Imagine you are at the edge of the sea on a day when it is difficult to say where the land ends and the sea begins and where the sea ends and the sky begins. Sea kayaking lets you explore these and your own boundaries and broadens your horizons. Sea kayaking is the new mountaineering.
From the cave system, we made our way back down to the sands of the great Bagh an DaDhoruison the north shore of Islay. The islands of Oronsay and Colonsay beckoned on the horizon.
The feelings of space, wildness and isolation washed over us as the sun...
...steadily dipped towards the horizon and the rocks of the cliffs began to redden.
Although the day was now slipping away, we decided to relaunch the kayaks. Oronsay, here we come!
At the top of the existing beach at Bagh an Da Dhoruis there is a raised beach with a long dry marine cave system. It was probably 10,000 years ago that the sea last surged through these subterranean channels.
We were staggered by the scale of the place as we soon lost sight of each other...
..in the maze of interconnecting caverns. In some, prehistoric shell mounds reveal the eating habits of our ancestors.
Unfortunately for our further exploration, the sun was now dipping fast to the western horizon. We still had an open crossing of 11km to reach our destination. We returned to the shore through yet another cave system on this incredible north shore of Islay.
Proceeding up the Sound of Islay we soon came across yet another distillery. What a wondrous isle Islay is! Sea kayak navigation is so easy here. Even we (without a single navigation qualification between us) knew we had arrived at Bunnahabhain. There has been a distillery here since 1881. The fine malt whisky produced here is lighter and less peaty than the whiskies produced by distilleries elsewhere on Islay. This is because the water rises from a limestone spring and is piped directly to the distillery, without gathering peat in surface rivers and lochs. The 18 year old bottling has been described as follows: "The voyage ends with dry notes that are interspersed with mixed spices fading magnificently into a light salt and sherry finale."
Despite its spicy name and overtones, I do not think this whisky distillery has Indian owners.
Bunnahabhain marks the end of the road and we now paddled past one of the wildest and most remote corners of Islay.
To the east, the modesty of the heaving Paps of Jura was covered by a decent layer of cloud.
Our destination was Ruvall lighthouse which is perched on the end of Rubh a' Mhail. An electricity supply was put in to the lighthouse in 1981. The poles and cables were flown in by helicopter but the pilot had a lucky escape when his rotor hit one of the poles that had already been erected.
A basalt dyke runs through the headland to the north of the lighthouse. Its continuation can be seen on the other side of the Sound of Islay, marching up the hillside of the Paps.
The lighthouse was built in 1859 by David and Thomas Stephenson. The tower is 34m high. Every 15 seconds there are 3 quick flashes. The light is white with the exception of the NW quadrant which is red. The lighthouse has been automated since 1983.
Rounding the point, we now left the Sound of Islay and headed west along the most remote part of Islay's incredibly varied coastline.
We thought we were super fit kayakers, flying along as the coast of Islay slipped astern at 14km/hr. It was only when the lobster boat Calon Mor zipped past us that we realised that the tide was doing almost all the work. PE91, Calon Mor was built in Poole in 1983. She is a wooden boat 11.8m long and she used to have a forward wheelhouse when used as a trawler in England then Wales. She is currently owned by Kenneth Woodrow from Bruichladdich, Islay.
Then, beyond the shipshape Calon Mor, we noticed something lying at an odd angle on the shore of Rubha a'Mhill, just south of Bunnahabhain.
It was the wreck of the 328 ton Fleetwood trawler Wyre Majestic. On the night of October the 18th 1974 she was steaming in the company of her sister ship the Wyre Defence to Fleetwood. There was no berth to offload their fish at Oban and they were obviously in a hurry to get their catch to a market.
She was making 10 knots and with a spring tide of 8 knots, she hit the rocks at a combined speed of 18 knots. Fortunately there was no loss of life. At the time of the collision her skipper was below decks and her bosun who was at the wheel admitted he was under the influence of drink. Her skipper and two crew stayed aboard for 10 days, until the next spring tides, in an attempt to refloat her. She stayed firmly stuck on the rocks despite attempts by her sister ship, a tug and the Port Askaig lifeboat to tow her off.
Her bow and bridge have now broken away, leaving only the sad and rusting remains of her stern and midships. She serves as a warning to all mariners to treat the Sound of Islay with the greatest of respect.
An interesting footnote is that the Wyre Majestic was built by Cochranes of Selby in Yorkshire, the same yard, which built the main Islay ferry, the MV Hebridean Isles.
Leaving Port Askaig, the flood tide was racing north up the Sound of Islay at 16km/hr so there was really little choice involved in deciding where to go. Just round the corner from Port Askaig, the NW wind proved to be one of the sweetest winds on the west coast. It was carrying the "Angels' Share" over the water from the Caol Ila distillery. The name means Kyles of Islay (or Narrows of Islay).
The distillery was founded in 1846. From the 1920's until 1972 the distillery was served by its own puffer service, the first, Pibroch was built in 1922, her successor, also called Pibroch, was built in 1957. They sailed from the distillery pier to Glasgow via the Mull of Kintyre. The distillery was expanded and rebuilt in 1974 but now barley comes in and whisky goes out via lorries and the Calmac ferry.
From out in the Sound of Islay we caught sight of the Rhuvaal lighthouse, still some 9km distant.
Although the water of the Sound was calm, we were still proceeding at 14km/hr with little paddling effort.
The summits of the Paps of Jura were decently wreathed in puffs of light cloud.
It had been too long since our kayaks had explored the waters of the magnificent isle of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. We found ourselves waiting to board MV Hebridean Isles at Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninsula.
Our excitement was palpable as the ferry crossed the broad Sound of Jura and approached the narrow Sound of Islay. The latter separates Islay to the south from Jura to the north. Islay is an incredibly beautiful island and has two really excellent blogs devoted to island life: IslayBlog and Islay Weblog.
We unloaded our kayaks at Port Askaig on the Islay side of the Sound of Islay. Port Askaig is a tiny inlet, sheltered from the strong tides of the Sound. We got ourselves ready at the slipway which leads into the little inner harbour where the local lobster boats were berthed.
It is always a pleasure watching the ferries break in and out of the tide, as they berth at their jetties. However, we wasted no time and were on the water before the Hebridean Isles disappeared back to Kennacraig.
The Kyles of Bute, which seperate the Cowal peninsula from the Island of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, are one of my favourite places to paddle. Although far from the open sea and in a sheltered location, strong tides swirl round the Kyles creating interest. For those kayakers who have yet to experience moving water, this is a great location. At the Burnt Isles the tides sweep through at up to 5 knots. The west going stream starts about -0220 HW Greenock and the east going stream about +0440 HW Greenock.
This is looking down the East Kyle with the Ayrshire coast in the distance. The Burnt Isles are in the narrows and just beyond you can see the Bute ferry on the right just about to depart for Colintraive on the Mainland.
This is looking up the West Kyles from Tignabruaich. Despite the proximity to the mountains, palm trees flourish due to the shelter from the wind and the mild sea water which is warmed from the Gulf Stream.
This massive billboard advert caught my eye. The Royal Bank of Scotland was a major casualty of the World recession, after it had over invested in the US subprime mortgage market. The bank is trying to recover by concentrating on its home market and this billboard is part of its campaign to rebuild its image with Scottish customers. I hope they are not thinking they will recoup £2 billion or so from some of the remote communities featured in the adverts. When I first saw the incredibly beautiful TV advert, I thought it was for Visit Scotland, the tourist board. The above photo was taken on the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides and is pretty much the view we recently enjoyed when approaching Scarinish harbour.
This is lovely Loch Striven. It deeply bisects the beautiful Cowal peninsula, which protrudes into the head of the Firth of Clyde. It is a an interesting place to paddle and is in complete contrast to the exposed isle of Tiree. So what is the link, I hear you ask? Well it is to do with the World recession.
Moored within the Loch are five huge container ships from the Maersk Line. One is the Maersk Beaumont and I reported her arrival in the Clyde on the 2nd of May this year.
These great ships, which normally carry the World's trade, are weathering out the worst of the recession, here in the sheltered recesses of Loch Striven. Despite its apparent isolation, Loch Striven has played its part in the World economy on many occasions in the past. I sailed in the loch in May 1974 and there were 10 giant oil tankers moored right along the length of the loch.there. They were laid up as a result of the '73/'74 oil crises. Then in '76 and '77 two giant LPG carriers, which had just been built in Belfast, were mothballed until '92 and '99 in Loch Striven because the discovery of North Sea gas had made them redundant.
View Larger Map At the mouth of Loch Striven an inconspicuous jetty is actually a NATO fuelling point for warships. A huge series of oil tanks are hidden in the hills above.
Today on the 6th September 2009 ShipAIS shows that the Nord Mermaid is unloading fuel oil.
View Larger Map Ardyne Point at the mouth of Loch Striven has another connection with oil.
I took this photo off Ardyne Point from a yacht in May 1978. It shows the concrete Cormorant Alpha oil production platform nearing completion in the Ardyne construction yard, before being transferred to a Norwegian yard for completion. There is an interesting story about this rig told in the Dunoon Observer.
Oil tankers are not the only things to be mothballed on the Clyde. Just a few miles from the mouth of Loch Striven, on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde lies Inverkip oil fired power station. This was opened in the early 1970's just when the oil crises made it uneconomic to generate elictricity from oil. It was only used intermittently and was mothballed in 1988. Its huge chimney of 236m is Scotland's tallest structure and is a landmark for miles around. It is due to be demolished this year.
All in all, Loch Striven is a fantastic sea kayaking destination and despite its proximity to Glasgow, is little known except to local Cowal sea kayakers such as Pam.
Last week, I posted about a delightful spring time trip to Ardwall Island in Fleet Bay on the Solway Firth. It is a truly delightful spot and as you can see, it lies just off shore from a public access point at Carrick shore. It is even possible to walk to it at low tide. It is a wonderful place to visit in settled weather.
Unfortunately the Solway can be very rough, with a combination of wind, swell, shallow water and strong tides all contributing to sometimes treacherous conditions. This recent photo was taken on the 23rd of August 2009, in the peak of the Scottish summer season!
I was very sorry to hear of the news that 4 people's holiday had come to an end when they were marooned on Ardwall Island last Thursday night. They were marooned on the island after they could not relaunch their dinghy when conditions deteriorated. Winds gusted up to 31 knots as a low pressure system swept across SW Scotland.
Thank goodness the Kircudbright Coastguard, the Mossyard inshore rescue boat and a Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley in Wales managed to locate and rescue all four people, in a stormy dark night.
Thanks to our professional and volunteer rescue services for going out in such an atrocious conditions.
2009 is the year of the Homecoming when Scotland encourages its diaspora to visit their homeland. Few visits can be as poignant as that of Mr Norman John Gillies who is the last living survivor of the community on St Kilda, which was evacuated in 1930.
BBC Norman is a sprightly 84 year old who was 5 years old when St Kilda was evacuated.
BBC His mother Mary Gillies developed appendicitis while she was pregnant and was taken to Glasgow by boat. Norman can still remember standing on the jetty and watching as his mother waved to him from the boat. It was the last time he saw her. By the time the boat got her to Glasgow she was so ill that she died. The final decision to evacuate St Kilda, was hastened by her death.
Norman John's return to his grandfather's cottage, No 10 St Kilda, will feature in a film which will be broadcast as part of a series of documentaries about St Kilda on BBC Alba tomorrow.
I have a drawer full of both inspirational and technique DVD's and videos from the windsurfing, mountain biking, snowboarding and sea kayaking worlds. Most, I have watched just once but I am now previewing one that will be watched many times and in different ways. It is Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown.
Gordon Brown is a highly respected Scottish kayak coach who runs Skyak Adventures on Skye with his wife Morag. He recently wrote the technique book “Sea Kayak”, published by Pesda Press. This has already been reprinted and has become a standard text for aspiring sea kayakers across the world. The one criticism of the book is that its many illustrations of sequences of strokes are, by necessity, small. Simon Willis of Sunart Media, and a keen amateur sea kayaker himself, has now teamed up with Gordon to produce a DVD to address this gap in the book. But this DVD is not just a technique DVD; it is a synthesis of technique demonstrations interspersed with an inspirational four day sea kayaking voyage along the west coast of the island of Skye off Scotland's west coast. I think this DVD has another unique feature, Gordon and Simon know each other well and this comes across in lots of ways, like a shared laugh, which makes this an involving DVD to watch. It really is like having Gordon as your personal coach, he is not just talking to an impassionate, professional cameraman. Simon is one of us!
The DVD can be watched right through ,with the journey being interspersed with the coaching at appropriate points e.g. linking steering strokes when rock hopping through the skerries and tidal paddling when rounding Neist Point etc. Alternatively, in the final production edition of the DVD, you will be able to watch just the journey or just the coaching or any individual chapter of either section.
The DVD is primarily intended for intermediate kayakers to improve their techniques in more challenging conditions but it is also intended to set beginners on the right track. Many who consider themselves experts will also see that there is still much too learn. The technique chapters don’t cover everything in the book but concentrate on body position, edging and paddle strokes, which will allow intermediate paddlers to develop their ability to handle their kayak when rock hopping, in rough water, in windy conditions, in following seas and in tidal waters.
How to paddle with your eyes shut!
There are six technique chapters. Chapter one, the foundations, covers body position, edging and leaning. Chapter two covers forward paddling. Chapter three, turning, looks at sweep strokes, bow rudder, cross bow rudder, braced turn and linking several turning strokes together. Chapter four, steering, looks at the stern rudder. Chapter five, rock hopping, introduces draw on the move, hanging draw and bow draw and shows how all previous strokes can be combined. Gordon also demonstrates how to read rough water. Chapter 6, tidal races, looks at breaking in and out, angle of approach and handling confused water. It also illustrates how many of the above strokes are used at different stages of crossing eddy lines. Gordon finishes by demonstrating a 720 degree pirouette on a fast eddy line, finishing back where he started, with his eyes shut!
As mentioned above, there are some omissions of material covered in the book and some basic stokes such as low and high braces are not given individual coverage. However, more advanced bracing is demonstrated as a component part of manoeuvres such as fast turns in rough water and crossing eddy lines. I think this is appropriate for a DVD which is primarily aimed at intermediates. Aspects of sea kayak handling, which are not covered, include: rolling, rescues, towing, landing and launching in surf and up tide eddy hopping. There is plenty to look forward to in a second DVD then!
I am not going to say too much about the journey section and let the viewer discover for themselves that it beautifully illustrates stunning Skye scenery, geology, natural history, archaeology, history and a group of people having fun in this wonderful environment. Two highlights, that I will mention, are Gordon singing a Jacobite rebel song deep within the recesses of huge sea cave and Jim, one of the paddlers, describing how sea kayaking is great for clearing all the pressures of work out of your head. His description is dubbed onto a clip of him paddling under a waterfall, with the spray bouncing off his head! The filming (shot in HD quality but edited in DVD quality) is superb, as is the editing. The on water filming is shot from the bow cockpit of an Aleut Sea II double kayak.
Cross bow rudder position demonstrated statically...
...dynamically...
...and dynamically from on board camera.
The technique chapters are all shot from various heights and angles with camera locations on land, on another kayak and with Simon probably chest deep in water. This part of the DVD was also shot in HD but is complemented by lower resolution filming from high camera mounts on Gordon's bow and stern. Each technique is illustrated several times and from these several viewpoints. The blade positions are demonstrated statically then dynamically. This and the fact that Gordon's kayak and paddle are clearly labelled with red and green, port and starboard, stickers makes it very easy to follow what is going on. This was particularly useful when demonstrating turning strokes such as the cross bow rudder.
The sound quality, even in the rough weather sequences, is superb with very little wind noise. Gordon has a soft Scottish accent with good diction, which I find very relaxing, engaging and easy to follow. I cannot say how easy this will be for non native English speakers to follow. However, each technique is repeated about three times and Simon does a studio voice over on the last. Simon is a naturalised Scot from Northumberland, who has worked for the BBC. If you can't understand his diction, you can't speak English!
The editing has resulted in a very clear to follow film which is not rushed. Unlike some other technique videos, you will not wear out the pause, reverse and slow motion buttons on your remote control. A small price of this is occasional repetition but I think the editing has achieved a new standard for sports technique videos. It never becomes dry; at one of the rough water handling sections, when the camera lens is being drenched by spray, Gordon is nearly on the rocks, surrounded by crashing waves but just can't stop grinning and having fun! One criticism that might be made of the DVD is that Gordon is not wearing a helmet in this sequence. I know that the rock in question is just down from his house and that he has sat in the waves there countless times. In the book, Gordon describes a very pragmatic and sensible approach to helmet use.
Many sea kayakers use forward paddling strokes 99.9999% of the time. I think that they especially would benefit from watching this DVD. Many may question the need for other strokes but to watch Gordon is to open your mind to a whole new level of sea kayaking. After seeing Gordon perform 10 different, linked and flowing strokes in about as many seconds, while winding through a narrow rocky channel in the surf, you will realise that this is not just rock hopping but rock ballet! (Minus the pumps and tights of course, Gordon is a green Welly man!)
Watch Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown on DVD, broaden your horizons, improve your paddling and have more fun!
Essential details: Price: £19.95 Format: PAL DVD Running time: 75 minutes plus 15minutes extras. Purchase from: http://www.seakayakwithgordonbrown.com/ site live early October 2009. Scottish Premier: SCA Paddle 09 in Perth at 11am Saturday 24/10/2009 Release date: 1/11/2009
