A rescue and two ice cream heads at Auchmithie.

On the May Bank Holiday Saturday, Maurice, Mike, Phil and I drove from Ayrshire and Glasgow to the old fishing village of Auchmithie on the Angus coast NE of Arbroath. We met Duncan and Joan who had driven over from Fife and Ian who had driven south from Aberdeenshire.

 We had paddled here quite recently and enjoyed it so much we were back for more. Until the mid 19th century Auchmithie was a thriving fishing port but the fleet moved to Arbroath when its harbour was improved. Auchmithie was the home of what is now known as the Arbroath smokie, a type of smoked haddock.

Just south of the village we came to Lud Castle a sandstone tower whose rocky ledges are the nest sites of countless sea birds, guillemots, black guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, kittiwakes, gulls and cormorants.

 This pair of guillemots caught our eye.

This one has the rarer white spectacle variant though they are all the same species and interbreed at random. They should not be confused with the spectacled guillemot which is a different species and found in the NW Pacific.

 A pair of puffins flew out of this cave

This cave had a "sky light" that let in a narrow shaft of light...

....that illuminated a patch of emerald green water in the depths of the cave..

It also had a second door that exited on the far side of the headland.

Kittiewakes added to the auditory and nasal experiences with their onomatopoeic calls and their guano.

This cave did not look very promising but...

...it extends 150m deep inside the cliff...

...where it opens into a gloup called Gaylet Pot where the roof has collapsed.

We managed to land this time, last time some big swell almost wiped us out!

The pebbles on the gloup's shore were very smooth and colourful.

It was time for first luncheon at Cove Haven below...

...these ancient red sandstone cliffs.

These sedimentary rocks were formed when Scotland was an equatorial country. The coarse layers with large water worn pebbles were formed in periods of high rainfall when huge rivers carried their deposits and dumped them in a shallow sea.

Photo courtesy of Joan Barwise.

We enjoyed our first luncheon at the head of the bay. Ian had brought some truly excellent  traditional Speyside malt.

We had this great view of the Angus coast as we chatted over our extended first luncheon. We waited for the tide to go out then come back in again so that no carrying of kayaks was necessary.

Just south of Cove Haven we came to this former sea stack called the Deil's Heid. It is now above sea level but this and many caves and arches that are now dry are evidence that once the sea was higher.

Photo courtesy of Ian Johnston.

Then it was back to more stunning caves. Just south of the Deil's Heid we entered a truly remarkable cave with an extremely narrow exit.

It was reminiscent of the caves that riddle Dun in the St Kilda archipelago.

In the many narrow channels, Phil found a great way to stop the barnacles getting to his new VE carbon paddles.

Next up was Dickmont's Den, a huge geo formed by a collapsed cave system. There is a way round the back that leads to another entrance. Phil and Maurice were so taken with it they went round twice and so now we call it Phil's Pott!

Another tight through route can be found at Seamen's Grave geo.

The Needle's E'e is an arch which is now high and dry.

After one last cave we emerged to find the wind had got up to F4. The inshore forecast for the afternoon was F4-6 southerly.

We stopped in the shelter of a tidal channel at Arbroath for second luncheon. A tour boat had the same idea.

We enjoyed ice cream in Arbroath but...

...we heard on the VHF channel 16 that a yacht was in distress a mile off shore. I got an ice cream head trying to finish my ice cream too quickly.

The yacht in difficulties had dropped its sails due to the increasing wind and started its engine. Its propeller got tangled in a long piece of rope attached to a buoy. The yacht was stuck fast. Ian did a superb job communicating with Aberdeen coastguard and the yacht. Ian and I paddled out to see if we could cut her free so she could sail. After a real high energy paddle into the F4 wind and with a 1.5knot cross tide  We almost reached the yacht but the RNLI Arbroath allweather and inshore lifeboats just beat us to it. They thanked us and wished us a safe passage to Auchmithie.

Clouds had gathered and the sea was now very lumpy with the ebb tide against the wind but Ian and I had a most enjoyable paddle back to the others who were making their way up the coast. At each headland there was a small tiderace where we experienced bumpy seas. Off the headland at Lud Castle it was particularly rough. It was a surreal situation as we paddled through rafts of guillemots and razorbills that were quite unconcerned by either our passage or the rough conditions.

Only 3 out of the 7 of us had sails so to avoid splitting the party we did not use them until near the end when we were in the relative shelter of Lud Castle.

Once the sails were up, Phil and I caught some decent waves and got the speed up to 20.9km/hr. To finish off a really great day. Ian, Mike and myself did some rescue and rolling practice. I did 10 rolls on each side and ended up with my second ice cream head of the day (the water was only 8C). So that's my rolling practice done for another year.

We might only have done 15km but everything about this day was superlative, not least the exceptionally fine company!

For the full 3D trivision blogging experience you can read Duncan's account here:

Perfect Auchmithie: Paddling back...inside the planet.
Ice cream on deck...and a rescue operation on the North Sea.

and Ian's account here:

An Angus congregation.
Sea kayaking under the farmland of Angus.
Luncheon in a lost world.
Narrow places - exploring the geos of the Angus coast.

Breaking out of Cruib Lodge before dawn.

 Tony and I rose before dawn on the shores of \West Loch Tarbert on Jura.

We had spent a comfortable night in the middle room of Cruib Lodge a recently restored bothy.

It was locely and dry and the whitewashed plastered walls gave it a sense of luxury lacking in many bothies. After breakfast we tidied everything and left the place spick and span for the next visitor.

 Then it was time to load the boats and...

 ...we were on the water by 0830am. There was only one way to go....

...and that was back upstream to the Cumnann Beag narrows that connect the inner loch to the outer loch. The ebb started at 0600 and we arrived at 0900 when the ebb was in full flow on one of the biggest spring tides of the year. The previous evening we had drifted through at 5 knots but it was now running at 8 knots!

On the SE of the channel the tide was running at 8 knots so we snuck up the north side of the channel managing just 0.5 knots over the ground before...

 ...ferrying across and...

 ...breaking out into a small eddy on the other side where we worked our way up before...

 ...breaking in to the main flow again and...

 ...ferrying back to the other side once more. Repeat until exhausted.

A little more hard work eddy hopping got us into another tidal channel to the south of Eilan Dubh. Here the tide carried us more gently...

...back into outer West Loch Tarbert on the opposite side from Cruib Lodge. What a great start to a day!

Repositioning the forward fin uphaul on the paddle sailing version of the P&H Aries 155.

I have several times left my friends standing while paddle sailing the Aries 155 with the forward fin deployed. In this photo Mike is being left further and further behind. Although he has a sail, our course is too much to windward for him to successfully deploy it.

This is my secret weapon! The forward fin rotates on an axle and is pulled down by shock cord and raised by pulling...

 ...on the thin central control line, which is then cleated in the cleat  positioned just forward of the forward day mini hatch. I find it a bit of a reach and as I often have a camera bag attached to the deck elastics I can't even see it.

I solved this by removing the cleat and fitting a longer line to the forward fin. I run this through a plastic tube back to the existing cleat by the cockpit which I use for the sail sheet.

The forward fin uphaul is thinner than the sail sheet and the tapered cleat holds them each firmly. This arrangement saved fitting a third cleat and brought the forward fin uphaul into easy reach.

Lightly peated first night on Jura.

After we left the boathouse at the head of West Loch Tarbert on Jura we...

 ...entered one of the remotest and least inhabited areas of Europe. As darkness fell we negotiated a series of dog legs that connect the inner loch to the outer loch.

Our speed picked up to 10km an hour as dark cliffs and the twilight gathered round us we entered...

 ...the final narrows before we...

...were ejected into the outer loch in a series of swirls and boils that reflected gold from the sky.

In the gathering darkness we scanned the shoreline for Cruib Lodge, part of which is maintained as an open bothy by the Mountain Bothy Association with the permission of Ruantallain Estate. Eventually we spotted the little cottage. There was no light visible but there was a curl of smoke coming from a chimney so someone else was there. Tony knocked on the door but there were just a couple of grunts from two occupants who had decided on an early night. Fortunately this bothy has two rooms accessed by separate doors...

...so we made ourselves at home next door. There is no supply of wood at this bothy but you can cut peat from the hillside above and leave it to dry in front of the bothy for the next person. The peat was pretty damp but I had brought a bag of barbecue charcoal and that got it going. Soon the bothy was filled with the distinctive aromatic reek of burning peat. Indeed we enjoyed lightly peated baked potatoes followed by some lightly peated Jura Superstition malt whisky. We certainly had arrived on Jura.

The Jura portage, a miracle, an udder and the 177th Law of the Universe.

The key to our weekend trip to Jura and Islay lay in the timing of the strong tides in the Sounds of Jura and Islay and the fact that Jura is nearly bisected by...

...West Loch Tarbert in the west and Tarbert Bay in the east. The connecting isthmus is only 1.9km wide and 26m high. I had last portaged across here in 2007 but since then increasing knee dislocations a nasty accident to my knee, major operations to both knees and shoulder surgery and a few other health problems had prevented a return. However it was now payback time for the countless hours of physiotherapy. I was very much looking forward to returning to old haunts on Jura and Islay. The best places to read about Islay (and Jura) are Armin Grewe's IslayBlog.com and Ron's Islay Blog. 

It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that if you have taken advantage of the ebb tide to travel down the Sound of Jura to Tarbert, you are not going to arrive at hight tide! Indeed it was strangely reassuring to observe that the tide was distinctly low on our arrival thus confirming the 177th Law of the Universe did indeed still apply.

 The first part of the beach was hard firm sand and proved easy enough then you come to a deep layer of rotten sea weed at the high tide mark which is hard going. Fortunately it was not as extensive as on previous visits. From the top of the beach to the track to the wooden cabins is the worst bit. If you were on your own you might need to unload to get across this bit.

The two of us managed fine and after a short time we were on what passes as the main road on Jura. We saw no vehicles and no people but...

..this standing stone showed that we were not the first people to  come here. Deer were everywhere though. Some people think Jura got its name from an Old Norse word for deer or another Old Norse word for...

...udder, though I can't imagine why. However, neither Old Norse origin really stands up to close scrutiny. Ecclesiastical writing in AD678 recorded what we now know as Jura as "Doraid Eilinn". This was over a hundred years before the Vikings arrived in these parts and sacked Iona Abbey in AD802.

 It might be just 26m to the summit of the watershed between the West Loch Tarbert and Tarbert Bay but I was well and truly knackered (but also elated) to reach the summit. Tony punched the air in delight when he saw that the tide on the west side was not too far out.

The descent was not much easier. This was a smooth bit. much of the track has been repaired with a particularly coarse grade of hard core with lumps the size of bricks to snag wheels. On my last crossing I was using the KCS original trolley. This had to be used to return and rescue two other kayaks which had broken trolleys. The KCS was the best of the bunch at that time but it was not perfect. It was narrow and had a tendency to topple over on sideways slopes. It also sometimes twisted under the kayak and the kayak would crash down onto the wheels. On this occasion, I was testing the new KCS Expedition trolley. You can also read Ian's thoughts on the trolley here. The KCS Expedition trolley survived the challenge of the Tarbert portage unscathed as did my knees. A tribute both to KCS and my surgeon.

It was with some relief that I reached the head of West Loch Tarbert. In truth the portage is no big deal for anyone of reasonable fitness. However we were trying to beat the setting sun and I felt a great sense of achievement in being able to do what seemed quite impossible as recently as November 2013 (when I had my second knee operation). Miracles do happen.

The sun had already set. We still had our dry suits to put back on and paddle for a further 3km through the tidal narrows until we arrived at our accommodation for the night....