Sunday, January 03, 2010

Alpen glow brings the 2009 sea kayaking year to a close.


As we crossed Fairlie Roads we left the navigation buoys marking the edge of the the shipping lane behind. In the distance to the SW, Ailsa Craig still peeped over the horizon though it was 60km away. A solitary yacht was also making her way back to Largs marina.


The sun was now beginning to set over Arran and the south end of Little Cumbrae.


As we approached the marina, the yacht dropped her sails and we heard the quiet phut phut of her engine in the still air.


The stone tower of the first Little Cumbrae lighthouse was silhouetted against the setting sun as the mountains of Arran slipped into shade.


Long after sunset we spotted the tiny figures of a lone walker and dog high on the Whatside hills. The snows were lit by the most beautiful shade of alpen glow.


This brought our last paddle of 2009 to a close. It was only 27km, which was not bad for just about the shortest day of the year. It brought my running total to 890km for 2009. It was a pity I had missed 3 months paddling in the summer after injuring my knee at the start of June. Nonetheless, in the circumstances, I was delighted to have achieved such a fantastic variety of trips in 2009. It has been a pleasure to have you along on this virtual adventure together!

I owe a great deal of thanks to all my paddling friends who have literally carried me through it.

:o)

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Two piers, a lion and a smokeless chimney


From Millport Bay, on Great Cumbrae's south coast, we rounded Farland Point and entered the the Fairlie Roads channel. On the far side of the channel, the bulk carrier Wah Shan had wasted no time and was now discharging her cargo of coal (at 2400 tons per hour) at the Clydeport ore terminal. The deep water pier is 1.5km long and was opened in 1979.


On the Cumbrae side, Alan paddled under the much older Keppel Pier, which was one of the piers that served Great Cumbrae until the roll on/roll off slipway was built at the north of the island. It was built from wood in 1888. Nowadays the passengers are all gone and it serves as a support for a sea surface temperature monitoring device.


Just north of Keppel Pier, Lion Rock is a basalt dyke, which forced its way through the surrounding Old Red sandstone rocks.


To the north, the Cowal mountains were all covered by snow and at sea level, the Toward lighthouse was dwarfed by the disused chimney of the mothballed Inverkip oil fired power station.


The buildings of the town of Largs gradually took shape and we were nearly home.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Palm trees and snow on Costa Clyde


We left Sheanawally Point, at the north end of Little Cumbrae, as the clouds started to lift.


We crossed The Tan to arrive at Millport, the capital of Great Cumbrae.


We basked in the sun under palm trees...


...and enjoyed breathtaking views over Millport Bay...


...to the snow covered hills of Arran.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar 2010

I wish a very Happy New Year to all visitors to seakayakphoto.com. As way of a celebration of the last year and in anticipation of sea kayaking adventures yet to come, here is the 6th annual sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar from seakayakphoto.com. The above link will lead to high resolution photos in four different desktop sizes.


January. Sunset over Bernera Island and Mull from the west coast of Lismore.


February. A lone kayaker crosses Loch Leven below the winter mountains of Glen Coe.


March. Pladda from the old red sandstone slabs on Kildonan Beach, Arran.


April. The Cuillin of Rum from Portuairk beach, Ardnamurchan.


May. Tricky landing and launch at Portandea, Firth of Clyde.


June. Sunset over the Islands of Fleet, Solway Firth.


July. Sunset over the Outer Hebrides from the NW coast of Coll.


August. Broken knee beach, Gunna.


September. Raised beach, West Loch Tarbert, Isle of Jura.


October. Balnahard Beach, Isle of Colonsay.


November. Approaching Glen Sannox, Arran from Garroch Head, Bute.


December. Rainbow Rock, Rinns of Galloway.

A buoyant character, a guru and two malts.


As we rounded Gull point at the south end of Little Cumbrae, we literally bumped into an old friend, Richard Cree and his two companions from Garnock Canoe Club. Richard is a very buoyant character in the waters of the Scottish Canoe scene. He gives a lot of his time to help others in the sport. In addition to being current commodore of the Garnock CC, he is also the Regional Coaching Officer for Strathclyde West (and a former Director) of the Scottish Canoe Association.


After a good chat, during which the merits of clockwise or anticlockwise circumnavigations were discussed, we retired to the castle for luncheon. After medium rare roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, we had home made Christmas cake washed down by two fine malts. We started off with an 18 year old Glenfiddich which was simply superb. This was followed by a 12 year old Speyside malt. This was good but the consensus was that it would have been better to start with this and move up to the 18 year old.


We chatted with the caretaker who is employed by the new Indian owners of the island. They plan to open the island as a base for the teachings of an Indian Yog Guru Swami Ramdev. I am not sure if roast beef and whisky will be on the menu. They owners waiting at Largs Marina to see if the weather would break. The caretaker tidied recent storm debris from the jetty in preparation for their arrival. He had also been employed by the previous owner. The quad bike looked a fun way to get round the rough tracks on the island.


As we left the landing site by the castle, we could see the promised weather had broken through far to the south. Ailsa Craig shimmered on a sunny horizon.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Number 38


Crossing the Tan, which is the channel separating the Great and Little Cumbrae isles, we came across this funny looking buoy (No 38) with a top that looked like an upside down bishop's hat. There were no directions on it so we proceeded in a southerly direction...


...and were soon paddling down...


...the series of raised beaches which characterise the west coast of Little Cumbrae.


Assisted by wind and tide, we swept past the old and new lighthouses.


But it was cold. The chill wind blew right from Valhalla, in the cold wastes of Asgard.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A chill wind on the Clyde


WE had decided to paddle anticlockwise round the Cumbraes to take advantage of the ebb tide and NNW wind which would help our progress down the west coast of both islands. In the distance we could see a tanker waiting at the south end of the Clyde channel to pick up a pilot from the Clyde pilot boat the MV Mount Stewart.


Rounding Skate Point at the NW end of Great Cumbrae, it was a relief to get the wind behind us.


With Bute and Arran in the background, the tanker proved to be the Nuuk Maersk, a small product tanker of 144m x23m and 16,600DWT. She was built in 2007. She was en route to the the oil storage facility at Finnart some 46km further up the Clyde estuary on the banks of the fjord like Loch Long.


The west coasts of Great and Little Cumbrae stretched away to Holy Island and Arran in the distance. There are a series of raised beaches and the distant Little Cumbrae lighthouse is built on one of them.


Even with the wind behind us, there was considerable windchill and we used hoods as well as thermal hats and pogies for our hands. We began to wonder what had happened to the forecast sunshine and light winds.