Planing a a fully loaded expedition sea kayak: paddle sailing through the Pladda tide race.

I was just timing my departure from the little harbour at Pladda when a baby seal popped up right in front of me (it's just below the highest bit of the wave). I hung back before powering....

 ...through the narrow entrance into the Sound of Pladda which was...

 ...surprisingly bumpy.

 Once out of the harbour we turned SE to circumnavigate Pladda clockwise.

 The spring tide had nearly finished its fourth hour but...

 ....the water was still stirred up a bit.

 We got some good runs...

 ...running diagonally down the waves.

 The water stirred itself some more as we approached....

....the east point of Pladda then...

 ....yee hahh...

 

 ...I just love sea kayaking.

 Rounding the east point freed the wind so it was time to launch the sail...

 ...and the speed picked up even more.

 What a great feeling, .flying down wind,...

 ...overtaking the waves in front and...

 ...planing a fully loaded expedition  kayak for...

 ....hundreds of meters at a time.

 Sadly the bouncy bits...

 ...all too soon came to an end as....

 ...we broke out into the lee of Pladda.

 We completed our circumnavigation in calm conditions before...

 ...crossing theSound of Pladda and landing...

...on a sandstone slab between basalt dykes on the Kildonan Shore of Arran. Time to do luncheon!

If you fancy expedition sea kayaking with a sail, we use Flat Earth Kayak Sails from Australia. In Europe they are available from Kari-tek and P&H also supply their sea kayaks with sailing rigs.

Better days and leaving Pladda.

The keepers' cottages at Pladda lighthouse have the Stevenson trademark flat roofs. They have been sold by NLB after the last of the lighthouse keepers left in 1990 when the light was automated. After he left the service, former keeper Peter Hill wrote an excellent book called "Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper". In it he describes some of the time he spent on Pladda. Another former keeper Fred has an interesting web site with a page devoted to Pladda, which he worked on in the 1970's.

When Tony and I visited in 2007 the cottages were occupied by someone who I believe worked in the London fashion industry. Tony and I had a good chat with him and Tony even climbed onto the roof to fix his TV aerial. The cottages are slowly lapsing into disrepair compared with the immaculately maintained lighthouse towers..

On this occasion no one was at home and the door was unlocked... only a check list for leaving was found on a table along with...

 ...a candle and a copy of the Arran Banner dated 27th July 2013.

 The curtain-less window looked south to Ailsa Craig and sadly...

 ...this dead butterfly on the window sill could not leave through the glass.

Below the window this old speedboat had been cast high and dry by a great storm. Like the butterfly, she had seen better days and will never leave the island..

 As we left we passed the four great paraffin tanks that once kept the original lantern burning but...

...all were now empty.

It was now time for us to leave and we returned to the little harbour where we had left the kayaks.

A lot of hot air and blowing your own trumpet on Pladda.

 As we walked round the silent lighthouse buildings we came across this sign.

 An old door opened to reveal...

...an amazing clockwork mechanism which was...

...surprisingly delicate given its function to control....

 ....the blasts from the mighty foghorn which could be....

...rotated on a semicircular track to point to all quarters of the approaches to the Firth of Clyde.

It has been left at pointing at....

 ...Ailsa Craig some 19km away to the south where a...

...similar horn points north to Pladda.

Fortunately for us the fog horn has been long silent and the northerly air stream had brought not fog but great clarity of air with it.  In the distance to the SW lay the coast of Antrim in Northern Ireland. Little Sanda lay off the long Kintyre peninsula and the SW corner of Arran framed the view.

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Thrift was also growing here in any available crack in the walls. Its pink flowers matched the faded...

...red oxide painted tanks which once...

 ...contained the compressed air to operate the horns. The first fog horn was installed in 1876 and was an American siren design powered by a hot air engine. This was later replaced with the current fog horn which worked into the 1970's. It was driven by Kelvin diesel engines which required starting with petrol. It must have been quite good fun starting the beast but I would imagine the novelty wore off after no more than the first minute or two.

We felt rather pleased with ourselves for taking time out to explore Pladda it proved to be time well rewarded. Our little group seem to lack that headland to headland urge which would have missed this exploration out.

My next post will look at the abandoned keepers's cottages.

Pladda lighthouse, a lighthouse dynasty, "Treasure Island" and the birth of sea kayaking.

 From the little harbour on Pladda we made our way up the path to the lighthouse. There is a cottage and ...

...a store just above the harbour.

Even the store has the most beautiful stonework.

 Nowadays the store is home to nesting house martins.

From our elevated position we could see how effective the little harbour is, even when exposed to NE winds. We have previously arrived on Pladda to camp at this time of year but the whole island is covered in nesting birds, mostly sea gulls, so on that occasion we moved on to the Seal Shore private camp site at Kildonan.

Pladda is not very high and soon we were on the plateau leading to the light.The walls contained the keepers' gardens for growing essential vegetables.

 Nowadays the vegetable plots are filled with coarse grass. Thrift, plantains...

  sea campion and lichens are growing on the once whitewashed walls.

Pladda is a very different island.from precipitous Ailsa Craig on the horizon. However, each has a lighthouse.

 Pladda lighthouse was one of the first to be built in Scotland. It was completed in 1790 and together with the Little Cumbrae, Mull of Kintyre and Copeland (Northern Ireland) lights marked the approaches to the Firth of Clyde.

 The south side of the lighthouse is a surprise. There is a second lower light. This was added shortly after the main light was tower was built because in those days lighthouses did not have a flashing mechanism to identify them.  Pladda with its double light could therefore be easily identified from the other Clyde lights. In 1901 this lower tower was made redundant when a flashing light was added to the main tower. The light flashes white three times every thirty seconds.

 These lovely bronze plaques are found at all the Northern Lighthouse Board lights.

Pladda was automated in 1990 and recently the traditional lantern and lens have been replaced by a couple of solar powered LED lights strapped on either side of the gantry at the top of the tower.

Pladda main light was built by engineer Robert Smith and his apprentice built the smaller tower a few years later. His apprentice was Robert Stevenson who was both his stepson and son in law. Thus was born the great Stevenson lighthouse dynasty. One of Robert Smith's Stevenson descendants was his great grandson Robert Louis Stevenson. RLS trained as an engineer but decided on a life as an author and is particularly remembered for "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped". Some of the locations in Kidnapped are based on time RLS spent with his father on Erraid off Mull during the construction of the Dubh Artach light. RLS loved the sea and had a small boat in which he enjoyed coastal voyages. He and a friend bought Rob Roy canoes after reading "A thousand miles in the Rob Roy Canoe" by John Macgregor. In 1876 RLS and his friend Sir Walter Simpson set off on a voyage in through the waterways of Belgium and France. RLS published the account of their trip as "An Inland Voyage" in 1877.

A Rob Roy Canoe as used by Robert Louis Stevenson of the Stevenson lighthouse dynasty.

Follow Ian's account of our trip here.

The next post will be a look at the Pladda foghorn.