Gone Paddling Sea Kayak Circumnavigation of Britain 2010

Early morning farewell to Kim on Girvan beach.

A puffin decides to let us paddle right past it – usually they fly off before the camera comes out.

Decision time approaching the Mull of Kintyre – wind is picking up and veering SW…

… so we choose to land at Southend and approach the tide races around the Mull fresh, at the start of the next day’s paddling.

An early start to the Bank Holiday monday – on the water at 7.30 and heading west towards Ailsa Craig.  There was very little wind but the currents in the Firth of Clyde were a bit stronger than we’d anticipated from looking at the tidal stream chartlets.  A few puffins, a pod of porpoises and what seemed like thousands upon thousands of gannets swarming in huge clouds around Ailsa Craig: the huge rock 8 miles offshore from Girvan.

We’d hoped to get to the Mull of Kintyre in time to make it round as far as Machrihanish, but the wind increased in strength during the afternoon and veered around towards South West, and we decided the more sensible thing would be to land at Southend, within striking distance of the Mull in order to attack it during calmer winds when they die down.  When we made the decision to stop, with the winds about F4, the ebb around the headland was about 2.5 – 3 knots.  Although the current was in our favour, the winds across it pushing us onto the cliffs might have caused a few problems, especially at the end of quite a long day when tiredness was beginning to show.  A bit of dumpy surf onto a reasonably steep beach made for an interesting landing.

After driving for us for ten days, Kim handed over to Byron in Glasgow; Byron’s first task was a 5 hour drive north to the end of Loch Lomond, before turning south and driving all the way down to the end of the Mull of Kintyre!  Another day of strong winds makes progress tomorrow look unlikely.

James

Washing lines across the car park.  Some of these clothes haven’t been washed for 6 weeks…

Ailsa Craig.

Strong westerlies today, so a chance to have a shower and do some washing.  A good windy and sunny day to get things dried again.  The view across to the Mull of Kintyre, with Arran and Ailsa Craig in glorious sunshine sitting in front; at night the lighthouses all up this section of coast are a good reminder we’re in Scotland, and a portent of what’s to come over the next few weeks as we paddle up the west coast through the sounds and around the islands.  Easterly winds are forecast for tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll be off nice and early.

James

A bit of chop around Black Head, just north of Portpatrick.

The high-speed sea cat ferry approaches the entrance to Lock Ryan.

Joe paddling in front of Ailsa Craig.

Girvan approaches slowly, against the wind and the small ebbing current, as evening draws on.

We delayed leaving Portpatrick until 11 am today, in order to catch the counter current which runs northwards up the Rhins two hours before the main tide turns – on the advice of a local lifeboat skipper.  Progress was quick in the morning, with the following wind and strong tidal assistance.

Patchy fog descended before we crossed the shipping lanes leaving Stranraer and Cairnryan, and with a slight headwind and current against us the afternoon was a bit more of a slog.  Initial ETA at Girvan was 6pm, then 7pm, and finally we arrived at 8.15pm.  Time for Kim to rustle up an extra special meal of local flat sausages and veg.  No room for pudding today!

James

Loading up again after two days waiting at Drummore.

Nesting birds under the foghorn at the Mull of Galloway

Dunskey Castle, perched on the clifftops.  Local residents told us of planning restrictions which have delayed completion of the build; it is hoped the castle will be finished by summer 2011.

Pretty harbour village of Portpatrick

At last a day of lighter winds.  In order to get to the Mull of Galloway in plenty of time, we left Drummore an hour and a quarter ahead of slack water, and paddled easily with a following wind down to the Mull.  The birds nesting below the lighthouse were incredible – hundreds of them in a tiny stretch of cliffs!  After rounding the Mull and heading north, the winds picked up slightly, creating a small amount of windswell which helped progress towards Portpatrick; we discovered later that the wind and current were combining to give about 3 knots of assistance, on top of the 3 knots we were paddling.  Swift progress indeed.

By the time we arrived at Portpatrick, the wind had started to pick up a bit more sharply.  It felt like a shame to miss out on another 3 hours of spring tides, but with the winds creating more choppy conditions and not many places to land in the next few miles.  Another reason not to worry too much about shooting on past Portpatrick was that today was the friday evening of a bank holiday weekend, and locals had said the village would be heaving in the evening…

They were right!  On top of the bank holiday sailors making for the pretty village port for the weekend, it seemed we also dropped in on a huge local wedding, which meant lots and lots of jolly and generous people donating to the charities.

James

More strong northerlies today, so another opportunity to rest up and refuel.  A local at Drummore mentions that this time last year, two kayakers aiming to circumnavigate Britain got stuck in Drummore for 3 weeks… Here’s to hoping the winds ease off sufficiently in the next couple of days to avoid that happening this time!

James

Strong Northerlies today prevented any progress, so the day was spent eating and resting, and catching up in more detail about how conditions had been for each other on our solo paddles since we parted in Pembrokeshire.  Unfortunately these winds look set to continue for a couple of days, so tomorrow is unlikely to see any progress either.

At least we’re in Scotland, and it’s still May.

James

5-star packed lunch, made by Kim, my favourite girlfriend.

St Ninian’s Cave

Mull of Galloway, SW from across glassy water.  Although the water here is calm, around the mull it’s racing eastward as the flood is in full swing!

Enjoying the sunshine.

Waking up in a tent to the sound of the dawn chorus on a bright sunrise, by an otherwise silent inlet in southern Scotland, I felt this was what the last few weeks have been building up to.  The next month or so, up the west coast and around the top of scotland, have long been anticpited as some of the best parts of this trip.

I launched at 9am again, and was thankful for not having battled across Wigtown Bay yesterday evening against the westerly wind.  The wind this morning was from the south east, probably Force 3-4, and with the ebb from the solway providing considerable assistance too, progress was swift across the first half of the bay.  About an hour into the paddle the wind started to gust a bit stronger, and the windswell became a bit more intimidating.  They weren’t breaking fully, but being wind waves they were quite steep with short periods and often spilling; some loomed up behind me to about 6ft tall, and because I was paddling across them rather than in the same direction they were travelling, it was difficult to attempt to surf them.  When a couple of big low braces were needed in order to keep balance, I was forced to begin considering landing at the Isle of Whithorn rather than continuing around Burrows Head, where the conditions looked from a distance to be even bigger.  With time spent bracing rather than paddling forwards, I started to lose the time I’d saved in the first hour.

As I approached the Isle of Whithorn and was mentally preparing to land, and then to run up to the top of the hill to phone Kim and inform her of the change of plan, the wind seemed to ease off again and I reverted back to the original plan of meeting at Drummore, another 20 miles across the next bay.  I figured once I was around Burrows Head, the SE widn would push me in the direction I wanted to travel, rather than be a nuisance across which I had a traverse.  Burrows Head was still pretty lumpy with a lot of spilling waves, but a couple of miles after rounding the main headland the sea conditions calmed significatnly.

After stopping for a quick lunch by St Ninian’s cave (mental note to self: return here another time to explore more fully!) the next few hours paddling across Luce Bay was very straightforward – hardly any wind, not much swell, very good visibility and even what I think was a sea otter surfacing in front me me.  Another first sighting in the wild.

The last hour was into a strengthening NW wind, which was a pain, and having not looked into local tide times before I set out, I arrived at Drummore at low tide, with an annoying carry over mud and seaweed (which stank) up to the harbour wall.  The harbour itself is in need of a lot of work, and is cimpletely silted up at anything other than high tide.

Joe arrived in the evening in order to continue up the coast of Scotland.  Its great to have him back again because of not having to paddle solo; his arm seems much better and he’s put the back rest back in his boat which should help with comfort.  This obviously means he’s missed out a couple of hundred miles from Abersoch in North Wales to Drummore in Southern Scotland – but there is plenty of time later in the summer to return to finish off the section he has missed; the main thing now is getting around the top of Scotland and stareting down the east coast.

James

Another offshore windfarm under development – a few miles NW of Maryport.

After crossing the Solway, the stunning coastline was followed west for a couple of hours.

Lighthouse a few miles east of Brighouse Bay

Brighouse Bay slipway, where we stopped for the night.

An open crossing today, from Maryport in England to Brighouse, a small bay just past Kirkcudbright, in Scotland.  I launched at the start of the ebb at 9am, and despite studying the tidal stream atlas in some detail yesterday, the combined strengths of the tide and wind surprised me.

I’d agreed to meet Kim at Brighouse Bay at 3pm, and having arrived at 2.45 and not seen the van, I wandered up the hill through the caravan park to find some mobile phone signal.  It turned out that Kim had gone to the other side of the headland so was not too far away.  Still, a lesson learned making sure all parties know exactly where the meeting points are.  I suppose this is exactly what you’d expect in Scotland – stunning scenery and difficult mobile phone contact!

After a late lunch I set out for the Isle of Whithorn.  This was another open crossing, shorter than the morning’s, and so rather than take on the strong flood back up the solway, I thought I’d see how much of a back eddy there might be in Wigtown Bay by heading out directly west before following the coastline south to WHithorn.  Or at least, that was the plan when I set off…

Twenty minutes later, having paddled hard and continuously, I reluctantly gave up and turned around – seemingly out of nowwhere the northerly wind and turned westward and pucked up in strength, and it was hard work just to keep stationary.  The other reason to make a quick decision about turning back was that Kim had just set off on the long drive around the bay – I wanted to get back up the hill quickly in order to ask her to stop and turn around!  Five minute later I had surfed back to the beach, and luckily Kim had not gone far up the road.

News from Joe is that he’ll be driving up to the Mull of Galloway tomorrow, with a view to re-joining the paddle on wednesday.  He’ll have 300 miles or so to finish off at a later date, but the main thing now is getting around the top of Scotland as quickly and hope that the weather is kind.  In theory, North Wales to Galloway should be less problematic than the north of Scotland in terms of weather during the later months of the summer.

Also a special mention for Keith at Maryport marina, and Simon at Nortech Comms.  The electrical contacts on the battery pack for my Icom M33 VHF radio corroded out, despite regularly rinsing them in fresh water as was suggested good practice.  A new battery pack was proving very difficult to get hold of, especially at short notice, and I didn’t fancy forking out for another brand new radio – it was only a few square mm of copper which was missing.  Keith at Maryport marina said there was a 4-6 week wait on new battery packs, and extremely kindly gave me his own personal battery pack; Simon at Nortech Comms then gave a discount on me replacing Keith’s battery.

Thanks to both Keith  and Simon for helping out at such short notice.

James

A high-speed craft whizzes past, but the wake proves nothing much to worry about.

In the far distance, beyond the small boat, the first glimpse of Scotland becomes visible.

The silty harbour at Maryport.  I arrived approaching high tide, and was half an hour after a small rib got stuck in the silt.  The slipway is only useable at high water!

Emptying the boat in order to load the van onto the roof for the evening.

I decided not to cross directly over the Solway Firth today, partly because of wanting a slow morning and a chance to catch up on a few web updates, and partly because I under-estimated how long it would take to plan the crossing to Scotland.  The currents up and down the Solway Firth are pretty strong, and from Whitehaven it’s at least a 20 mile crossing.  Therefore I decided to continue up the coast to Maryport, just 12 miles or so, in order to have an easier crossing tomorrow.  With the tide ebbing until 3pm, this gave a good few hours in Whitehaven – it proved very beneficial in terms of fundraising, as parked on the harbour wall, many people stopped for a chat and took an interest in the charity donations.

THe paddle to Maryport was very straightforward, and with the warm sunny afternoon I paddled for the first time on this trip without a cag.  The forearms got quite wet in the windswell, but the merino wool tops from Howies a couple of weeks ago kept we warm enough.  With the wind and tide behind me, the 12 miles were knocked off in two and a half hours – a very pleasant evening’s paddle!

James