Hi Gordon, I can't give much advice on the best expedition kayak for you, other than I really liked the Nordkapp LV and Xplore S when I tried them... but I would say that if Shetland is the catalyst for treating yourself to a new kayak, get a very manoevrable (sp?!) one as the main attraction of She...

Brrrrr, looks Baltic!

Just for the record Usan Fisheries do not farm salmon, they are one of the very few companies that still net wild salmon, generally near the mouth of salmon rivers in the NE. I have heard anti-seal "pingers" from some salmon nets (no idea if they were owned by Usan or not). I bought a delicious wild...

Thank you both for such a superb trip report and gorgeous photos - truly inspiring. And also interesting for me that you felt the exposure round the back of Muck - did you feel strange or uneasy at all? I'm asking because I have sometimes felt very exposed - e.g. the far corner of Papa Stour, outsid...

To be fair, turning round to look which way the tide is flowing is not useful if you launch miles away and need to pre-time your eventual crossing of the sound for slack. When you get to Yell, you could try asking the inter-island ferry crew when slack is. (If that can be relied on, as Douglas and K...

Atlantic cod?
The length of mouth relative to the skull, and size and type of teeth look similar....
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/zoohons/struthers ... _skull.jpg

They can be huge:
http://www.gofishing.co.uk/upload/25861 ... ck%201.jpg

Rather you than me, Ian - I would need to have several pairs of knickers with me! Where in the world did you experience such enormous seas, out of interest, and how commonly encountered are they by ocean-going vessels? There was an article (BBC website? Can't remember) saying that NW of Scotland get...

Crikey, look at the comment below this article on the waves in the Shetland Times - the oil rig vessel Petrojarl Foinaven that works 100miles W of Shetland reported waves of 25m. I can't even imagine what it must be like to work on those vessels - totally mad! http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2013/02/...

This video also shows the power of the huge waves generated from the same storm, this time mainland Shetland not Fair Isle.
For those of you who have paddled through Dore Holm or the Hols of Scraada it has particular meaning!

One piece of advice - Tom Smith tends to underplay the enormity of it all and many of the caves are rather large, so a normal head torch for normal caves just won't cut the mustard. We take big powerful dive torches and strap them to the front deck (as well as head torches), and even then I sometime...

Wind - it can be very windy at any time, but any time in the summer is better, generally, than other seasons, for wind. The old books say that July is generally the calmest month, but in recent years (maybe the last 4-5 years?) it has been calmer earlier, e.g. May-June. Wind direction varies enormou...

Hi, I'm sorry I have zero experience of the XP18, but I did used to have a very old fibreglass kayak with no deck lines. Our solution was to fibreglass in some lines around the deck, and across with bungie-cord. We'd never done any fibreglassing before, it looked a mess, but it worked fine for just ...

Mark (Sleepybubble), do you have something against researchers? They are certainly not "highly paid" and I think they would be extremely upset by their field seasons being thought of as a "2 week summer holiday" when they work every waking hour often in horrible conditions. Further, don't get confus...

I too have seen youngsters among adults in Shetland. Re-reading the news article it seems to be referring to just one group of 9 individuals (presumably well known from photo-ID) - the article claims they are "the only known resident group in the UK" - I wonder how they define "resident" and "known"...

There are also current strengths (where significant) for some Aberdeenshire paddle trips in the book Scottish Sea Kayaking by Doug Couper and George Reid.

Lucy

I am sure he managed to row all the way to Iceland this summer. Michal Unfortunately not, poor Chris got thwarted again by terrible weather this summer: http://www.olypen.com/cduff/Frames.html Copied and pasted from his blog: "July 23rd, 2012 - Going home is the best part of the adventure .....The ...

Chris Duff (on his return from his failed attempt to row to Iceland) Are you sure? I had heard that this was a success? This year he successfully got as far as the northern Faeroes (starting from Lewis) but the weather was too bad for the attempted crossing to Iceland. Last year he attempted rowing...

The tragedy of the commons is not confined to Common land or overgrazing by livestock. The tragedy of the commons considers what happens where there is shared ownership of a scarce resource. . Yes the tragedy of the commons can be widely applied and is even applied to evolutionary biology such as g...

Bob, This isn't something I know a lot about, but have colleagues that are social scientists working in this area, so I've absorbed some stuff from coffee room chit-chat... What I have gathered is that community ownerships in the Highlands and Islands are not at all the same thing as common lands - ...

Patrick Winterton plus companion set off from Lewis to get to Faeroes via North Rona (failed first attempt, succeeded on the second attempt). Did he also attempt to get to Orkney on another occasion? Chris Duff (on his return from his failed attempt to row to Iceland) was planning on rowing from Ork...

Phwoor, what a beauty!
It went for $398 US to some very lucky person.

Oh No, What a complete disaster!

A bit more detail I found here:
http://solentseakayaking.co.uk/2012/08/ ... ea-kayaks/

Well, someone with enough money and storage space must order loads and then keep them to sell!

Gutted!

Mark Gawler wrote:No picture, just the call
http://upload.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/m ... ce0003.mp3

Can anyone guess what it is?

Ah, that's absolutely wonderful - Reminds me of a magical night I spent inside Mousa broch, being sung to sleep by these tiny chaps!

Ah, blasted Fogla Skerry! There is a very long tunnel that goes right through the middle of it (actually the map says 3, but we only tried one), with a smallish entrance on the west side, then it opens out into an awesomely huge wide and tall tunnel, but the exit to the E is narrow and when we tried...

Hi Wenley, I'm not the best person on here to comment on Pintail vs Nordkapp (LV) vs AA (Alan Telemark probably is!), but in my limited experience paddling the Nordy I'd say the Pintail is much much naughtier than the Nordkapp LV, and possibly slightly naughtier, although smoother edging, than the A...

Hey Kate, love the fish!
I'm struggling to recognise the arches/cave - where round Papa is that? (In Fogla Skerry...?).
I'm very much hoping there's more to come...?!

Lucy

Hi Stan,

Where exactly are you in the "northern part of the UK" - I have a Pintail which you'd be welcome to try - I'll be in Shetland over the next 3 weeks, or if you didn't mean quite that far north, I live in Aberdeenshire if that's any help?

Lucy

Mal - I like that pic too - where is it? http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r542/lg5727/Shetland%2009%20hilights/DSC_3218.jpg http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r542/lg5727/DSC_5794.jpg http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r542/lg5727/Shetland%2009%20hilights/DSC_3148.jpg http://i1171.photobucket.c...

...and he was in the first team of climbers to ever climb the stack (Am Buachaille) photographed by Andrea at the W end of Sandwood Bay!

Hi, this is a problem that many people get. For me it improved when I (i) loosened my seating position (less tight in boat), (ii) did lots of warm-ups and ham-string stretches before kayaking, (iii) improved my paddle technique (body rotation). But everyone is different! Here's some previous threads...