Kerrera Dolphins

Dolphins! dolphins everywhere

Launching a new hat!

We were recently heading over to Oban Sea Kayak to pick up some new club kit and having gone that distance we were obviously going to have a wee paddle at the same time.
Whilst in the shop, we bumped into David and Andy from FSKC, they were up collecting a shiny new boat, so we arranged to meet at the ferry to go for a paddle round Kerrera.
We got ourselves ready, hung around a bit longer, still no sign of David and Andy. We tried the radio, still nothing, so we decided to set off anyway.

February, but could be May

It was mid February and we were setting off with sun hats and no pogies, it was glorious weather. We had decided to set off north to paddle anti clockwise round the island. With the breeze and tide working with us, we fairly flew down the outside of Kerrera, we then stopped for a bite of lunch down the bottom end. It was lovely and peaceful sitting in the sunshine on our new foldy chairs Hubby dear had just bought. It was his Valentines present to me, not quite a dozen red roses, but much more comfortable! While enjoying the sunshine, I did say that to make the day perfect, it would be lovely for a dolphin to swim by.

Arriving for lunch

Peace and quiet

We carried on round the bottom of the island and back up the Sound.
Just as we were passing Gallanachmore, in the distance were a couple of fins. I was so pleased, the dolphins had made an appearance!

https://youtu.be/qHEyS7s1MIA

We paddled gently onwards, then just drifted. There weren't just a couple of dolphins, there were 3 or 4 having a great old time, leaping and snorting. They weren't in the least bit bothered by us or the boys on the fishing boat who were also watching.

 

There weren't 3 or 4 dolphins, we now realised there were at least 12, but probably closer to 15 - 20, having a real bean feast on the fish. They were leaping, sploshing, zooming all round us. Trying to keep track of them was almost impossible. The only evidence they were under the boats were the bubble trails from their tail flicks, before surfacing again. Seeing them working together, sometimes in pairs, other times four in a row - it was fantastic!

After half an hour we decided we had better get a move on as it was getting a bit late.
Further up the sound, we spotted a sparkling glow! As we got closer, we realised it was David in his shiny new boat, the glow being Andy's day glo, glow in the dark, Tangoed drysuit!
When we had all arranged to meet at the ferry, it would probably have been a good idea to agree on which ferry we were talking about. They had gone down to the Kerrera ferry and had gone round the island clockwise. We must have passed each other possibly at Gamhna, we went round the outside, there was no other way Andy could have sneaked past.
We eventually made our way back across the bay in the near dark.

Oban in the evening

It was a magical days paddling, I didn't even mind missing the icecream shop - that's how special it was!

How to unpack a new house my way!

We've just moved house very recently and still living out of boxes.
To me it seemed a bit of a shame when the Saturday was a lovely, sunny fresh day to be unpacking paddling kit and "putting it away".
So we did what any other normal paddler unpacking masses of boxes would do - we stepped carefully over various boxes, loaded the car with our kit and made our way to the water.

We put in at Dysart, in front of St Serf's tower and the wee white cottages of Pan Ha', then made our way out past the harbour and along the front of Ravenscraig park, our now local park.
It was quite breezy, so we stopped for a breather in at Kirkcaldy harbour, where I learnt to swim many years ago before we got a heated indoor pool. That was so long ago, the town has since replaced that pool!!!

A bit further on and we stopped for lunch on the sands at Seafield Tower before making our way home with the wind on our backs and a bit of surf to help us along whilst being accompanied by lots of lovely Long-tailed ducks.

Back home, we found that the "house moving fairies" had obviously been busy elsewhere, as the boxes were still full and scattered everywhere, but hey ho! we'd had a lovely paddle!

Where did January go?

I can't quite believe we're into February and already I'm three trips down on my blog. I blame it on retirement, I never seem to have any spare time anymore!

We started off 2015 with the way we hope to carry on - paddling! On the 1st we had our usual Turkey bashing sausage sizzle with a difference. The difference was no sausages - I bought lovely fat ones and left them at home! We did however have chocolate Santa lollies instead.

 We should have had more paddlers out, but the numbers soon dropped as the forecast became known, cold, wet and very windy, a westerly F5-8. We put in at North Queensferry, battled past the bridges and into Inverkeithing Bay before following the coast down past Dalgety Bay. It was here with the tide, wind, waves, clapotis all going in every direction, all at the same time, that GT decided he didn't like the size of the waves hitting him side on. We seemed to be paddling hard, yet the rocks were still approaching fast. A bit of oomph got us out though. We then made our way along the cliffs at Hawcraigs before landing at Silver Sands. A great start to out New Year!

On the 3rd, 18 of us had a lovely paddle with LSKC, starting out from South Queensferry. The weather was nothing like two days previous. The sun was out and the sea was flat.

We set off under the bridge, past Inchgarvie and down to Inchcolm for a bite of lunch. After a few paddlers had an explore round the island we were off again, over to Cow and Calves via Oxcars, then over to Inchmickery where there were tiny seal pups - we did keep our distance! The plan was then to go round Crammond Island, however, some folks never quite got that message and skipped it. It was then a long slog up past Dalmeny House and Barnbougle Castle back to our get out.

Our 3rd paddle for January was back to lumpy water, Hubby dear had organised another of his rough water sessions. 4 of us met up down at Pettycur in dry but very blustery conditions. After a bit of blowey manoeuvring, we had a little play catching the waves. We weren't out for long, we didn't go far, but it was still a great exhilarating paddle.

2014 paddling memories

Ian from Mountain and Sea put up the challenge, wondering what our 2014 paddling memories were.

This has been a hard one, having had a fantastic years paddling with so many great trips.

Was it finding the peace and quiet of Dunalistair Water once the Kayakey Kid had returned home?

 

Could it have been the Big Bash?

 

What about open canoeing in Knockando?

 

Then there was the Summer Isles again!

 

Of course there was Jersey

 

Closely followed by Islay

 

It might have been the Women's Sea Paddling Festival on Bute

 

Or possibly our bumpy jaunt out from Easdale

 

In between all that, I've had some great fun on trips locally and further afield, with friends from FCAG, FSKC and LSKC, whether it's been river trips, open canoes, sea kayaking or getting pounded in the surf, but I think Islay probably wins. How couldn't it? We had a great laugh, great paddling and of course the occasional great whisky!

English Canoe Symposium

Blimey! I didn't realise that once I retired, I'd be so busy, I'm thinking of going back to work just so I can have some "me" time and catch up on important things like blogs and planning more paddling trips!
It now seems ages since I attended our 3rd big meeting of 2014, the English Canoe Symposium held down at Lakeside on Windermere. I still feel quite a newbie at open canoeing, so was looking forward to picking up lots of helpful advice.
Boats on roof, Hubby dear and I set off for the long drive over the border from Scotland. It was a wonderfully warm evening and was strange to see folks sitting outside pubs in tshirt sleeves, this being the beginning of November!
After our long drive all the way from Scotland, who was the first person we met? Willie from Scotland!

For our Saturday session we had chosen "white water intermediate- solo go for it attitude!"
We made our way over to the River Kent and split into 2 groups. Dave taking one group and Chris taking our group. Just after our put in, we were over a weir, then onto quite flat water, bobbing  along. We stopped at one point to practise cutting in and out, ferry gliding back and forward, down a bit further then a stop for lunch.

 So far the river had been fairly tame - that was all about to change!

Chris at Hawes Bridge

 Before long, the river narrowed. We pulled in to have a look and decide what line to take. Hubby dear was on the bank with the throw line. Chris set off first, followed by Blokey 1(sorry, forgotten names!), he got down fine, then clipped a jutted out bit and went for a swim. Me next. I got lined up fine, went over the drop. Unfortunately, it was at this precise moment that my "go for it attitude" decided to up and leave. That was the first time I had fallen out of my boat by mistake! I've no doubt it won't be the last!

Oooo!

Oooo-oops!

 Blokey 2(sorry, memory must be in retirement mode!) came down next making it look easy followed by Hubby dear, also making it look easy - boo hiss!

A bit further down, we were out scouting the river again before running it. Before long we were out again. After seeing the next section, I had decided my "go for it attitude" was still on leave. Chris went down first, unfortunately had a wee swim, breaking a spar at the same time. Blokey 1 and I humphed the boats downstream, whilst Blokey 2 and Hubby dear lined the first drop, then ran the rest again making it look quite easy!

Slightly damp

Over another weir, then another big and bouncy drop to check out. There were a lot of undercuts and generally lots of water pushing in that direction, so thankfully the boats were lined down this section. We were now at the get out. It was a great days paddling going from Grade 1 to what at times seemed like Grade massive in no time at all.

Back at Lakeside I met up with Sue who I bought my boat off, had a bit of a natter, then off to listen to Ray's talk about Canada.

Rydal Water

Next day, Hubby dear abandoned me as he set off for Rydal Water for a day poling and sailing. I had opted for a morning  "open water, wind and trim - solo" again with Chris. We were using weight to shift around to trim our boats. As I only had a smallish bag, Chris gave me a loan of his bag. I'm still not entirely sure what he carries around in it, possibly a dead body! either that or an enormous packed lunch. I'm not surprised he's a wee bloke, I'm sure he started off a 6 footer, but after humphing that bag, he's shrunk! It was a great and interesting session where we did eventually get a bit of a breeze.

Windy Windermere!

The afternoon session was "flat water Canadian freestyle " with Jorg. Another really interesting session, pushing the edges.

Jorg

All great stuff, learnt lots and looking forward to the Scottish Symposium later this year