Rocket Mail launched after 5 year countdown.

The film "Rocket Mail" was released today just 5 years after it was completed. It is based on the story of a German rocket scientist who came to the remote island of Scarp in the Outer Hebrides. In the 1930’s the first of a pair of twins was born on Scarp but there were complications and there was no phone to summon help. The second twin could not be delivered until the next day. The mother had to be transported across the Kyle of Scarp to Harris and then Stornoway in Lewis by boat, bus and car, some 72 kilometres distant.

Herr Zucher heard this story and set up a demonstration of rocket mail to allow the islanders to summon help in an emergency. Unfortunately the British would not let him use his own fuel and the rocket exploded scattering the charred remnants of the mail. Worse, the Nazi’s later imprisoned him as a British collaborator.



The BBC recreated the rocket launch for its superb series Coast.




The Sound of Scarp, across which the rocket was fired. Can sea kayaking get any better than this?

Return of the white tailed sea eagle.

This rather poor photo can only hint at the magnificence of the sight of a pair of white tailed sea eagles wheeling in the sky off the wild west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Sea eagles were persecuted in Scotland and became extinct in the 19th century. In 1975 birds from Scandinavia were reintroduced to Rum in the Inner Hebrides. They have slowly spread and this year there were 33 breeding pairs and 29 chicks were successfully fledged.

The west coast of Harris, what a place to paddle!

The Stones of Callanish

Not far from Uig on the Isle of Lewis lies mysterious Loch Roag. You can paddle your sea kayak to the shore at the edge of the moor of Callanish (Calanais). As you approach, you realise that the irregular skyline is composed of great stones raised on end.



You climb to the summit of the moor and you are dwarfed by the circles and avenues of the Callanish Stones which have stood here for over 4,000 years. No one knows what purpose lay behind the labour of our ancestors.



It is only when you get close to the stones that you realise their true beauty.

In the city I had an idea for a photograph. We would carry our kayaks up to the stones and stand them on end among them. Standing there on the moor, it seemed a crass thing to do and they remained on the beach. I am not sure whether our ancestors would have been amused.

What was once common and taken for granted.

Common blue, butterfly.

While on the machair at Uig, Isle of Lewis, I spotted lots of common blue butterflies. These were once a common sight on grasslands throughout the UK but intensive farming has greatly restricted their habitat and numbers. Thankfully the Lewis machair had remained unchanged for centuries prior to this July day. It was very windy and the grass it was perched on was waving about. This meant I could not drop the shutter speed enough to get really good depth of field for a crisp photo.

In the background, I heard the "croak croak" of the corncrake. This bird is another once common species which is just hanging on in the fringes of the country.

Sea kayaking takes us to special places. We have two responsibilities. First of all we should not harm these places and secondly we should do our best to ensure their future survival. It is encouraging to see local inhabitants developing businesses that exploit the tourism benefit of a pristine environment.

There are proposals to build two huge wind farms in Scotland. Both would be bigger than any other land wind farm in Europe. One is near where I live on the SE of Glasgow. The other is not far from Uig in Lewis. I am completely in favour of the one near Glasgow.

The Lewis one is very difficult with many pros and cons. Lewis is already self sufficient in electricity generated from hydro electricity so the power will need to be exported to the mainland. They plan a new grid to the central lowlands where the cities are but Scotland also exports electricity so this new power will need to be transmitted a long way to where it will be finally used. A lot of power will be lost through the cables. Jobs will be created during construction and crofters will be able to rent the land which otherwise generates little income. New roads and heavy construction will need to encroach on one of the last wildernesses in Europe.

In city offices we will be able to leave our computers on overnight.

Men of Lewis

Still on the the subject of the Vikings, they did not just pillage, rape and leave their chromosomes in the Celtic population. They also left their chess men. This is a giant wooden effigy of the King from one of the famous Lewis chess sets.


Uig Bay, photo Jennifer Wilcox

These Lewis chess sets were found in the early 19th century under the machair (sandy grassland) which lies at the back of the great Bay of Uig on the West coast of Lewis. They were concealed in a stone chamber that was buried under the sands. There are 93 pieces from four or five sets. Eleven pieces are in the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and the rest are in the British Museum in London.

I think the most interesting pieces were the berserkers which represented the rooks. These figures are biting the tops of their shields and have wild staring eyes. These were Viking warriors who were naked or dressed in bear or wolf skins and fought in an uncontrolled rage or furious trance. This is the origin of the word berserk, as in "the sea kayakers went berserk when 15 jet skiers arrived at the previously tranquil beach".

So it's not just chromosomes and chess men that the Vikings have left us, it's words too.

Victim of fashion.

Every so often a really great new bit of kit comes along. Take the Nokia 6250 as an example. It is shock resistant, dust (and sand) resistant, water resistant, big keys for cold fingers, large Lion battery with 14 day standby, automatic volume control that increases or decreases the loudspeaker volume level to cope with background noise (designed for use on building sites but very effective in a howling wind), outstanding transmission and reception, built in sound meter to set the surround sound on the home cinema and it even lets you make phone calls!

It sounds like the ideal sea kayaker's mobile phone. Yes indeed and where may these paragons of maritime functionality be purchased? Well sadly they were last available in the year 2000 and mine is now 6 years old. A victim of the fickle fads of aficionados seeking the latest fashion flavour in phones, it sold like a brick and was discontinued. It is a brick and I look after it. It has an incredible additional effect on anyone under the age of 50. If I produce it in public, which is rare as I find the necessity to call in such places occurs infrequently, it causes much hilarity and occasionaly, some little sympathy among onlookers.

The shops are full of the latest miniature devices that have a multiplicity of myriad functionalities within their delicate and, dare I say, gaudy and ephemeral cases. None tempt me.

The lack of commercial success of my Nokia 6250 is a metaphor for all that is wrong with our society which is consuming resources and energy and polluting the planet in a spiral of self destruction. Perhaps we should learn to be happy with what we have got and expect products to have a decent working lifetime. My Nokia 6250 has only one failing. It not only looks like a brick, it sinks like a brick.

Kayaker in the water.

A lot of sea kayakers think they will never fall in because it has not yet happened to them. I suppose there is a sort of logic there, but the sea is an unpredictable mistress and if you go to her often enough...

Here is a shot of me enjoying a fine winter swim with Richard and Cailean coming to my rescue. Being dressed in a drysuit with thick fleece underneath, I was comfortable enough to carry on taking photos.



Cailean calmly directs the rescue of another swimmer.

However, recent reports of a sea kayak rescue on the BBC and Coastguard web sites highlighted another danger apart from cold: the possibility of separation from fellow paddlers and the boat. This particular incident had a happy ending because the paddlers were well dressed and had the means to raise the alarm. The helicopter and lifeboats rescued 4 swimmers who had become separated from the rest of their party in a tidal race.

It was wonderful that this potentially serious event had a happy ending, thanks to the preparation of the kayakers and the skill of the rescuers. It makes you think though. If you got separated from your friends and your boat, would you be able to summon help and survive until it arrived?



If I was in this nightmare scenario, this is the gear I would find in my BA and spray deck pockets. From the top: combined torch and strobe, drinking bladder, external speaker mike for the waterproof VHF in the BA pocket, in the other pocket is my waterproof mobile phone, noseclip, ACR GPS EPIRB satellite distress beacon, neoprene gloves, chocolate bar, day/night flare, GPS unit with Lat/Long set to BIG text, whistle, knife, neoprene hood, cow's tail with snap link. I have been criticised for the cow's tail but the way I see it, it would keep me attached to the boat if I was too cold and tired to hold on. If I was in the water with another paddler, it would keep us together. I would not use it in surf near the shore.

I think I would prefer to have a polythene Nordkapp RM and an EPIRB rather than a carbon?kevlar Nordkapp.

Be safe out there.