Friday, January 04, 2008

Sea Kayaking Desktop Calendar April 2008


A glassy sea reflects the sunset over Fleet Bay in the Solway Firth.

If you would like to download the April desktop, it is available in sizes of 1920x1200, 1280x1024, 1024x768 and 800x600.

For best results, do not use the photos from this blogger site but visit the Scottish Sea Kayaking Photo Gallery and click on the size of your desk top. Most visitors to this site use 1280x1024 or 1024x768. You can check your desktop size by right clicking anywhere on it then left click properties then left click settings.

Other months to follow....

Some other computer calendars you might like to peruse are the Islay Weblog Desktop Calendar and John Gray's Seacanoe E calendar (requires Flash player).

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Sea Kayaking Desktop Calendar March 2008


Paddling across Inchmarnock Sound under a fantastic skyscape.

If you would like to download the March desktop, it is available in sizes of 1920x1200, 1280x1024, 1024x768 and 800x600.

For best results, do not use the photos from this blogger site but visit the Scottish Sea Kayaking Photo Gallery and click on the size of your desk top. Most visitors to this site use 1280x1024 or 1024x768. You can check your desktop size by right clicking anywhere on it then left click properties then left click settings.

Other months to follow....

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Sea Kayaking Desktop Calendar February 2008


The winter sun sets below the walls of the great fantasy castle of Culzean (pron. Cullane) on the Ayrshire coast of the Firth of Clyde.

If you would like to download the February desktop, it is available in sizes of 1920x1200, 1280x1024, 1024x768 and 800x600.

For best results, do not use the photos from this blogger site but visit the Scottish Sea Kayaking Photo Gallery and click on the size of your desk top. Most visitors to this site use 1280x1024 or 1024x768. You can check your desktop size by right clicking anywhere on it then left click properties then left click settings.

Other months to follow....

Monday, December 31, 2007

Sea Kayaking Desktop Calendar January 2008


Since 2005, the Scottish Sea Kayaking Photo Gallery has produced a monthly desktop calendar. This year, due to the arrival of side bar and gadget calendars, I have left the date grid out but there is still an appeal in 12 monthly desktop backgrounds. If you would like to download the January desktop, it is available in sizes of 1920x1200, 1280x1024, 1024x768 and 800x600.

For best results, do not use the photos from this blogger site but visit the Scottish Sea Kayaking Photo Gallery and click on the size of your desk top. Most visitors to this site use 1280x1024 or 1024x768. You can check your desktop size by right clicking anywhere on it then left click properties then left click settings.

Other months to follow....

Have a great 2008! :o)

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Carpe diem: a winter's day on the Clyde.


Our winter solstice paddle continued in the most beautiful light.


The problem with Scotland in the winter is that these days are few and far between. Carpe diem....


....let no one accuse the staff of seakayakphoto.com of not doing so!


Happy paddling in 2008 :o)

21/12/2007

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Melting glaciers, kayaks, interconnectors and ships.


On our journey south along Ayrshire's Atlantic coast, the volcanic cliffs are breached in only one place. The low winter sun played a warming light on Curarrie Port but the air was icy cold. The wooded glen follows the line of a geological fault but the tiny present day Shallochwreck Burn is not big enough to have cut the deep glen. However, at the end of the last ice age, it would have been a raging torrent carrying melt water from the glaciers of Galloway to the sea.


Currarie port is just about the only landing spot in 10km of this rocky coastline. Even so surf often breaks heavily on it and you need to be prepared for a cockpit full of water on launching or landing. I do love the fine lines of the Valley Nordkapp LV hull. I just wish it had a Rockpool cockpit!


Northern Ireland Energy Holdings.
In 2001/02 the construction of the Moyle Interconnector allowed the export of electricity from Scotland to Ireland. The route of the 500MW cables also took advantage of this breach in the cliffs. Fortunately there is no trace of the excavations.


Just offshore from Currarie Port this mystery ship loomed out of the sea mist. Her course was much closer inshore than the normal shipping channel. She was flying no flags to identify her origin. The large crane may be for lifting and lowering a submersible. Perhaps she is a cable inspection vessel?

One way or another, lots of things today are linked to a meting glacier 10,000 years ago!

21/12/2007

P.S. Stuart A. has kindly identified the ship and her role:

"The ship is the MV PHAROS which belongs to the Northern Lighthouse Board. She is used for the maintenance of navigational marks - hence the crane for lifting large buoys, etc. and the reason why she was off the beaten track."

The NLV Pharos came into service in March 2007. She was built in Poland. Her smaller sister ship is the NLV Pole Star. She was commissioned in 2000 and was built by Ferguson's on the Clyde.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Paddling past pillow lava at Downan Point


As we paddled past Downan Point, on the south Ayrshire coast, we came across ancient lava floes where the cliffs tumbled into the sea.


On closer inspection we found the basalt rocks to be in a form called pillow lava. These pillow lavas date from the Caradoc age of the late Ordovician period, some 450 million years ago. At that time sea levels were much higher than today and these lavas were formed when they oozed from a volcanic vent which was under water. Despite their great age, these pillows look as fresh as any contemporary pillow lavas found on Hawaii.