Caves, primroses and puffins on the Treshnish Isles.

[Douglas Wilcox]

Life doesn't get much better!

9pm Wed night decided to go sea kayaking for an overnight camp. Left 6am Thurday morning, mission accomplished and got down to the Solway for 11pm Friday night. Didn't bother to take kayaks or windsurfers but was hugely entertained Sunday pm by a folding 2 man sailing kayak and three kayaks desperately trying to keep up! One was a red and white Quest paddled by a gentleman of a certain age.



























Douglas :o)

[Helen M]

Looks like you had a great overnight trip Douglas. Where were you? I love the puffins.

It was our first time out on the open sea with the sailing rig on the boat up! Had both sails up on way back and she really flew. Mike and others were ahead of us on the outward journey as wind direction wasn't in our favour - but we certainly got our own back later. Pity we didn't know you were around - there was a spare Quest on the roofrack.

H - x

[Douglas Wilcox]

Hello Helen,

Nice of you to think of me in my kayakless state but it was voluntary! I got up at 4am on Thursday, we were paddling to 8pm then by the time we explored an island and photoed the sunset and built a fire and had the steaks and roast potatoes, it was midnight then I was up at 530 to photo the puffins and we did 60k so I was quite tired.

Did you stop at the wee chapel on the N side of Fleet bay?

Douglas :o)

[tonyP nli]

Hi Douglas, Glad to see that you discovered the majic of the treshnish isles. Hope to get back myself soon.
Cheers Tony

[Douglas Wilcox]

Hi Tony,

I have been wanting to do this by kayak for ages. I have sailed round the Treshnish in our Wayfarer dinghy and your recent trip fuelled the desire further!

Here are some more identifiable pics







How lucky was this?

and...



I suspect we used the same campsite as yourself (as you know I am always cagey about revealing exact locations!) We saw Plas Menai had a bus and a huge trailer parked at Loch na Keal and suspected they might be on the common campsite on Lunga. Not wanting to intrude on the privacy of such a large, well guided party, we exercised our freedom and chose a less obvious spot, with plenty of wood!

We were surrounded by primroses and the puffins were just a short stroll away.

We had fun in the tide between the castles until Mike got pinned on the rocks, a bow tow with him hanging on and me in full reverse thrust mode soon had us speeding on our way again.

Lastly the change of tidal flow times given in "50 great sea kayaking voyages" are about an hour out from those given by Lawrence in the Mull yachtsman's pilot. We were on the water when the tide changed, Lawrence is right.

Douglas :o)

[MikeB]

- - - but was hugely entertained Sunday pm by a folding 2 man sailing kayak and three kayaks desperately trying to keep up! One was a red and white Quest paddled by a gentleman of a certain age.

Douglas :o)

Indeed! that would have been the afternoon part of the trip then! That sailing double is impressive, but those of us who paddle in the company of Capt Bligh and his hench-woman, the Damsel in the Double, have found that by the time they've put it all together and launched, we are several kms away.

With a fair wind in their favour, they do catch up and pass us. On Saturday, they got lucky and found a change of wind to speed their bonny boat homewards - mind you, by the time they've taken the wind out of their spons@ns, and dismantled the various bits and bobs, we're in the pub!

At this point I should also add that the forgetting of 4 small pin-things can howeer reduce the entire rig to the status of a kayak again!!!!!!

Pics to be uploaded to the site shortly! Now, work beckons so the task will hae to wait.

The wee chaple is rather lovely. We'd have come to tea and scones had we been invited. A VHF call would have got us - -- - - - - -

Teshnish pics = nice = me envious! Been "on the list" for a while now. Maybe this year.

Regs - Mike.

[Jim]

Dagnabbit!
Now I'm going to have to follow in Douglas' footsteps (ripples) within a few weeks. It's a funny old world.....

Trying not to look at the pictures too much and spoil it for myself :)

JIM

[active4seasons]

[We were surrounded by primroses and the puffins were just a short stroll away].

Douglas, that is a Razorbill not a primrose ;)
looks fantastic.[/quote]

[Douglas Wilcox]

Fleet Bay


MikeB

With a fair wind in their favour, they do catch up and pass us.

Hi Mike I did notice that they needed to use a fair bit of paddle power to get up to windward of Cat Craig island, just off the Cardoness Shore. I was amazed by your flexibility. I clearly saw you stretch out and lie back on the stern deck! Most impressive!

The wee chaple is rather lovely.

Yes it is!

We'd have come to tea and scones had we been invited.

It was actually steak and champagne! I usually have the vhf but when I got back to Glasgow after the Treshnish, I just dumped all the kayaking stuff and headed down to the Solway.

Treshnish


Jim

Trying not to look at the pictures too much and spoil it for myself :)

Jim it was magnificent! We did this [url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/medicalgenetics/2005/050512_13gps.jpg]route clockwise.

[/url]


Active4seasons

Douglas, that is a Razorbill not a primrose ;)

I was amazed how close I got to Razorbills, guilliemots, cormorants and shags.




Other points.

The Kelly kettle has proved marvellous. Lashings of hot water, I took a folding bowl and enjoyed a decent wash and shave.

Icom M1 Euro V. Its "puny" 1800mAh battery was stillshowing full charge after being on for 20 hours. Mike's Cobra vhf with 6 high capacity AA batteries was dead after 13 hours. He now has an Icom. So it's not the size of your battery that counts its what you do with it!

Douglas :o)

[neilfarmer]

Jim it was magnificent! We did this [url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/medicalgenetics/2005/050512_13gps.jpg]route clockwise.

Douglas :o)

I did the same route over a weekend a few years back, with Robin Cole. We however, did not bother with tides, started on the (Mull) north shore of Loch Tuath, saw a basking shark on the Friday evening, paddled for the gap between Geometra and Ulva, found the tide out and a long carry (you think Robin could have planned it better, or indeed at all!).

Staffa was nice, climbed the hill on Dutchmans cap, hard to land though. Camped on an island with loads of puffins, following day saw a castle and back to the car. Very nice.

However, need longer (than whitewater/playboating) paddles and tide tables (spent on saturday with Robin paddling through the Grey dogs, then back down the sound of luing against the tide, eddy hoping up the shore....

[Jim]

I've paddled a few rivers with Robin, which is always pleasant, but I've always heard his sea trips are, how can I put it, "unplanned"? I haven't had first hand experience since my sea boat lives a long way from here and a trip thus takes considerable planning :)

Our plans for the Treshnish are minimal, the general idea is the opposite direction to you guys, but as we won't all be gnarly old men of the sea we will be doing short hops in good weather with plenty of exploring time and plenty of camping/bivvying if conditions don't suit us. So if the weather is great we might end up exploring around Mull as well, if it's awful, who knows if we'll even get as far as Dutchmans cap? We will have tide and weather info as a basis, but mainly it's going to be "look and see" style.

If I seem a bit vague, that's deliberate, don't want everyone and his dog appearing there at the same time as us.....!

JIM

[Douglas Wilcox]

Neil:

However, need longer paddles and tide tables

Hello Neil, welcome to the dark side, you are not the first and you won't be the last!

Douglas :o)