May in April!

Heading out

Sweetie stop!

In April, I organised a trip out to the Isle of May for  SSKEG. 10 of us set off from Anstruther for the 8k crossing before arriving at the island. We had arranged to meet up on the island with some of the Lothian club who had paddled over from North Berwick, so all in all, the island was a very busy place that day! Lots of birds on the cliffs, but not many Puffins.

Not even set on monochrome

All finished off with fish and chips from the "Wee Chippy", then icecream for pudding!

Later in April we were up at the CVC at Glenmore. Day 1, I had a great day out in "Sonic Too" on the Spey.  Day 2 was spent up at Sandend having a whale of a time playing in the surf - fantastic!

A snowy wake up

Hard at work splashing!

At the start of the tunnel

In June, our juniors had a great time suggesting and organising a canal trip. The only thing the "oldies" did was drive and supervise.  The put in was at Falkirk, just next to the viaduct, a great opportunity to splash the cars driving below! Then along the canal, through the 630 meter tunnel before stopping for lunch. We eventually made it to Polmont where some very weary paddlers were glad to see the cars again.

In the tunnel

Lunchtime

Sleepy paddler!

Turkey Basher time

Inch Gnome

Waiting to cross the shipping lane

Well after lots of hard work, plastering, papering and painting just about anything that sat still for more than 10 mins, it was time to get some fresh air, so the end of December we headed out for our annual Turkey Basher trip, this time out from Silver Sands, past Inch Gnome and out to Oxcars for a wee play, then back to Inchcolm for lunch before heading back to have a quick dip in the bay. Great for working off excess chocolate!

Oxcars

Inchcolm Abbey

Can only be described as refreshing!


As for the house, it's great having the garage now rebuilt, somewhere cosy for the boats!

2017

Our next  escape from the painting was our New Years Day paddle out from  Pathhead on a beautiful cold, sunny day. Heading east past Dysart and stopping for nosh at West Wemyss before returning.

Passing the old Frances Mine

West Wemyss nosh stop

Big boats, little boats

Now that Christmas and New Year are over, we're back to creating more stoor! Upstairs this time

A tiny bit of space left, just for paddling kit!

Getting used to upheaval.

Time to escape again!
It's Loch Rannoch time again. Weather was a bit chilly, sometimes just too chilly for paddling!

But not too chilly for a swim!
From there we headed up to Thurso where we met up with Andy, Ansgar and Alice for a weekend of paddling. Due to the somewhat breezy conditions, we only had a short, eventful paddle near Dunnet Head

 Chilly put in

Blustery Pentland Firth

Back home, things are still stoory!

We brought in spring with a trip out to Loch Lomond where we were lucky enough to see the Wallaby again.

Group sailing

A lovely sunny trip, then back to a lovely sunny kitchen. It's been alot of work and dust, but the house is eventually beginning to take shape