Some fishy goings on in the Sound of Bute.

As we paddled down the Sound of Bute we were aware that strange swell lines were suddenly appearing. They came from different directions and were not what we expected in the relatively sheltered waters of the Firth of Clyde. Nor were there any  large ships visible that might have created such waves in their wake.

Then the peace was shattered by the appearance and sound of a SeaKing helicopter from HMS Gannet. It dotted about dropping its sonar into the sea and was joined by SD Omagh, the naval support vessel which we had seen berthed in Tarbert the previous evening. It was now clear that the swell was the wake of a submarine(s) and that the helicopter was hunting it.

The whole area is identified as a submarine training area but usually the Coastguard  broadcast MSI VHF SubFacts warning of such operations but we did not hear them. Whatever, they do not like to publicise these exercises too much. SD Omagh was not transmitting any AIS information about her whereabouts. For a long while the SeaKing helicopter hovered directly over SD Omagh then they both broke off and left us in peace.

 No sooner had they gone than  common dolphins (above) and porpoises began to appear again.

Please excuse the quality of these photos. They were taken with a standard lens and cropped to give a telephoto effect. Behind Phil you can see a series of great...

 ...splashes...

...caused by dolphins leaping out of the water as if in celebration of the submarine exercise finishing. Thank goodness peace was restored.

All quiet on the Sound of Bute.

As we approached the south end of Inchmarnock, we knew we were entering our home waters again when we caught our first sight of the Galloway Hills rising above the low plains of Ayrshire. To the left of Phil a long line of mountains leads to the Merrick (843m) some 85 km to the SE. Just to its left, the smaller summit is Mullwharchar 692m.

The reefs off Inchmarnock could be seen deep below our keels as we swung round the south end of the island and...

 ...caught sight of our next destination the Isle of Bute.

 As we left Inchmarnock a gentle breeze got up and we wasted no time in hoisting our sails...

...as we set off on the 8 km crossing to Dunagoil Bay on Bute. Little did we know that our peace would soon be disturbed....

Two luncheons, a queen, a saint and a cow on the fair isle of Inchmarnock.

Leaving Kylie the lonely dolphin to her buoy friend at the mouth of the West Kyle of Bute...

...we set off across the broad expanse of the Sound of Bute towards...

 ...the low lying but lovely island of Inchmarnock, which lies off the west coast of its larger neighbour Bute. Inchmarnock was home to St Marnock and long before that to the Queen of the Inch. The beaches on Inchmarnock's west coast are similar to those of Ardlamont Point. They consist of steep rock shelf with intermittent infill of cobbles. We were unable to  land where Tony, Jennifer and I had landed on a previous visit as...

 ...all the cobbles had gone and the spot was already occupied by one of the famous herd of Inchmarnock organic cattle. However, we were able to land a little further on...

 ....near where Mike and I had camped almost exactly a year previously.

 The steep storm beach of cobbles was stacked high in a series of ledges, which represent the height reached by previous storms with the oldest being at the top.

With a wonderful view over the sea to Arran, it was the ideal place to stop for an extended lunch. Since we were cutting our trip short by a day we had two luncheons to eat. We took our time savouring the last luncheons on our trip. We enjoyed the food and our situation, after all we still had 32km to go and would be paddling late into the summer evening anyway.

Kylie the lonely dolphin: a tale of anthropomorphism and anthropology at Ardlamont and the West Kyle buoy.

We had paddled from Ardlamont Point out into the entrance of the West Kyle of Bute, when we were stopped in our tracks. Both Mike...

...and Jennifer (not to mention Phil and myself) could hardly believe their eyes.

A solitary common dolphin was circling the navigation buoy. Mike and I had seen her exactly a year previously at the...

...same buoy but then she was accompanied by a calf. Common dolphins are summer visitors to the West coast of Scotland and are usually seen in  large pods of 10 to 30 but...

...sometimes they congregate in super pods of several hundred to 1,000. I saw this pod of about 50 that were riding the wake of the Skye to Harris ferry in June 2011.

I don't know why Kylie has chosen a solitary life. Clearly she can't be completely alone, since she has recently had a calf, but she does seem to prefer the company of this buoy to a pod. Given the intelligence of dolphins, I assume she has made a choice, if that is not being too anthropomorphic.

She has been seen here since at least the summer of 2011 and it was a real thrill to come across her again as she toyed with us, circling and diving beneath us then reappearing where we least expected her.

If we tried to paddle away from her buoy she would catch us up swim along side us, easily keeping up no matter how fast we paddled then with a flick of her tail she would streak ahead of us.

Kylie clearly enjoys interacting with visitors to her buoy and she has become a tourist attraction. Many kayakers, boaters, yachtsmen and hundreds of tourists from around the World on the Paddle Steamer Waverley have been fortunate to see her here.

In some countries people like to eat dolphins (not to mention killing them first). Well I am not a hypocrite, I swat flies, I eat cows, I catch fish, kill them then eat them and my ancestors were whalers. However, I could not eat a dolphin, a creature which, due to its degree of intelligence, can interact with other dolphins (and humans) at a much higher level than cows can. In some countries they eat chimpanzees, in others dogs and in some places cannibalism is also traditional. I do not eat chimps, dogs or my neighbours either. It is up to each of us to draw our own line at what we choose to eat but I am glad that in the UK dolphins are protected and that Kylie will not end up barbequed on a British beach. Chacun à son goût.

As a Briton I am aware that there are many things that are not right in British society and we need to listen to and learn from others' criticism to make our society better. However, because Britain is so multicultural  it is a factor that makes it one of the more progressive societies to live in today. We are all learning from one another and as a result respecting and increasingly adopting what is good about each others' cultures. We also need to respect other countries'  rights to determine what is acceptable and legal for their people but that does not mean we need to agree with others' practices just because they are traditional. Other human traditions include burning witches, child sacrifice, incest, childhood female circumcision and on a bigger scale, slavery and genocide. I don't agree much with them either, no matter how much their proponents may argue for their continuation on cultural and traditional grounds or accuse their critics of cultural imperialism.

So there you have it, it's a free World (for humans). If you want to see dolphins come to Scotland, if you want to eat dolphins, you are free to go somewhere else. It's your choice. As humans we are fortunate that we are often able to make choices.

Between a rock and a contrail on Ardlamont.

I got up on the sixth day of our expedition after having slept very little. The pain in my injured shoulder had steadily worsened making sleep all but impossible. To make matters worse I had finished all my painkillers. Our plan  had been to spend a further two days exploring the Kyles of Bute before returning to Ardrossan on the Ayrshire coast. However, I could not face a further miserable night so I explained the situation to the others and we decided to head directly to Ardrossan some 42km distant. We did consider whether to paddle 33km to Brodick on Arran and then get the ferry to Ardrossan  but it would have put my injured shoulder under too much pressure to get the last ferry.

 The beaches at Ardlamont point are composed of steeply sloping rock shelves. The rock is 600 million years old and is made of sediments which been subjected to considerable metamorphic changes. The great pressures, folding and heat have produced some beautiful patterns in the rock.

In places the rock shelf is covered by beaches of cobbles. Mostly these are of the same metamorphic rock but there are also some sandstone, quartz and granite cobbles mixed in.

 The water looked very inviting for a swim but as my shoulder was so sore I decided not to risk it. Only Jennifer was brave enough to go in as the water in early June was still only 11 degrees Celsius.

We slowly packed the kayaks as the heat of the day began to build. Thankfully there were far fewer midges than the previous evening.

 It felt great to be paddling down the Sound of Bute with Arran on one side and...

 ...the rocky shores and yellow gorse covered banks of Ardlamont on the other.

There was absolutely no wind so the sails remained furled on our decks. My friends accommodated my injury by paddling slowly, much more slowly than...

...the passengers on this Trans-Atlantic jet, which was the only other sign of human activity. Long after the jet had gone, the reflection of its contrail writhed like a snake in the water ahead of us.

Baked potatoes and bandits in Ardlamont.

As dusk fell the wind dropped and unfortunately that was the signal for the arrival of the midges. We soon had a fire going on the beach. We don't light fires on grass and we don't make fire rings with big stones. After the next high tide there is no sign of our passing.

 Baked potatoes in tin foil are an essential addition to any camp fire.

As we and the millions of midges enjoyed the ambience of the evening we were really surprised that we had the place to ourselves, with no other human company.

A peaceful night alone on Ardlamont?

 At long last we arrived at our camp spot on the Ardlamont peninsula. We had travelled for 12 hours since we had left Gigha which lies off the exposed Atlantic west coast of Scotland. We now found ourselves deep within the Firth of Clyde, some 80km from the Mull of Kintyre at the mouth of the Firth.

We looked out over the Sound of Bute to low lying Inchmarnock and Arran. Between them, the distant south Ayrshire coast was out of sight below the horizon. Only the summits of the Galloway hills were just visible some 90km away to the SE.

The beach was backed by a raised beach of cobbles, a legacy of a rising landmass after the retreat of the Ice Age.

 The raised beach provided an ideal base to set up camp. From my tent door I spotted...

...this otter diving for crabs. We could quite clearly hear it crunching the shells. The only building visible on our entire horizon was the small white unoccupied cottage on the Arran shore at Laggan. Unfortunately we would not find ourselves alone for long, this evening...