This is absolutely terrible, it sounds like your feet and legs have been mangled and sliced horrifically - I hope you manage to mend, good luck and WELL DONE for having the amazing good sense to capsize to save your life.
Lucy

Chris Duff has safely ended his voyage in Ullapool. http://www.olypen.com/cduff/Frames.html After all the nastiness such as abusive seal boat people in recent threads and the other rubbish in the world it is a really heart-warming reminder to read Chris's accounts on his website of all the human kin...

Article here (don't know what year it was written) -
http://www.ukdiving.co.uk/conservation/ ... k_hunt.htm

Thought I'd just give a quick update - in the end I was outvoted and we took the risk and bought the new Jack Wolfskin Sanctuary III RT http://www.jack-wolfskin.com/en-uk/equipment/tents/tunnel-tents/3000571-sanctuary-iii-rt.aspx Apart from being much cheaper than the Hilleberg, it had an outer door...

Hi, I am also very interested in this issue - here are my thoughts so far on what I've observed (sorry, never paddled in East Anglia!) - It seems that many seal tour boat operators absolutely loathe kayakers, and some are abusive, which is obviously completely out of order. It seems they loathe us b...

update: http://www.olypen.com/cduff/Frames.html Chris is currently making his path towards Stornoway from Orkney. On the way up to Faeroe from Shetland he had to turn back due to bad sea and wind conditions. We happened to bump into him last week on Sanday, Orkney, as he'd recently rowed in from Fai...

We have also been accosted by ticks on Luinga Mor while having lunch - we had to move down onto the stones on the shore and avoid the grass. I noticed lots of deer dung as the likely culprits! All these ticks we see will almost certainly be the same species - Ixodes ricinus ("sheep" tick, although t...

Hi Kate, good to see you in Kirkwall! I Hope you had some more great paddling days, despite the wind ! I think those pellets are most likely to be from great black backed gulls or bonxies as a couple of others have already suggested. Both produce pellets and both can swallow things up to the size of...

I'm very pleased to hear about your happy outcome! Encouraged, I've just nipped outside to pitch my Solar on a higher setting too, but alas it has not cured the over-tensioned fly and warped pole issue. Actually it made it worse and I could barely get the pole out of the eyelet again. Never mind, it...

Hi, I can't respond with experience of the Quasar, but we do have a Terra Nova Solar, and have similar issues to you in that the pole (there is only 1) and the flysheet don't seem to tally. We haven't contacted Terra Nova about this, but have often discussed whether to cut the pole down by an inch o...

Wow, completely superb! I really should get in the habit of taking mask/snorkel kayaking. I have only once even had the presence of mind to shove my hand down to put the waterproof camera under the water (to take photos of a basking shark which were surprisingly successful given I couldn't see what ...

Mark, are you looking at only the top map (which suggests they're still in the middle of the N Sea)? The lower map shows them now back on Whalsay.
(Edit - crossed in the post with your post above, sorry!)

Thanks Mark - the Vango Cyclone looks good! If your Tundra III had a pack size the same as your Vango Cyclone and weighed almost 1kg less than the Cyclone... (I'm guessing that sort of equals the JW Sanctuary) ...do you think you'd love it and use it loads? (i.e. is it only its huge bulkiness and we...

Come to think of it, I've also suffered the wet foot-end of sleeping bag thing (and condensation) in the past with my old small tent - it's a bit rubbish if camping for more than 1 or 2 nights. Thanks Douglas and "abd" for the positive comments re. the Nallo. Anyone tried a Jack Wolfskin - any comme...

Thank you very much for helpful advice! Good heads-up on looking out for pooling of water on the JW tents, thanks. I'm sure there was an old thread on here that mentioned MarkR just having bought a JW Tundra, years ago - was the water pooling above the little corner pegs a problem? I like the look o...

Having recently borrowed a friend's huge stand-up-inside tent for a camping holiday in Wales, we would now like a little more room when kayak camping and are going to take the plunge and buy a bigger tent than our existing little 2-person back-packing tent. (although obviously not a huge stand-up-in...

btw I feel a complete idiot for giving so much information about the location - almost as soon as I'd posted I regretted it. S Surely no harm in saying there's a few shells and a pellet on Tanera Beag? It's not as if you'd provided the exact location of a v. rare bird's nest that eggers might pick ...

SteveB - your final pic looks a bit like the pellet from a gull. They can be full of all sorts of indigestible stuff including grain, grass, beetle wing cases, bones, shell etc, usually pale in colour. A great black-backed gull could be a possible contender as they eat crabs, lobsters and small thig...

No I didn't use anything particular - just running around a lot before getting in the boat and doing all sorts of stretches especially hamstrings. It could be that the main "cure" for me was actually the exaggerated paddling style whereby I alternatively peddle my feet, which also moves my bum cheek...

Very impressive fish - do you tag them? Or ever find tagged ones?
Lucy

Hi Liam, I used to have your problem when I first started sea kayaking, and two things have helped enormously (they might not help you, though, but here they are anyway): 1. before getting in the boat I go for a bit of a run and do loads of hamstring stretches (same at lunch stops etc). 2. using muc...

I agree with the previous poster - you really do get what you pay for with optics (as you'll know wrt cameras), especially higher-powered stuff like 'scopes - if you can afford it, just go for the best, e.g. Leica, Swarovski, Kowa. I wouldn't bother with anything "cheaper", it's really just not wort...

Same for me, I tried clicking "next" but it wouldn't let me until I entered grade of water - but I know absolutely nothing about river grades, and even if I did, I don't paddle rivers. For the previous question, under "other" I put "sea", but since the questionnaire literally woulnd't let me continu...

Do animal impressions - guess the animal.
Might be a bit awkward doing a bat in a kayak though (fly around emitting ultrasound then hang upside down).

Was Skerryvore one of Patrick Winterton's lighthouses that he visited on his lighthouse trip 3(?) years ago? I can't remember....

Right, that does it.
I now pledge to always take away some of the plastic rubbish I find on beaches when kayaking.

Lucy

Could the Tiderace Xplore fit the bill? I found the cockpit/seat arrangement really comfortable, and it paddled beautifully. Didn't buy one just because I wanted an extremely manoeuvrable boat for rock-hopping and caves. If I did straight-line paddling it would be in the top 2 of my list (actually I...

So my question, if you know the answer, are dogs allowed o nthe east beach? The boss likes to walk her dogs while I surf you see... Hi Ryan, I used to work there, and helped a friend do dog walkies for people at lunch times. In the summer season, most of (or all?) East Sands is closed to dogs. But ...

RichJ wrote:Those dolphins seem to have very high dorsal fins? Rich No expert on dolphins and am wondering if you mean in relation to porpoises? Either way, was superb to see them pass so close. A brilliant start to the trip They look like bottlenosed dolphins to me - they can have quite big dorsal...

Wow, your pics are making me salivate. I'm not surprised you stayed extra time! Some of those pics are v similar to some of my own (Fethaland, Jonny Notions, Heads of Grocken from Braewick, "Banana" beach) albeit a thousand times better quality than my paltry efforts. Your pic of the grey seal in th...