Egalitarian cruising on the Clyde

After arrival at Brodick, we trollied the kayaks off the ferry and turned hard left at the top of the ramp. This took us to a little beach of reddish Arran sand.


We were on the water quickly, almost as soon as the MV Caledonian Isles took to turn around.


We launched into light winds and flat water which was in total contrast yo the conditions on the far side of the Clyde. We had not only made the right navigational decision, we had enjoyed a nutritious breakfast on board the ferry!


Beyond the MV Caledonian Isles we spotted the MV Hebridean Princess at anchor on the other side of Brodick Bay.


The MV Hebridean Princess is a former CalMac ferry that has been converted into a small luxury cruise liner. Don't expect to get much change from £2,500 per week in the cheap cabins. However, I understand the cuisine is in a different league to the fare we enjoy on the Arran ferry! Note the freshly painted navy blue hull which was previously black. Hebridean Princess has just undergone a major refit and this was her first outing in her smart new livery.

She was built in 1964 and, as MV Columba, she served on many routes out of Oban. Latterly she was a relief vessel for more modern RoRo ferries. When she was sold to Hebridean Island Cruises in 1988, she was the last hoist loading ferry in CalMac's Western Isles fleet. Originally she took 50 cars and 870 passengers. In her current role she carries only 49 passengers.


Cruising on the Clyde can be enjoyed by rich and poor, it's a very egalitarian activity.

We were looking forward to our yummy SPAM sandwiches, here is what those cruising on Hebridean Princess could look forward to:

Fresh Hand Dived Scallops
With a Thai green curry sauce

Isle of Mull Cheddar Cheese and Red Onion Tart

Carrot and Orange Soup

——‡——

Fresh Fillet of Sea Bream, Savoury Pancake
With red pepper dressing and sautéed greens

Guinea Fowl with a Herb Mash and Ribbons of Courgette

——‡——

Chocolate Nemesis with Crème Chantilly
And mint syrup

Strawberry Pavlova with a Duo of Coulis

Selection of Cheeses

——‡——

Coffee and Petits-fours
Will be served in the Tiree Lounge, the Conservatory and the Look Out Lounge

YUM YUM YUM!

Seeking shelter in Brodick Bay.

As the Arran ferry, MV Caledonian Isles, approached her terminal at the head of Brodick Bay, the snow covered mountains crowded round us and the sea in their lee flattened.


Lying at anchor, in front of the decorative turrets of Brodick castle, we saw an unusual ship. She was the MV Hartland Point. One of a fleet of six Royal Fleet Auxiliary Point class sealift ships. These are RoRo cargo and personnel vessels. When not being used for Royal Navy purposes, they can be contracted out for commercial trading and ferry duties. Hartland Point was the second of the class to enter service in 2002, after being built at the Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast. She displaces 23,235 tons and can cruise at 18 knots with a maximum speed of 21.5knots . She is 193m long, 26m beam and 7.6m draught.

Like us sea kayakers, the MV Hartland Point was taking shelter in Brodick Bay, which is sheltered from the prevailing SW winds. She was waiting to berth at the MOD Glenmallan jetty (alt. Glen Mallen) in Loch Long before making her way across the Atlantic to Becancour in Canada's St Lawrence River system. Glenmallan jetty is licenced to handle up to 44,000kg of explosives at any one time.

No egos at Portencross!

When we arrived at Ardrossan on sunny morning in early March, the flags in the ferry's rigging were snapping in the wind. But we were protected by the high sea wall and could not see the sea, so we left two shuttle cars and drove the other two cars with the kayaks to Portencross. We planned our usual route, Wee Cumbrae, Bute, Sannox, Brodick and ferry home. There were white horses to the horizon as SW F5 wind blew across the Clyde from Arran. The waves were crashing in on the rocks. It looked like it might be a tricky launch. Tony, Jim, Phil and I looked at one another and, as one, shook our heads. There are no egos at seakayakphoto.com. We are at the gentlemen end of the sea kayaking spectrum. There was just time to return to Ardrossan! Plan B was to ferry glide across to Brodick on Arran and enjoy a Calmac breakfast aboard MV Caledonian Isles!

Unusually we were asked to to tie the kayaks up to the ferry's sides on the car deck. The crew expected a rough crossing. Phil felt a little queasy after his second sausage but later as the ferry pulled into the shelter of Brodick Bay, her motion eased and stomachs settled.

Sea kayak sailing

Sea kayaking has a long history in Scotland. In the last half of the 19th century decked, doubled ended clinker built "canoes" were popular. The majority had sails, like this one making her way up Loch Long under the rocky summit of the Cobbler.


Make no mistake, despite the Scottish nomenclature of "canoe", these were kayaks. They were paddled facing forward with double ended paddles like this one on an island in Loch Lomond, they also had small cockpits with coamings. By 1873 the sport had become so popular that the Clyde Canoe Club was formed.

The above two photos are from the Loch Lomond Sailing Club web site.


As late as 1951, by which time kayaks were of canvas on wooden frames, masts and sails were still an integral part of sea canoeing in Scotland. This photo is from the book Kayak to Cape Wrath by J Lewis Henderson.


Somewhere along the way sails have all but disappeared from the Scottish sea kayaking scene (apart from some very complicated rigs with outriggers that take longer to assemble than a sailing dinghy and are designed primarily for sailing). Indeed, in his excellent book Sea Kayak, Scottish guru Gordon Brown makes not a single mention of using a sail on a sea kayak. (The above photo is from the Knoydart website.)

David and I have both been windsurfing since the late 70's and I have been sailing since 1959. Although we came into sea kayaking to get away from all the faff associated with sailing, David and I have often talked about trying a sail on a sea kayak. Last year when on a long crossing from Colonsay to Jura, we had a wonderful force 4 wind on our rear quarter. That was it we searched the Internet and found that canoe sailing was very big in Australia and New Zealand. These images of sea kayak sailing are provided by GnarlyDog who also has an excellent blog page on the technicalities of fitting a sail to a kayak. It was difficult to source a sail in the UK but eventually Geoff from Kari-tek sourced a Pacific Action sail.


Our first test was in David's Aleut Sea II in a force 5 SW wind off Ayr in the Clyde.


After we got upwind we turned towards the shore, a loop of shock cord was released and resulted in all 2.2sqm of sail leaping into the air. What a blast. We both carried on paddling but it was so easy to stay with the waves. At one point on a particularly good wave we hit 22km/hr. We were hooked!


However, the Pacific Action is very much a downwind sail so it was with great excitement that the staff of seakayakphoto.com learned that Mick McRobb from Australia's Flat Earth Sails is going to send us two Bermudan rigs to test. (Photo from Flat Earth Sails web site.)

All we can say is, watch this space, kayak sailing is coming back to Scotland!

Sea kayaking round the Mull of Oa, Islay

A 26km paddle from Port Ellen to Kintra round the Mull of Oa Islay early March 2010.

Tidal streams 200m off the Oa peninsula at spring tides run at 4-5knots:
NW going flood begins HW Dover (11:31 on the day) overfalls off Rubha nan Leacan
SE going ebb begins -0610 HW Dover overfalls off Mull of Oa

However, we found that close inshore, the NW stream begins at least -0100 HW Dover.


A bottle nose dolphin off Sgeirean Buidhe.


Bottle nose dolphins


Soldier's Rock.


This was a day trip from Glasgow, made possible by a temporary late evening sailing from Port Askaig. I do not normally make such a rigid timetable but given the distances, ferry times and tide times it was essential. As it happened, we arrived at Kintra at 15:45 and used a taxi to recover the car. What a day!

I have mentioned both before but two really excellent sources of information on Islay are:

Armin's Islay Blog

Ron's Islay Weblog


This was the tidal atlas, marked up with the times for the day. We were there 2 days before springs.

Day return to Islay, please.

The most southern point of the Hebrides.

Oa what a beautiful morning, Oa what a beautiful day!

The SE coast of the Mull of Oa, Islay

The point of no return, Rubha an Leacan to Gob an Rubha Dhuibh, Oa, Islay

Sea kayaking with dolphins at the Mull of Oa

Going with the flow, round the Mull of Oa!

A glimpse of distant white shell sand promised a break.

Oa what a paradise!

The most southerly Gargoyles in all of the Hebrides

Oa speak no evil

Threading the Oa of a needle

All hail Soldier's Rock, Islay

What a geo on Oa!

End of an Islay day.

Oa, I'm so sorry about all the dreadfull puns.

Photo album map.

End of an Islay day.

After our rounding of the Mull of Oa, the most southerly point in the Hebrides, getting through security at Kintra was relatively easy. There was no queue and although we had to put our liquids bottles into bags (there was no volume restriction) we did not need to remove our shoes.


There was no way I was going to walk back to Port Ellen, so we pulled our kayaks up to the Kintra road end and I phoned Fiona's Taxis in Port Ellen. (Just in case there was no phone reception, I had allowed time for Jennifer and Misha to walk back to Port Ellen and recover the car.)


In the distance, far to the WNWacross Loch Indall, we could see clear sky and sunshine beyond the Rhinns of Islay lighthouse. The lighthouse is actually on the island of Orsay which lies beyond Rhinns Point. It was built in 1825 by Robert Stevenson. Its light flashes white every 5 seconds.


We got changed back at the car on the front at Port Ellen as the sun was setting.


Due to the taxi, we had about an hour to spare so we drove up to the head of Loch Indaal which is overlooked by the magnificent Paps of Jura.


The warm lights in the cottages on the far shore looked so inviting in the bitter cold winter light of the gloaming.


We stopped for a break in Bowmore the capital of Islay. The view to the head of Main Street is dominated by the iconic Round Church, which was built in 1767. I have always thought that its shape resembles that of a whisky still which is not wholly inappropriate on this island of malts! Needless to say we stopped of at the truly excellent Harbour Inn, which is a very short step from the slipway at Bowmore's little harbour. An excellent sea kayaking pub!


The only reason this trip was possible was due to one of the two Islay ferries being taken off service for annual maintenance. The usual 17:00 return sailing from Port Ellen (which would have been too early) was replaced by a 20:20 ferry from Port Askaig. Here the MV Hebridean Isles is just nudging into her dock at Port Askaig. In the foreground, our old friend, the MV Margaret Sinclair from Mull was acting as a relief ferry for the island of Jura.

Our day trip to Islay was over.

What a geo on Oa!

Soldier's Rock was barely out of our minds before we discovered the NW headland of the Oa peninsula on Islay was riven with a series of deep geos culminating in this one. It stretched for 100m, deep into the rocks and culminated in a slight opening with a steep beach behind. A lazy three foot swell was running into the geo and crashing on the steep beach in dumping surf. The repeated low BOOOMPHS reverberated along the narrow channel. We chose not to risk landing in this isolated spot and turned carefully just on the edge of the surf line and made our way back out towards the light and the open sea beyond. The hail had turned to rain but by the time we emerged it had turned to snow carried by a cold wind from the north.

We were now only 2.5km from our end point at Kintra. We had planned to stop for a well deserved second luncheon at the delightful little Port Alsaig but despite being ravenous, we decided to press on in the snowstorm.


We landed below Kintra farm at the south end of the Big Strand. This beach is the biggest on Islay and its sands stretch away for over 8km along the east shore of Loch Indaal. We were ravenous but there was little shelter in this open place so we ate our sandwiches as the snow fell. Misha had the biggest sandwich bag and ate it all! We recounted the highlights of our day as the snow fell and the light faded.


"The dolphins were this close!"


"Get away!"

What another great trip... the only fly in the ointment was that my car was 7km away at Port Ellen!