Adventure Blog Scotland | Water

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

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

Sailing in Sail Hebrides

July 15, 2007 on 8:27 pm | In Sailing | No Comments

The week has flown by here with The Hebridean Celtic Festival and Sail Hebrides, the boat has been reasonably busy, although as with the kayaking it seems everyone is here to party and not to do any outdoor stuff. Anna’s gig in the tent last night went well and everyone has been saying they loved the acapella Gaelic voices.

Brendon did some guiding for us yesterday and they went out from Crosbost and got as far as the Witches Pool on the other side of Loch Erisort. It was calm despite the odd bit of rain

I had a fantastic day on Wednesday when I was out for the two half day voyages, in the morning we went out under engine as there was no wind and had just put the lines over the side to see if there were fish for lunch and four or five harbour porpoises blew near, at this the surface of the water started to chatter with the small fish being driven up. Then the Minke whales appeared and they were fishing the surface and then as we watched one ring with a bubble curtain and then breach to scoop up the fish, magic. If I can work out how I will try and get a picture uploaded - not of the breach as I was standing with my mouth open at that point.

In the afternoon on the way back, it was the sail in with all the boats attending Sail Hebrides, so we were treated to about 20 other boats and the MCA tug escorting us in with his water cannon spraying. Oh that every day was like that !

The boat is off to the Shiants tommorrow and I am over to Uist to work, I am getting excited about next week’s sea kayaking expedition just need some half decent weather.

Hard day in the office

July 11, 2007 on 8:34 pm | In Sailing, Sea Kayaking | No Comments

Well here is my first post; It has been a hard day in the office, actually in the office. Although Stornoway is buzzing with the Hebridean Celtic Festival it is always the same and there is nobody wanting to go out for sea kayaking trips. It is one of those bizarre things I have noticed over the last 6 years, take the week off ! I guess it has some bonuses as the desk is tidy and several of the jobs I have been meaning to do are now done.

Stornoway is full of people with different accents and clothes and it makes the place fantastic, add in the sailing festival, Sail Hebrides and all the boats it brings and a huge party is happening.

I am hoping to get to at least one of the gigs, but with Anna playing on Saturday night in the tent I get the kids so fatherly duties call