 9km/hr with tidal assistance on the crossing.


Once we were out of the sunshine, the temperature dropped quickly. Away to the south, the steep slopes of Holy Island were silhouetted against the distant sunshine further down the Firth of Clyde. We would soon set foot on the sands of Sannox.

Sannox synchronicity

As we left Garroch Head on Bute, the clouds began to clear from the summits of the Glen Sannox hills. I thought they would make a great backdrop to some kayaking photos. First Phil was a solo paddler. It looked good, but memories of solo synchronised swimming meant I was looking for something else.


Then Jennifer and Tony paddled into the frame and I even got a shot of their paddles nearly parallel.


Phil and Jim nipped past hoping to get in frame.


I managed three kayakers in this shot...


...then four in this one, but it still wasn't quite right.


Unfortunately the team soon twigged I was looking for a "parallel paddles" shot and did everything possible to prevent it! But patience is a great virtue and it was a long way across the Sound of Bute to Sannox...


...then at last, perfect Sannox synchronicity!

Crossing the bows of Dauntless

As we left the shelter of Little Cumbrae, we were hit by a light, but chill, wind from the NE. It blew down off the snow covered slopes of Ben Lomond, which was some 57km distant. On the sea horizon I spotted a light grey tower, "Strange", I thought, "I don't remember a buoy there."

We then passed a marker buoy for a wreck, 1km SW of the lighthouse. It was dancing in the current and making impressive gurgling noises. Again I was surprised, it was only 90 minutes after neap high water and even the maximum the spring ebb is only 1 to 1.5 knots. The dark brown colour of the water gave it away. This was all the flood water from the recent rains, making its way to the open sea.

I stopped paddling and the drift speed was just over 2 knots. We were going to have an interesting crossing. We set off on a very high ferry angle and half way across it looked like we would be swept south of our destination, Garroch Head on Bute.


The mystery of the grey tower soon revealed itself. It turned out to be HMS Dauntless. At first she was heading straight for us (we were in the middle of the Firth of Clyde Channel) and we had to calculate whether to maintain our high ferry angle and cross the channel more slowly or head straight across the channel more quickly and risk being swept down tide of Garroch Head. Not wishing to get in the way of Dauntless, we headed straight across the channel, until we saw her starboard side. In a test of her Samson radar (in the dome on top of her tower) it apparently managed to simultaneously track all aircraft flying into and out of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, Paris CDG, Schiphol and Berlin. Despite this processing power, we thought five kayaks might just be under her radar, so we were rather pleased to clear her bows.


HMS Dauntless, D33, is a type 45 destroyer. She was built on the Clyde at Scotstoun where she has been recently fitting out. This was her maiden voyage to the Naval dockyard at Portsmouth.


After crossing in front of Dauntless's bows we then had to paddle very hard indeed to keep out of the Garroch Head tide race. On taking a breather we saw from the left: Cameron (a mooring vessel), Svitzer Mercia (a tug) and Dauntless all leaving the Clyde and Bellatrix (bulk carrier) waiting to enter the channel. There were also a couple of small fishing boats.


We were pleased to have got safely across the channel and enjoyed our second breakfast on the beach at Port Leithne on Garroch Head.