Ailsa Craig to Arran

After paddling round Ailsa Craig there was still a nasty swell and force 4 northerly so we decided to explore the island for a bit and have something to eat. Then at 1630 the wind began to drop. I reckoned we would be able to complete the 22km to Arran by nightfall and even if we didn't, the lighthouse on Pladda would guide us. We would need to get going though so as we would be well clear of the high speed ferry from Larne to Troon which was due to pass between Ailsa and Arran about 7pm!

David and Phil graunched the double trying to launch of the steep boulder beach in the swell. There was an ominous crack and the rudder wouldn't work. Rather than risk re-landing I got the rudder out the water and left them to paddle without.


A menacing roaring and rumbling filled the air. The high speed ferry was on her way at 41 knots!


We turned round several times to scan the horizon but we were well out of the way when the ferry passed to the east of us. In the distance you can just see Pladda lighthouse to the right of Jennifer. It felt quite exposed out there!


It was a wonderful night for a long crossing and Jennifer and I really enjoyed it...


However, all the way across, David and Phil moaned that the double was just about impossible to handle. I thought they were just a couple of wusses who couldn't steer a kayak with only paddles so I had little sympathy.


Eventually we made landfall at Pladda. Its early lighthouse has two towers. Before flashing lights were invented, this was to differentiate it from the other lights at the entrance to the Clyde. We had intended camping on Pladda but we discovered the island was completely covered in nesting gulls. Even worse, we discovered the huge centre hatch of the Aleut double was full of water and David and Phil had not enough dry bags for all their clothes and sleeping gear! The next day we discovered the cracking noise was a due to the bulkhead bolts (which fix the two pieces of the Aleut together) loosening off and allowing the bulkheads to flex apart. The bulkhead sealing gasket had been leaking all the way across. No wonder the Aleut was not handling with all that water sloshing about. I did by now feel a little sympathy for the Aleut boys so...


... time for a sharp exit to Kildonan camp site, a hot shower and the pub! There was a wedding on in the pub, it was like something out the Wicker Man. It was a late night after a long day.

This is seakayaking!

18/04/2009

To Arran via Ailsa Craig

We had originally intended going to Colonsay last Friday night but the easterly winds were up to 35 knots. The forecast for the Clyde on Saturday was for force 3 easterly and on Sunday force 3 southerly so we thought we would go on a little 42km trip to Arran via Ailsa Craig. We met at Lendalfoot on the south Ayrshire coast.


Of course the forecast wasn't quite right and we had a fresh northerly on Saturday. At nearby Campbeltown airport it got up to 19 knots. It made for a bumpy crossing and I thought that we would need to abandon our attempt on Arran. You can see from our track to Ailsa Craig where we got blown down wind on two occasions when the wind really got up.


Instead, we decided to paddle round the Craig. On the sheltered southerly side we had amazing views...


... of thousands and thousands of nesting gannets and....


... amazing rock architecture like here at Stranny Point.

18/04/2009

On location Arran

David is quite tired out by his exertions and we still have 10km to go... 19/04/2009

On location in Arran

Yesterday paddled 40km across from Ayrshire via Ailsa Craig and Pladda. David holed double on Ailsa last 20km with flooded centre hatch. Arrived in dark! 19/04/2009

In search of the Nith bore!

Easter Monday dawned fair over Fleet Bay in the Solway Firth.


Time for an adventure! I drove to Southerness where I met Mike and left a car before driving on to Dumfries. The farm land round Southerness plays host to thousands of overwintering barnacle geese from Svalbard archipelago, high above the Arctic Circle.


We were off in search of the Nith bore. The Nith is one of the few rivers in the world to have a tidal bore. As you can see in the aerial photo, a funnel shaped estuary concentrates and accelerates the incoming tide into a narrow river mouth. High tide at Hestan Island (further west on the Solway Firth) was at 14:47 BST and I reckoned that the bore would arrive in the narrow section of river mouth near Glencaple about 2 hours before this.



This photo was taken by Dr Werner Kissling in 1958. He describes it thus "At Glencaple, close to the mouth of the river Nith, on the north shore of the Solway the flood tide, under certain conditions, comes in as a bore which may move at a rate of five knots, or even more."


We couldn't wait!

13/04/2009

Alan's sunset view of Bute!

Alan, a recent addition to seakayakphoto.com team, as just sent this photo by MMS into Seakayakphoto Towers. He was disappointed not to be able to join our recent windy sortie to the Little Cumbrae at the weekend so he has headed off on a solo trip today and is camping on the Little Cumbrae tonight. He originally planned to go round Bute in two days but has changed his plans due to increasing swell. He is currently on the beach enjoying a whisky by the camp fire. I hope my text with tomorrow's forecast of force 6 southerly doesn't spoil the enjoyment of the moment.

His photo shows the south end of Bute with Arran and Kintyre in the distance.

Updated 09/04/2009:
Alan is now spending a second storm bound night on Little Cumbrae. Today ferry traffic on the Clyde was severely disrupted by winds of up to 37knots. Hopefully the wind will drop tomorow.

Night time in Troon harbour

In the darkness we swung round the outer harbour wall at Troon. The moon and constellation Plaedes could be seen behind the lighthouse.


From far out at sea, we had heard a strange roaring noise. It turned out to be a huge shredder which was chipping logs. This grab crane was feeding about 20 logs at a time into this tree slaughter-house. There was no fine end as bedroom furniture for these pine trees!


Recently we had seen a huge pile of logs on Portavadie pier. Perhaps it was these ones which were now being chipped. By shipping logs to Troon, the west coast roads are spared a lot of heavy timber lorry traffic.


We made paddled past the High Speed Ferry terminal and made our way into the inner harbour where the fishing fleet was unloading.


The welcoming lights of the Wee Hurry fish and chip shop can be seen on the quay. Fresh fish is cooked to order, it is well worth a visit. They serve a variety of seafood dishes including things like cullen skink soup, squat lobster-tails in spring rolls, battered langoustines and of course haddock and chips! For those with a more sophisticated palate, McCallum's Oyster Bar is right next door.


We then explored the rest of the harbour. At low tide a series of tunnels, linking the inner and outer harbour, are big enough to paddle through but do so on a falling tide! We then paddled past the Trent class RNLI lifeboat. In the distance multi coloured containers under floodlights marked the RORO freight ferry terminal for Ireland. This opened in 2001. In the 1960's this was a ship breaking quay and I remember destroyers and submarines meeting their end here.


Finally it was time to go home and we paddled round from the harbour back to the Ballast Bank. The lights of the rest of the returning fishing fleet stretched away into the darkness of the Firth of Clyde.

Please note this is a busy working harbour, even at night. Look up the P&O ferry timetable before you come and avoid ferry arrival and departure times. Fishing boats and yachts can arrive or leave at any time so keep a sharp lookout and have a bright white light on each kayak.

01/04/2009

Another World on Lady Isle, just three miles from home!

Last Wednesday evening we found ourselves drifting round Lady Isle in the Firth of Clyde. Far to the SW the great rock of Ailsa Craig was merging into the twilight.


The lighthouse beam flashed white every two seconds. It was originally built in 1903 and was gas powered. It was refurbished in 2004 and converted to an electric light powered by batteries charged by solar panels. More of the early history of beacons on Lady Isle can be read here.


As we drifted round the island in the fading light Hundreds of herring and common gulls flew in from every direction to roost on the isle. When I was a member of Troon Sailing Club in the sixties and early seventies there was an annual race around the isle in dinghies. It was a fundraiser for the RNLI which has a lifeboat based in nearby Troon Harbour. In those days there was a large colony of terns on the island but these have now disappeared. Judging by the number of gulls which followed the fishing fleet into Troon, maybe the gulls came and displaced the terns when the fishing fleet moved from Ayr to Troon in 1996.


Although the isle is now rocky it was once covered with beautiful sand dunes backed by grass. Unfortunately early 19th century attempts to improve the pasture by burning the vegetation and introducing rabbits destroyed the dunes which were washed away by winter storms. There are still supposed to be rabbits on the isle but I have never seen any. Remarkably, there is a small freshwater spring on the island.


It was a wonderful atmospheric experience, with the mournful calls of the gulls filling the late evening sky above.


Slowly the lights of the Ayrshire coastal towns came on and the eastern horizon glowed with the orange of sodium lights.


It was now time to return. We lit our head torches as we did not want to be run down by the still returning fishing fleet.


Our lights made crazy reflections as the little waves danced in the darkening waters of the Firth of Clyde.


The night closed round us and we were soon in Another World, but Tony's house was less than three miles away! When sea kayaking, the adventure begins within minutes of wherever you launch from, especially here on the wonderful West Coast of Scotland!



01/04/2009

Luncheon in the banqueting hall of Little Cumbrae Castle followed by force 6 in The Tan!

Yesterday was cold, pouring wet and windy. The coastal forecast for the Upper Clyde was Force 4 SW increasing to WNW 6 by afternoon, with gusts to 37 knots. Max air temp was 6 degrees Celsius but with windchill was only -1C.

It was just the sort of day to go sea kayaking! Phil has been paddling a double for the last 4 months but has only paddled a single kayak for 3 weeks. It seemed like a good opportunity to extend his comfort zone. We assembled a little late at Fairlie on the Clyde coast, a gust of wind on the Irvine bypass had nearly caused Phil's new Quest to part company with his roof rack. Our plan was to take luncheon in the great banqueting hall of Little Cumbrae Castle!


Soon our little band was making slow but steady progress down the Fairlie Roads, into the teeth of the wind and rain.


An ebb tide against a force 4 SW wind gave some good conditions for the paddle over to Little Cumbrae.


All was calm in the lee of the island as we made our way...


...into the little bay to the north of the castle.


The castle provided fitting shelter to the cold, hungry staff of seakayakphoto.com.


We worked our way down the east of the island as we thought we had better take a look round Gull Point at the South end. Phil got his head down for the slog into the wind.


As we cleared the point, we met some interesting conditions. These impressed Phil so much that he managed to turn his kayak without falling in.


Looking back, even the high hills of Arran were obscured by great lumps of water, which were bearing rapidly down on us.


It was time for a sharp exit and we slid down the waves at high speed.


In the lee of Gull point again, Tony came over so we could check each other's GPS scores. Rats! He whopped me with his maximum speed of 16.8 Km/hr.


After a breather in the lee of Little Cumbrae we had to cross The Tan, a narrow body of water, which separates it from its greater neighbour. The west wind was whistling through the gap.


We crossed at a high ferry angle of 350 degrees. Look at the map and see how far we got blown downwind. Note the kinks in our track as the squalls hit us.


Phil made steady progress and learned how to adjust his skeg to prevent weather cocking.


Soon we were in the shelter of Millport Bay and we stopped to replenish depleted body fat reserves on the Eileans.


At first the crossing back to Fairlie was calm as we were in the lee of Great Cumbrae.


By the time we were in mid channel the wind had swung round to the NW against the now flooding tide. Again conditions were quite interesting. Unfortunately, when nearly back at Fairlie, Phil took just a tiny little swim but he held onto his paddle and we had him back in his boat in a jiffy. It was just as well a wave did it because Tony and I were going to throw him in anyway (just for educational purposes, you understand).

What an excellent day out and didn't Phil do well?! He joins a distinguished band of seakayakphoto.com staffers who have gone for a little dip off the Cumbraes...D____d, D____d, C___k and A__n!



04/04/2009