Adventure Blog Scotland | Water » 2007

Monday morning blues

August 20, 2007 on 10:19 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Well, the week is off to a less than great start. I was due for a busy week with paddling on three days and sailing to St Kilda on two. The boat was to be delivered to Leverburgh and I was going to skipper her out to St Kilda. On the way down on Saturday there is a problem with charging the batteries and so there is no power.

They had to sail into Loch Seaforth and anchor there. So I face the prospect of having to explain to the customers that we can’t go. I am hoping the engineer can fix it. So the pleasures of owning a boat. I was once told owning a yacht is the same as standing naked under a cold shower tearing up £50 notes. I am beginning to think this could be an apt description.

Oh, and one car is broken and the other is off for an MOT ! So ’shank’s pony’

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

Deserted Beaches

August 12, 2007 on 10:12 pm | In Surfing, Kayak Surfing, Body Boarding | 2 Comments

The end of another week and the pace hasn’t slacked. Anna was playing at Piping Live in Glasgow this week so I have been playing with the kids and having adventures. It does mean I didn’t do much work.

We spent Friday at the Cliff Beach on the Valtos penisula. Tooled up with wet suits, boogie boards and a sit on kayak we hit the surf. If you were in the south of England there would have been hundreds if not thousands of people fighting for a piece of the sand. We were on the beach on our own. Surf, sun and solitude

Surfing a deserted beach

Using a sit on was great for the kids in the small surf and gave a very forgiving platform for them to experiment with paddling on waves. These make getting on the water very accessable but this comes with inherent dangers - ‘the sea in a fickle mistress’, the surf is very powerful.

Sit on Surfing

If you are using a sit on top in surf then you need to be aware if you fall off the surf will take the craft and hurtle it at the beach squashing everything in the way. If you are going to be in anything deeper than your waist a bouyancy aid is a must and you should be asking if you need one even if you are just going for a little paddle.

Surf

It was Koren’s first trip out in her new wet suit and armed with her new boogie board. I stood on the beach and remembered the first time I used a board, it was plywood and I used it on a beach in Devon (rather longer ago than I care to admit). I still remember the cold but the rush … Koren’s face was picture the first wave she caught and I suspect we have another adict in the family.

We are very spoilt here in Lewis and Harris with breaks facing in all directions of compass and the gulf stream servicing us with warm waters. The surf here is world class, Mark Lumsden who runs Lewis Surf Trek has some great pictures and as a professional film maker he made a dvd called Cold Rush featuring footage shot round the north coast of Scotland.

Catching your first wave

Catching your first wave.

Dingys in the rain

August 3, 2007 on 9:13 pm | In Sailing | No Comments

As another week draws to a close, I have to ask ‘where has it gone’. I have been teaching young people to dingy sail in Stornoway this week using the purpose built trailer with six dingys, a rescue boat and all the equipment. The sessions are part of the local council’s (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) Motiv8 sessions where there are loads of different sporting opprotunities for young people. Koren my eldest daughter had opportunity to have two sessions and at 8 loved it.

The trailer was bought by the Lewis and Harris Outdoor Forum using some lottery finding and it has created a huge amount of interest in sailing here. Not to mention the fun it has given us instructors; it has meant I have been off to Cumbrae to do my RYA Senior Instructors Course, Toby is off to do the same and there has been hours of us having to ‘practice’ our sailing. RYA Scotland run several of these trailers and they have taken hundred of young people out to try sailing.

This evening it is blowing a gale here with driving rain and it is very sad to hear on the news there has been a boating tragedy in North Uist and a young person has drowned, everyone I have spoken to has been suprised they were out on the water today but we need to wait for the official enquiry to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I hope it won’t deter anyone from taking boat trips because if you are paying to go on a boat, it has to meet strict critieria set out by the MCA (Martime and Coastguard Agency). These include the equipment the boat must carry and the qualifications of the crew. I know just how tough it is to get as we have category II coding on our yacht and I never thought the list the inspecting surveyor’s list was going to end.

The other piece of news which concerned me was the article on in the Press and Journal, Wed 1st August, there is talk of the decline in numbers of visitors to Shetland, I am not sure if others are feeling it this year but parts of my business are not as busy as they have been in previous years. I suspect at the end of the season we are going to need to have some serious discussion.

But it is not all doom and gloom as we have had two bookings for the yacht today, both to go to St Kilda. One of them is for a BBC programme about the Islands and it sound fantastic (I was paddling with the Executive Producer) - trust me, when you have seen the programmes in the autumn you are all going to want to go there - The Islands at the Edge of the World.

Dun from Village Bay

The Factors House, St Kilda The Factors House

The North Coast of Hirta

Paddling with Jaws II (well, not quite)

August 1, 2007 on 10:42 am | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

My day was brightened today when one of our guides sent in a couple of pics from the recent Wilderness Scotland sea-kayaking trip to Skye. Although I wasn’t there, I was pretty excited by the pics so thought I would share them with you here. The last time I was in Loch Scavaig we had a couple of Minke Whales surface about 10m away but somehow these harmless 14 foot long sharks eclipse that!

Kayaking with Basking Shark

I’m heading up there again in a couple of weeks so am keeping my fingers crossed. Enjoy the pics!

Kayaking with Basking Shark 2

Stevie Christie
http://www.wildernessscotland.com
Director of Wilderness Scotland & also of the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival. Into most mountain sports, esp mountain biking, walking, climbing and sea-kayaking.