Thursday 8 December 2011

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.

1 comment:

  1. Well done for braving those arctic conditions,keep the reports and pictures coming. Thanx for a great Blog

    ReplyDelete