Paddles with an Anas acuta...... unashamedly biased toward the sea kayak of that name (actually the voyages of two boats, one 'traffic over gold', one 'quill')

Tuesday 20 May 2014

May in Scotland

 Very unsettled weather this year, the west coast was the front line of high and low pressure, gales out in the Atlantic sent in heavy swell to join the local wind and rain. Nevertheless I enjoyed my 3 weeks lone paddling. Great campsites, some new bits of coast and even a couple of sunny days. Around 190 nautical miles in 15 paddling days and many miles on foot in the stormy times.
 Campsites with great views, 'red sky at night', but there was not much cheer for the shepherd in the morning.
At this camp the surf suddenly got up in the early hours so I had to recover the boat from the shingle bank as HW threatened it around 01.30
 Then torrential rain raised the level of the burn to near the tent at dawn around 03.30 so it was a short night in terms of sleep. As always after a cup of tea...
and a small amount of sparkling sea, all is forgiven.