Scottish Sea Kayak Symposium

[Guest]

I was just pondering the deep joy of driving 521miles to Skye at the end of the week.....but know it will all be worth it !!!! Can't wait to get out on the water.... and then spend the rest of the week on Mull...

Douglas, if you could bring your www with you - that would be an added bonus for sure!

[title edited by SB 7/6/05, on request. Was "Skye sea symposium."]

[CCL]

sorry, forgot to log on...that above post was from me

Claire

[RichardCree]

the weather is going to be good,

[Zoe Newsam]

I missed out on a place at the Skye symposium because of work... :0(

But Douglas, if you could just make sure the WWW extends to both Skye and the West coast of Ireland (Aran Islands, to be precise), that would be lovely, thankyou!

Enjoy Skye, you lucky people!

[MikeB]

Oh we will!

Pics / report from Ireland please?????

Mike

[Zoe Newsam]

I'll see what I can do!

[Zoe Newsam]

I'll see what I can do!

[Dave Thomas]

Aran Islands, to be precise

Are you going with Andy Bigg?

Dave Thomas

[Zoe Newsam]

Are you going with Andy Biggs

Yup. 6 of us altogether.

[Douglas Wilcox]

Hi folks, I will see you at the Skye symposium, I am going with my wife Alison and daughter Jennifer but I am not sure even the WWW can do anything about the forecast strong winds and 8 degrees temp!

Unfortunately I might have used up too much of the WWW on the Treshnish last week but I live in hope!!

Douglas :o)

[Dave Thomas]

I had expressed interest in joining Andy on that trip, but the Plas Menai Lofotens trip came up - and seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

Have fun - and hope you are more successful weather-wise than we were on the Plas Menai 'Arans' trip last autumn - barely got in a boat on the W coast, let alone getting out to the Arans!

Dave Thomas

[Richard Uren]

I`ll try and bring up some Cornish sunshine, But it might go off after a 700 + mile journey!
Seriously though, really looking forward to what promises to be a cracking event.

[tpage nli]

The forecast for the hebrides this past weekend was awful (even on Friday evening) - but we went regardless basing ourselves on Scarba. THe weather turned out fantastic, sunny and windless. But based on the forecast I left behind the suncream and wasnt prepared for the midges. Burnt and bitten but had a cracking weekend.
Anyone heading to Skye this weekend- Be warned- the midges are early and very HUNGRY. Tony

[active4seasons]

Just got back,
great weekend had by al me thinks!
Weather was mixed - plenty of rain on Sun but sun came out later and again on Mon. No hassles with traffic on the way down the A82, a few traffic lights but otherwise a clear run, guess people by-passed because of roadworks.
See you next time,
Ollie

[Douglas Wilcox]

I forgot my lucky sun hat and have never been so badly sun burnt in my life!


Friday night just before the wind, and rain arrived. The Knoydart marquee blew away that night.


Sat morning, it was so windy that the Mallaig/Armadale ferry copuld not sail but the forward paddling session with Sean found shelter in the cove south of Armadale.


In the afternoon the wind dropped. Simon in his new Quest on the way to Franco's self rescue session (very wet). That night the midges came out but they are relatively gentle beasties compared with the Glen Brittle ones.


Sunday dawned wet but I felt an opening in the WWW approaching so signed up for the day paddle round Sleat.


Kevin and Claire soon enjoyed the sun.


By the time we got to the Point of Sleat, I was already burnt.


Sean captures the elusive DW on film!


Sean plays in a rock garden.


lunch.

That night my head hurt so much I had to lie down and by the time I woke up I had missed the evening talks.


The beach at Armadale had a constant stream of eager testers for the large demo fleet. Some were so keen they even tested falling out! The midges were also waiting. I must say us Scots felt full of admiration for our hardy southern cousins who ventured forth in swim suits and sandals! Most of us had full winter gear and with the exception of my head, little flesh was exposed to the rain or midges.


Monday morning heavy showers soaked the centre but I spotted another opening in the WWW and headed south.


To this pleaseant spot.


Heading north into the rain again. I even persuaded my wife Alison to come but 22 km was the longest she had paddled and by the time we got back we missed the helicopter, but we saw and heard it from a distance.

It was a fantastic long weekend, it was great to be able to put faces to so many internet friends and a huge thank you to all those who contributed to the event. I just wish I could have stayed longer! Better get back to exam marking.....

Douglas :o)

[MikeB]

Literally just walked in the door after a FANTASTIC weekend! Great to talk to some folk who post here and put faces to names, too many to mention but good to meet everyone.



Also expecting some new contributors and forum members as well, which would be great.



The helicopter session was just wonderful Douglas! Great fun. Hopefully some pics of that shortly, and a full report on the symposium.



As a venue for an event of this type, the Gaelic College was superb and full marks to Gordon Brown for the incredible organisation and for an event that ran like clockwork.



Something like 300 people took part according to Gordon! Which is a lot of folk. I met several paddlers who'd come over from the Netherlands, so many folk had travelled a distance - Richard Uren from Penzance and Bertie being other long-distance travellers.



If anyone has pics, write-ups from the varioius trips etc, then it would be good to have them to editor@ukseakayakguidebook.co.uk (or in this post)







Regs - Mike.

[Simon Willis]

The organisers asked me to write about the weekend.
Here's a copy of the report I've sent to the SCA for their magazine, with a few photos too.

[Matt O]

Ah Douglas, I see you found the hidden gem of Camas Daraich...
Did you also discover the small sandy bay closer to the Point of Sleat, next to the old peir built for the lighthouse?

Its glorious white shell sand is a rarity on Skye and is more akin to Morar and Arisaig over on the opposite coastline....

Happy days!

[RichardCree]

Back home now, and organised ;-) nearly

I agree with all above, the symposium was great, I need to add that I was there with the kids, and a special thanks has to go to the organisers for the kids stuff, we dropped the smaller one of in the morning and she was returned much later exhausted and ready for bed, Great, and the other one went paddling.

thanks again to all involved.

[Helen M nli]

Dave and I went over to Inverie on Sunday (having been storm bound by the Mallaig ferry Saturday!) with Dave F, Tony, Brian Wilson and Cecilia. Idea was to sail over and sail back! Yes - I know this was a sea kayaking weekend but ... Anyway - Brian only had a downwind sail so plans were adapted to accomodate this .. hence Inverie. It was only the 3rd time Dave and I had had the sail up so still very experimental! Got over there in one and half hours - with a few really exhillarating bits .. entrance to Loch Nevis being one - surfing the waves was just incredible! Lunch at pub and then back .. set off at 2 - got back at 8! Yes wind was against us! Brian had already phoned Dave F at the pub to say that him and Cecilia were getting the ferry back - cool plan! Dave and I thought about it at the entrance to Loch Nevis - took the sailing rig down and started paddling - realised we were going to miss last ferry and put sailing rig back up. Dave F and Tony were last seen heading swiftly towards Armadale. We spent an hour faffing and arrived 10 minutes after them! I know - valuable lesson learnt - paddle against wind, sail with it!

Rest of week - Tuesday good sail/paddle wed/thur washed out so came home!

Great to catch up with people - and see you all on the water sometime.

Luv H - x

ps - Thanks for a great 'Gay Gordons' Mike

[MikeB]

Hmmm - I'm encouraged to see you learning the ways of the folder!! Of course, if you were to just paddle it all the time, you'd not have any of these problems!!!!!!

I thought my Willow Stripping was rather good as well. A larger dance-floor area would have been good. I wonder if there is any reason why the College dining hall area wasn't used?

M

[Mark R]

The organisers asked me to write about the weekend.

...and you did it really well indeed, with some nice photos too.

However, seeing the same article and the same photos appear concurrently in 'Canoeist', 'Canoe Kayak UK' and 'Paddles' this month is a bit irritating from the point of view of the reader who has paid for all mags. Sorry, but there it is.

I'm willing to bet also that the editors didn't know you were going to do this when they agreed to publish...?