Lower Largo 27/12/11









Our post Christmas Turkey basher (Brussel basher for the vegetarians out there) is now becoming a tradition.

Hubby-dear, Kev, Niall and my good self met up in Lower Largo carpark on a beautiful morning. The few days before, the weather had been pretty miserable and generally blowing a hooly, but not today. After our shuttle, we set off round the bay. Largo Bay itself is fairly featureless and takes a while to cross, especially when there is no breeze helping you along. Is it only me that finds paddling in such calm conditions when the water is glass like fairly tiring or possibly it was just the extra portions of turkey washed down with too much Baileys that was causing the problems! We eventually made it round to Shell Bay and the start of the chain walk. We could have done with the tide being a bit higher as the caves were all dry, however we still got a wee play in amongst the rocks.

 We stopped for lunch at Elie before the last stint past St Monans and Pittenweem then round to Anstruther. A quick change in the car park then over to The Ship for a wee pint, purely to rehydrate us you understand.

Hard to believe this is stormy December

How to cope with manic Christmas shoppers 18/12/11

I've found the easiest way to cope with all those Christmas shoppers is go paddling.  Niall certainly wasn't acting like a manic shopper and Hubby-dear has never been a shopper of any kind. He'd possibly need a satnav to find his way to the shops, which is worrying me a bit, as there is no surf kayak shaped parcel with a big pink bow on it under the Christmas tree with my name on it. Just kidding - I don't need the bow!

Me heading out from Seafield

Niall

Hubby-dear on a chocolate break

On Sunday, we decided to have a wee paddle out from Seafield hoping to come back in time to try out the surf. Once we arrived, we realised we'd have to change our plans - there was no surf, just a beautiful crisp calm day. We set off round the small islands in the bay before heading past Kinghorn and round towards Burntisland. The tide was out so we had the huge sandbank to clear. As Niall and Hubby-dear had never been out to the Black Rock, we decided to have our lunch there.

Lunch on the Black Rock

It started to get cold quickly, but by now we had a nice wind blowing us back to Seafield. A lovely refreshing day.

Brrrrr! Pogie time again.



Doesn't even look cold



Ken sheltering by the rocks



Ken and Iain



Wee boat, big bridge

Me

Stuart and Cathy from Seakayak Oban had been in touch to let us know they were bringing over a pile of kayaks for a demo day at Aberdour, so we had organised a trip starting under the bridges, due to finish at Aberdour for the demos. This all sounded like a good plan until I heard the forecast - the bridge had a speed limit due to high winds, the M8 across Scotland was down to 1 lane due to snow. Still we got ready, headed off to the put in with the temperature sitting on freezing, as was I at this point. Once we got to North Queensferry, it was still freezing, but the sun had started to come out. We got on the water and headed round the nice sheltered bay, out past the end of the pier into the wind. From here we could see huge big grey clouds, possibly the snow clouds which were bunging up the M8. Luckily they headed north and missed us. It was a bit rough paddling up to the road bridge, but once we had turned to go down under the Forth bridge with the wind behind us it was great. In the sheltered spots, it was like a different day with flat calm waters.

Ken

Iain, Bart and Ken



Iain

  Further out and aiming for Inchcolm, we were getting some good surf. Between the bridges and Inchcolm we only saw 1 seal, however rounding Car Craig, sheltering in the rocks were a few young pups. We then cut across and into Silver Sands where there were a few paddlers out trying new kayaks. Coming off the water, the weather was beautifully sunny, lovely and calm but bitterly cold. I'm saying lovely and calm, but we had asked Stuart to bring a surf kayak along for us to try out. In the bay there wasn't even a ripple. Thankfully he did say we could keep hold of it for a while which should give us a chance to take it up to St Andrews to try it out.
Having been so apprehensive about heading out into the cold weather, I'm so glad I did. It ended up being a wonderful days paddling - and it never snowed.