July jollies

Following on with my montage of paddling, I’m now on July.

This should have been a fairly quiet start to the month paddling wise for me as I had been abandoned. Hubby dear was off for a wee jaunt round St Kilda – without me!!!

So what does an abandoned paddler do? Why go paddling of course! Tuesday evening was a loch session, Wednesday evening a sea session, Thursday was a beginners trip for LSKC out under the bridges, round and back again.

Dried my kit on Friday!

At the put in, Pitlochry

Saturday I had a lovely OC trip down the Lower Tummel from Pitlochry down to Ballinluig with Kirkcaldy Kayaker.  It was great getting 1 to 1 coaching, lots of ferry / reverse ferry gliding, setting and surfing and all in roasting sunshine, finished off with a large ice cream – yum!

Stand up paddle surfing

A St Kilda puffin

Hubby dear came home that evening complete with a puffin for me!

 

CWW waiting for high tide?

Simon going off the wall

Sploosh

CWW's turn

Next morning, we were off to Stanley for a wee play in the river boats. It’s a while since I’ve been out in the river boats, still it was good being out even if I was a bit wary as to whether the old roll was going to act up or not. A wee try at the beginning of the day worked well, whereas a wee try at the bottom of Thistlebrig worked, but not with such “flair!”

Taily time

Bow stalling

  Stanley one day, Bass rock the next!

Later in the month we had a lovely evening trip out past Inchcolm, on to Oxcars, then across to Inchmickery, where we sat drifting and watching the Puffins for a while – I can never get enough of Puffins!

The month was finished off with a lovely evening trip out from Kinghorn - we really have had some cracking weather this summer!

Extreme dressing, Young Trevor looking for a dunking or just being a boil in the bag?

Lots of sea urchins and starfish

Heading back to Kinghorn

 

June jaunts

 

Setting off from Seacliff

The problem with spending so much time out paddling (could there really be such a problem?) is that this page goes a bit to pot! That's where my problem comes into it, I use this page a bit like a log book to remind myself where I've been, what I've been doing and who with! So with all that in mind I'm doing a mass June paddle excluding 2 club nights per week.

It was that big!

A few Gannets

Passing the Pulpit

After coming home from Islay, our next wee outing was to Seacliff with LSKC for a short paddle out and round the Bass. On the way out, some of us had the opportunity to have a play with North Berwick lifeboat, allowing them the chance to practise rescuing paddlers from their boats. We finished off the day with a wee surf playtime before heading onto the beach for a BBQ.

Mike looking smug at the mayhem he caused Hubby dear (in the background!)

Happy to have survived

Wheeeeee!

The next week it was time for a wee trip up to St Andrews as the surf report was looking great. We arrived to find 2" "waves". The swell kind of picked up for a short spell, well long enough for me to catch the wave of the day, which was a reasonable size - big enough to trash one of the fins on my boat!

More Wheeeeee!

Next day was another trip with LSKC. This time we were taking our OCs over to Loch Lomond.

Leaving Balmaha

The wee blue sweetie bags makes another appearance

Ice cream stop at Luss

Looking up the loch

Nick looking a bit worried, that thing really zoomed!

Getting some wind assistance

  As it was, we were the only two with OC's, the rest being in seakayaks. Why is it any time I have an OC out on Loch Lomond it seems to be blowing a hooley? This day was no exception! The good thing about tying the boats back on the car that day was that we were ready for our trip the next day.

 

Checking out the Linn of Tummel

This day was with FCAG and their family fun day held up at Loch Faskally. The sun managed to disappear most of the day, but a good time was still had by all who attended with trips down the loch, others running the Tummel and another group playing on the Garry dodging the bungee jumpers overhead!

Boingggg!!

Hard work all this paddling

The final weekend in June saw me leading a group along the coast to Lower Largo with FSKC. The weather going out to Elie was beautiful, but started picking up on our return which was fine as it helped to blow us back home.

Cave keeking

Checking out the chain walk

Passing East Vows

Looking out to a far away Bass Rock from the other side

By Young Trevor

Not my write up this time, but a trip report put in by Young Trevor.

Bass Rock Sun. July 13

At the put in

Cutting through the Leckies

We met at N. Berwick.It was  a real holiday scene- families enjoying the morning sun, icecreams and lollypops, kids, dogs playing on the beach. Berwick Law hovered in the background, Craigleith lay directly opposite, the Bass lay off to the north east and in the background the lovely Isle of May. Absolutely magnificent!

Young Trevor passing Tantallon

Squeezing into the hidden harbour

We made our way along the coast via the majestic ramparts of Tantallon castle and snacked on a beautiful stretch of sand directly opposite the Bass. What a sight! The Bass with its whitewashed lighthouse, a volcanic plug rearing 100 meters and more into the sky, protected by seemingly impenetrable precipitous cliffs - and always in the background, due north, the Isle of May - a real picture postcard scene!

Young Trevor, the Bass and a distant May

We set off. A westerly came up and soon the water changed. Paddling became more interesting. As we approached the Bass we became more aware of the bird life, in particular the gannets[ bassa is the Latin for gannet ], the smell and the din - something similar to a school dining-hall 50 years ago. There was absolute mayhem! Gannets plunging into the sea around us, gannets  nesting on every available ledge above and to the right of us, gannets returning to the Bass carrying all kinds of nesting material-a celestial M 25-an absolute, but seemingly organised pandemonium! We were being watched by thousands of eyes-gannets, of course, but lots of razorbills, guillemots, shags, the reclusive kittiwake-some flying, many just safeguarding their particular patch. I only saw one puffin-by all accounts they are quite numerous on Craigleith and, according to Ken, some rock doves.

Keeking out from the cave on the East

Fluffy chicks

The water quietened down on the eastern side of the rock. We explored a couple of caves. I was privileged to make a landing to take a group photo-hopefully with some success!

Bird's eye view

We then moved off into a stiff westerly wind and initially hoped to paddle to Craigleith. The water became more challenging so Sarah decided to change plans and head for the shore. We returned to the same holiday scene we had left that morning.

Craigleith in the background

I've had several very enjoyable trips with fcag. This trip must rank as one of the best-good company, interesting paddling and wonderful scenery. A sincere thanks to Sarah for proposing and leading the trip.
The group consisted of Sarah, Ken, Robyn, Niall, Greame, John, Phil and myself. I should also have mentioned the location of the Bass- 5 km north east of N Berwick and 2 km offshore. 

Spot the difference!