A balancing act and a gyrocopter at Dunure.

Andrew and Jim, the Lomo twins, weaved their way steadily through the boats on the hard standing on their way from the Dunure Inn...

...back to the harbour. It is a bit of a novelty for us to exit this harbour in January in a calm.

In contrast, this what met us in January 2010. Maintaining one's equilibrium in such conditions is all part of the fun of sea kayaking.

A stange buzzing noise overlaid with a "wop wop wop" echoed round the walls of the harbour and the castle.

It was an autogyro, possibly a Montgomerie Merlin. These are built just a few miles away from Dunure at Crosshill. After circling us a few times it buzzed off in the direction of Turnberry airfield...

...leaving us in silence as we paddled up the Ayrshire coast...

...towards the Heads of Ayr. Somehow we felt safer balancing at sea level.

Some careful tidal planning.

 The chill SE wind meant we had to wear hats and pogies as we crossed the expanse of Culzean Bay.

 Because it had been calm the previous day and because the light wind was blowing cross offshore the conditions as we approached...

 ...Carnage Corner, south west of Dunure, were calm. These were rather different to the conditions we had encountered here on our last trip.

This time, there was no dumping surf inside the harbours so Jim was quite happy to land his sparkly new Taran first. The tide was rising so some careful planning was required to calculate how far up the beach to carry the kayaks.

One factor in this calculation was how long we would spend in the pub. As David was with us we hauled them way above the HW mark!

The name gives the game away...

 Last Saturday, Tony, Andrew, David, Jim, Phil and I set of from Maidens on the Ayrshire coast.

 A light breeze soon filled the sails, it is just as well Andrew is a fast paddler.

 It was not long until we rounded Barwhin Point.

We came across Ensis (OB1004) fishing in shallow water about 300m from the Culzean shore. She is registered in Oban but her home port is Fort William.  The blue and white alpha flag means she has divers down. One emerged as we passed and is standing on the rear deck. I think they were diving for shell fish and the boat's name Ensis suggests she might be after razor clams or spoots (Ensis sp). She was slowly "fly dragging"; winching herself forward between the bow and stern lines. A thick cable from her stern seemed to be dragging something along the sea bed as it was under tension. She is not the first boat we have seen fly dragging with divers at this location.

The landings of razor clams have increased dramatically in Scotland over the last few years. Unfortunately this has been parallelled by the increasing use of illegal electro fishing over the same period and in (2011) the Government Agency, Marine Scotland, produced a document "A REPORT ON ELECTRICAL FISHING FOR RAZOR CLAMS (ENSIS SP.) AND ITS LIKELY EFFECTS ON THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT".

We reconvened under the walls of Culzean Castle.

Sea kayaking across the Sound of Bute from Portencross to Brodick.

 A 30km day paddle from Portencross on the Ayrshire coast to Brodick in Arran with return by the ferry.

Paddling from Garroch Head on Bute across the Sound of Bute to Sannox on Arran.

Tides: On the ebb tide there is a tide race off the south end of Garroch Head. This can be rough if there is any south in the wind. The south going ebb starts about -0035 HW Greenock and the north going flood starts about -0035 LW Greenock but these times are very variable being influenced by how much rain and snow melt is entering the estuary. Sometimes there may be almost continuous ebb, especially east of Garroch head. Spring rates are 1 knot but are influenced by rain as above.

On the day, it was springs with LW Greenock at 0814 and HW at 1451. We left Portencross at 0920 arrived Port Leithne, Garroch Head at 1048, left Garroch Head at 1130 arrived Sannox Bay at 1330, left Sannox Bay at 1405 arrived Brodick at 1550. On the two hour crossing of the Sound of Bute (10.6km) we were carried downstream by about 2km.

The ferry arrives at Brodick at 1610 and departs at 1640.

We met before dawn.

We set off on a limpid sea.

The Pavlovian sound of splashing paddles.

First luncheon and a first paddle in the Cetus MV.

The finest scenic sea kayak crossing in Scotland?

Thank the Lord, for the Ortlieb Aqua Zoom bag!

Thank the Lord, for the Ortlieb Aqua Zoom bag!

After crossing the Sound of Bute, it was a relief to land on the welcoming granite sand beach at Sannox on Arran.

Photo by Ian from Mountain and Sea Scotland.

This was my longest trip in a kayak for six months as I have suffered increasing instability in my left knee and pain in both knees. I am only able to go sea kayaking with the help of my understanding friends. Thank you all. Ian's photo shows Phil assisting me from my kayak. I was hardly able to walk up the beach to the shelter of some gorse bushes to be out of the cold breeze. We sat enjoying second luncheon washed down with a very fine 14year old Glefiddich followed by more 10 year old Jura.

Unfortunately I had been in so much pain when I landed, I had not pulled my kayak high enough up the beach. A combination of a big spring tide and increasing shore break capsized my kayak and filled the cockpit with sand and water. My trusty Ortlieb Aqua Zoom camera bag (with my 5D mk2 inside) was trashed beneath the upturned kayak by the waves for about 20 minutes. Ian and Phil helped me empty the kayak while I inspected the bag and camera. Not a drop of water had got in. I thoroughly recommend this bag to any kayaking photographer.

Leaving Sannox at 1406, time was just a little tight for the last leg down the east coast to Brodick. Nonetheless, Phil and Ian saw the resident otter off Merkland Point.

We landed beside the pier at Brodick at 1548, some 20 minutes before the ferry berthed. The usual ferry, MV Caledonian Isles, was away for her winter refit and her place was taken by Loti*. We enjoyed some banter with her Highland crew as we loaded the kayaks onto the car deck. Then it was up to the cafeteria for curry and chips and fish and chips and a very pleasant chat on the way back to Ardrossan. After running the shuttle, Ian had a 200mile drive back to Aberdeen!

What a day!

*MV Lord of the Isles.

The finest scenic sea kayak crossing in Scotland?

 The crossing of the Sound of Bute from Garroch Head on Bute...

...to Sannox on Arran...

...is probably one of the most scenic in Scotland and at 10.6km requires just a little commitment.

I (and very many others) also like the crossing of Loch Scavaig from Elgol to Loch na Cuilce on Skye but it lacks the commitment of an open crossing, as you can keep to the shore.

So I would like to propose the Garroch Head to Sannox crossing as the finest scenic sea kayak crossing in Scotland.

The Carradale trawler FV Caledonia (TT34) was still trawling her nets...

 ...as we reached mid channel.

Gradually, the mountains of Glen Sannox on Arran began to dominate the horizon to the SW.

 We were entertained..

...by an ever changing vista...

...as the low cloud...

...drifted and swirled round the corries and peaks.

Then, when we paddled under the clouds,...

...we too were  alternately in their shade then...

 ...back in the sunshine as we made our final approach to Sannox.

First luncheon and a first paddle in the Cetus MV.

From Little Cumbrae we set off across a glassy sea towards Bute. Our destination, Port Leithne is just below the second dip on the horizon (from the left).

We were crossing one of the main shipping channels on the west of Scotland; the Firth of Clyde Channel. Fortunately this fishing boat was the only other vessel and it was just motoring in circles with its nets out. On other occasions we have met very different vessels such as this one exactly four years ago. Amazingly, the first time we crossed wakes with Ian was also 4 years ago in this channel. At the time he was not in his kayak but on the bridge of this ship.

Upon arrival we had a serious discussion about whether we would be having second breakfast or third luncheon. I was of the opinion that because the sun could be clearly seen over Phil's shoulder that it must be first luncheon. This discussion was not just of semantic importance. No matter how fine it is, we do not normally quaff malt whisky at breakfast. Without further ado, I settled the argument by opening the 10 year old Jura. It was notable that none of the others disagreed with this decision.

While we enjoyed luncheon in the sunshine, Phil swapped his Quest for the new P&H Cetus MV, which I have on long term test. He could hardly believe how tight it turned compared with the Quest. He also commented on how comfortable the seating position was and how stable the kayak felt on edge.

His grin, when he returned, said it all but he was not going  to get away with paddling the Cetus MV all the way across to Arran. Oh no, I was going to make sure I got it back. I distracted him with some more 10 year old Jura and jumped back in before he realised what I was up to. I will say a lot more about the Cetus MV in the future but let me just say that so far, in conditions from flat calm to force 4/5, I like it a very great deal. The only minor niggle has been some skeg problems caused by very light downhaul elastic in the prototype Mark 2 skeg system in this kayak. It is the only touring kayak that I have tried that might tempt me away from my beloved Nordkapp LV.

Soon we had to launch for the second leg of our paddle, down to Garroch Head then across the Sound of Bute to Arran.