Monday, January 22, 2007

Winter sunset, Loch Etive



After what seems like three months of solid wind and rain, today, Blue Monday (supposedly the most depressing day of the year), dawned clear and bright in the West of Scotland. Yesterday was not very pleasant and today was a work day! It was a day just like the beautiful day we enjoyed in Loch Etive exactly a two years ago. After Jennifer paddled past me into the setting sun, I was dazzled by the beauty of droplets of water dropping off her paddle and landing on the surface of the sea. They stayed intact for a few moments, floating on the surface of the sea, until their surface tension broke and released them.



In this photo I was trying to get nice sharp drops coming off the paddle with a blurred background. I used the zoom at 150mm, set the lens at its maximum aperture of f3.2 and used a film speed of ISO 100 to get as little grain as possible. The drops did not really come out. I should have used a shorter shutter speed by setting film speed to ISO 200 or 400. Sometimes (quite often actually) the shot in your mind just does not come out. But you can always try!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Kelly Kettle Karrier



An apparently normal Quest on a Berneray beach in the Sound of Harris hides a secret. From outside my Quest looks completely standard... Well here is a shot of inside the cockpit...



OK so now you all know I am a fan of the Kelly Kettle and this is my Kelly Kettle Karrier. Cut from a block of ethafoam and glued in with contact adhesive, it has a piece of shockcord with one of those clever little red plastic shockcord cleats. I normally keep it in a thin nylon drybag and keep the centre full of kindling.


Kelly Kettle in action.

Time for a cuppa!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Quick brew stoves: high tech versus low cunning.



A version of this test first appeared in UK Paddles magazine in June 2005.

Introduction:

Increasingly sea kayaking is seen as a 4-season activity. Although in the coldest weather most trips are single day, kayakers venture into remote exposed areas. Last spring on a sunny day, I learned first hand how important it is to have means of making a quick brew on such trips. One of us fell out of the boat trying to land on a steeply shelving rocky beach. Another two slipped in above their waterproof trousers trying to recover hapless kayaker and boat. The water was freezing.

There was much laughter and we soon changed into dry clothes but the biting north wind had chilled us to the bone. Lunch had been early that day and our flasks were now empty. But fortunately my main camping stove and pans were still in my boat from a camping trip. We soon had piping hot drinks which not only physically warmed us, but did much to restore morale for the exposed 15 kilometre crossing ahead.

I resolved always to carry means of making multiple quick brews and began to look at the alternatives to full size cooking equipment more suitable for preparing full meals. I looked at 4 very different solutions: a traditional stainless steel flask by Aladdin; a gas mini stove/ mini cook set combination by OutdoorDesigns/MSR; a combined gas burner/boiler/cup by Jetboil and finally, a wild card entry, the wood burning Kelly Kettle.

The tests:

This test was carried out on a variety of trips including an extremely cold (frozen sea water) January trip to Loch Etive, a sunny but cold January trip to the Solway, a very windy and cold February surf trip to Doonfoot on the Clyde, a sunny but cold February trip to Loch Stornoway, a very cold and windy 5* assessment (as a guinea pig!) March weekend on Skye and finally, another windy cold March camping trip to Loch Bracadale, Skye. This tester’s call of duty extends far beyond a “back garden” test!

1. Aladdin Adventurer Vacuum Flask



Aladdin 0.75ml stainless steel flask. £9 from John Lewis.
Not all stainless steel flasks are the same. Some do not keep liquids hot for more than a couple of hours and some have an annoyingly complex push button spout that will not pour thick drinks and invariably unscrews itself into two pieces when you try to remove it. This flask is different. Unopened it will keep drinks hot for a full day’s paddling (8 hours) and it has a simple one piece screw cap which is easy to remove to pour thick soups. It is remarkably cheap but obviously has limited capacity and if only half the drink is used, the rest cools down quite quickly.

2. Mini stove/mini cook set/windshield





OutdoorDesigns mini gas stove. £30 (£15 in sale!); Cotswold Outdoor. (MSR do a similar design: the Pocket Rocket.)
MSR Duralite cookset 1.0l and 1.5l pans. £40; Tiso.
MSR Duralite frying pan. £19; Tiso.
HiGear folding aluminium windshield. £7; Tiso
Coleman self sealing screw fit butane/propane gas cylinders: range from 100g £2.50 to 500g £5.00; Tiso

The OutdoorDesigns mini gas stove fits on 100g or 500g screw on gas cylinders. It arrives in a neat plastic case and its 4 support arms fold out easily. It has a piezoelectric igniter that worked even in the coldest weather. The burner is a good size and the control valve allows a decent simmer with out burning. There is no built in windshield. Overall, this is a highly effective product and using the above combination, it boils a pint of water very quickly; see results for comparison.


MSR mini cook set with Kelly kettle base.

If you have not used MSR Duralite (hard anodised aluminium) pans yet, you really should try them. They conduct heat extremely efficiently and it is possible to cook thick drinks/food like soup and porridge easily and without burning. The effective non-stick means that they are easy to wipe clean. The stove and handle fit inside the smaller pan. The accessory frying pan adds versatility (bacon sandwiches, yum!) and fits the base of the pans for carrying in the supplied mesh bag. The whole fits a Quest sized day hatch cover.

The HiGear aluminium windshield is very light and folds flat for storage. It is large enough to shield not only the burner but also small pans, even when the burner is on top of a 500g gas cylinder. Unfolded into a “U” shape, it is self-supporting and it also has two sliding wire pegs that can be pushed into turf or sand for additional stability. This is highly recommended, not just for day trips but all camp cooking.

3. JetBoil



JetBoil burner/heat exchanger/cup. £65; Cotswold
As soon as I saw one of these, the “techie” in me just had to have one! It is made of first class materials and is of a unique design. The cooking pot/drinking cup is made of anodised aluminium and has a heat exchanger/wind shield permanently fixed to its base. A removable insulating neoprene sleeve with a sewn on holding strap covers the pot. There is a plastic lid with a drinking hole and a plastic cover to shield the base unit when the burner unit is removed after heating.

The burner unit attaches by a system of twist on lugs and slots but I had to use a file on the slots to get a good fit. The unit is designed to be self contained and the burner unit, with a 100g gas cylinder, fits inside the pot. If you store it this way, it is best to put the burner in a poly bag before putting it in the pot. Residual soup and or salt/sand from the base of the cylinder will set up an electrolytic reaction between the aluminium of the pot and the steel of the cylinder.

The combination of gas cylinder/, burner and pot is quite tall and the 100g cartridge is very narrow which makes the whole unstable. It is very easy to hold the top of the pot as the heat exchanger is so efficient but 500g cartridges would be more stable to use on a longer camping trip. Accessory pots are an (expensive) option which might be useful on a trip with more than one person, but an Aladdin insulated mug (£3.50 from John Lewis) is more than ten times cheaper! Another problem with drinking from the pot is that soup dribbles down the fabric cover of the neoprene jacket which is difficult to clean and would be rather unhygienic on a longer trip.

The JetBoil has piezo ignition that works well in temperate conditions but which failed to work in cold conditions, even when the OutdoorDesigns stove successfully ignited. A match soon had the JetBoil going but there is very little control over the flame and each time I attempted to cook soup it burned on the base. The pot proved very difficult to clean, as there is no non-stick. However, the unit was highly effective at boiling water. Even on a windswept, wave soaked reef, during the 5* rescue of a “casualty”, the JetBoil came up with a several hot drinks in a matter of minutes. This was very impressive. I noticed a problem with 100g cylinders, particularly when full and in colder conditions. Once lit, the burner tended to flare as liquid gas came through the burner. This burned the neoprene jacket and my fingers and the control valve was not adjustable enough to stop it.

4. Kelly Kettle



Kelly Kettle. £32; Scottish Paddler Supplies.

This wood-burning stove, of cunning design, is totally different from anything else. The kettle and the fire tray are made from aluminium. The centre of the kettle is a hollow, conical chimney that narrows from the base so most of the water is at the hotter top. It carries a pint of water retained by a large cork secured by a chain (remember to remove the cork before boiling.) The kettle on test did not leak but a friend’s dribbles a little through the cork so he carries the water separately. Only water can be boiled so if you want hot soup or porridge you will need to use a dried packet or one of the quick varieties of oats you can pour boiling water over, stir and eat.

Although it will burn anything, even damp wood, I have found carrying a small amount of finely split dried kindling to be very effective. Enough kindling and firelighters for 3 fires can be carried inside the chimney. The kettle smells strongly of smoke after use so I carry it in a heavy poly bag.



In use, a rocket of flame spouts from the top of the kettle and is very impressive and morale raising in windy conditions. With dried kindling no sparks escaped so it should not set the countryside alight! Within minutes you have a rolling boil and you can lift the kettle off the fire tray using the wooden handle and pour using the cork and chain to tip the kettle. You soon judge the exact amount of wood to achieve a boil and leave just a few embers that can either be doused or used to start another fire. It is very cheap to run and can be used to produce plentiful hot water for washing on a longer trip.

Last year on islands to the north and west of North Uist, we ran low on gas. A Kelly Kettle would have been a boon, as it will burn almost anything though damp wood does produce a lot of smoke. It also works extremely well in high wind conditions. My friend fell out his boat during a surf landing in force 5 conditions on a March camping trip to an island off the west coast of Skye. He was soaked and frozen and it was getting late. The Kelly Kettle produced a pint of boiling water for two drinks within minutes, in an exposed position that the gas stoves struggled in.

Results: boiling times.


If you do a Google search on these stoves, you will discover lots of web pages with pseudo scientific tests which measure heating times in great detail. In this test, on a sheltered beach in the Solway, from unpacking to boiling time, the mini stove/pan/windshield combination, the JetBoil and the Kelly Kettle all produced boiling water within 20 seconds of one another.

On an exposed island in force 4 to 5 winds, the Kelly Kettle really came into its own boiling a pint in a third of the time of the gas stoves. On a wet reef with no level ground to set a stove on, the hand held JetBoil boiled a pint in conditions where it was not possible to set either of the other stoves up.

The Scores:



Conclusions:

For a quick cup of soup, the flask is hard to beat but once you have drunk it, that’s it has limited application for an emergency quick brew. It also lacks the psychological boost of actually creating a hot drink, from a cold start, in hostile conditions.

The OutdoorDesigns mini stove/ MSR mini cook set/ windbreak combination proved the most versatile. Not only would it boil as quickly as the others you could also use it to cook soup or even a bacon sandwich (solid food is out with the remit of this test).

The JetBoil is very high tech, worked in moderate winds without a windshield and, uniquely, could boil when hand held (not recommended by the manufacturer). However, it has several design flaws, outlined above, and was not very good cooking thick liquids.

The Kelly Kettle proved its ability to boil water in any conditions that you can find a small level base for it. It seems impervious to wind and is cheap to run, burning almost anything.

So which one did I buy? Well they all have strong points so I ended up buying all four! Which one do I like best? Well if I have to choose, the Kelly Kettle has to be the overall test winner, a case of low cunning beats high tech!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Highland cow at Loch Shieldaig, Torridon



This is for Michael who liked the highland cow in my recent Loch Lomond photo. This is an Applecross highland cow. By and large they are docile beasts which is why they are not dehorned. However you need to be very careful in their presence. There has been a tourist death caused by highland cow near Plockton. A man got between a cow and her calf.



The photo was taken on the little single track road that leads round the remote Applecross peninsula. The viewpoint is looking across Loch Shieldaig to Shieldaig village and the old red sandstone hills of Torridon beyond. Loch Shieldaig opens out onto Loch Torridon and both make superb sea kayaking venues.

The highland cow is a hardy beast and remains out on the hill all year round. This amazing photograph of a young highland cow up to its neck in snow at Carronbridge was taken by Andrew Millian on 18/1/07. It appeared in several Scottish newspapers yesterday.


AP Photo/Andrew Millian/PA

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Fingal's Cave, Staffa



Until 1829 this great sea cave on the island of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides was known by its Gaelic name, Uamh-Binn or Cave of Melody in English.



Approaching Staffa, you are struck by its three layered structure. The lowest is a layer of tuff (or compressed volcanic ash). The amazing mid layer is composed of dark basaltic hexagonal columns. These formed as a layer of lava from the Mull eruption slowly cooled. The top layer is another layer of lava which has cooled to form a uniform layer of basalt.



On the day of our visit a boat load of tourists landed as we approached the island. But by the time we pulled our kayaks up on the little beach beside the jetty, the tourists had all “done” the cave and made their way onto Staffa’s summit plateau. We made our way round to the now deserted Fingal’s Cave and slowly entered, our eyes adjusting to the darkness into which soaring basalt columns disappeared like the pillars supporting the vault of a great mediaeval cathedral. Our ears were filled with the gentle surge of the surf and our thoughts naturally turned to Mendelssohn’s Hebridean Symphony, which had been inspired by this natural music of the cave.



Then it started, out of the darkness came the most beautiful singing of Handel’s Messiah. The Glorias rose as a duet to the roof of the cave then echoed round till a whole chorus of harmonies filled our ears. The hair prickled on the back of our necks and we were captivated by the sound as we stood silent in the darkness. When the singing stopped, two German music teachers emerged from the gloom of the cave. It was a reminder of how Mankind’s own works can sometimes challenge even the most remarkable of Nature’s wonders. We congratulated them and were delighted when they asked if they could stay and watch while we brought our kayaks round to paddle inside the cave!



Then in 1829, Mendelssohn subtitled his manuscript for Hebridean Overture "Fingal's Cave" after the mythical Scottish/Irish Giant. The name has stuck.


PS added 21/1/07

This was a perfect day and at its end, we enjoyed a perfect sunset from the summit of Lunga in the Treshnish Isles looking over Coll in the Inner Hebrides to the distant mountains of Barra and South Uist.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

A national Marine Park for Scotland.


Staffa

Staffa is an island of volcanic origin with its basalt colums and melodious Fingal's cave, which inspired Mendelssohn to write Hebridean Overture. It is now at the heart of an area proposed for Scotland's first National Marine Park: the Argyll Islands and Coast.


Proposed area of the Argyll Islands and Coast National Marine Park.

If you ever get stuck in a pub with a a bunch of Scots, and they guess from your accent that you come from elsewhere, they will soon tell you that Scots invented just about anything of importance in the world: modern economics, steam engine, iron ships, anaesthetics, antibiotics, medical ultrasound, telephone, TV, IrnBru and most other things besides, including conservation of wild places. Conservation of wild places? Well The Sierra Club, the world's first environmental protection organisation, was founded in San Fransisco in 1892 by a Scot, John Muir.

Unfortunately Muir's homeland was less receptive to his ideas and the John Muir Trust charity was not established until 1983. Scotland's first National Park, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, was set up as recently as 2002.


Loch Lomond National Park

I think Muir would have been disappointed not only by the long delay in its establishment but in the direction it has taken. I stand to be corrected, but many people see it restricting established residents who want to put a dormer window in their roof whilst encouraging big businesses to build golf courses, hotels and timeshares that few locals can afford. While they have been busy doing that they have done nothing but encourage that essential component of any national park: the jet ski. It is hardly surprising then that the Argyll fishermen and crofters are concerned in case a Marine Park is imposed upon them. Ian MacKinnon, a local fisherman, said on BBC Scotland tonight "The local referendum we are seeking is not to block the National Park, it's to make sure that the National Park goes ahead in the right place. A place where the community, who will have to live with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, support it." Ian is a born diplomat, what a polite way of saying "get stuffed!"

Don't get me wrong, I am all for a National Marine Park. One that has the interests of the environment, the locals and visitors to the fore. Let's just leave big business, golf courses and time shares out of the equation.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Winter sun, Loch Etive



One reason I like photography is that it lets you remember good times. This photo was taken 2 years ago in Loch Etive. Its head waters cut deep into the Scottish west coast, almost reaching the mountains of Glen Coe. It can be accessed either from its head or nearer its origin in the Firth of Lorn. Personally I like paddling into its head and feeling the winter mountains drawing round me, cutting me off from the open sea. Truly I have entered the interface between mountain and sea. I dream on....