Leaving Jura under a cloud

It was high water when we left West Loch Tarbert on Jura under a cloud.

We re-entered the Sound of Islay, just as MV Hebridean Isles was returning from her Wednesday day trip from Islay, to Colonsay, to Oban, to Colonsay and back to Islay.

Gradually the sun began to break through  the evening sky...

...as we took the ebb tide down the Sound of Islay.

Clearing the air on the way to Ailsa Craig.

Gradually the mist cleared and Ailsa Craig emerged on the Horizon. A stream of cloud from its summit made it look as if it was still an active volcano.

It takes a long time for the rock to get much bigger.

A light NW breeze got up and  brought some low clouds across the sky but at sea level the air became extraordinarily clear. We picked out the castle, which is about 1/3 of the way up to the

Ready for some windy fun on the Clyde.

Saturday's XC weather, forecast for Troon.
Saturday's MagicSeaweed, surf forecast for Machrihanish.
Saturday's forecast for Troon, in the Firth of Clyde, showed that the predicted gales were not expected to arrive until well into Saturday evening. The surf at Machrihanish was predicted to be 9.5 feet in advance of the arrival of the approaching Atlantic low pressure system. Tony and I decided to

All the essential sea kayaking elements round Morvern.

As we approached the head of Loch Sunart we came to the Liddesdale narrows. It was spring tides and the ebb rate runs out at 3.5 knots. We arrived at slack HW and negotiated entrance to the inner loch with minimal effort.

Garbh Bheinn (Garven) 885m dominated the view to the head of the loch. It is one of the highest mountains in Ardgour which borders the Morvern peninsula to the north.

The wind

Sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar 2011

I wish a belated Happy New Year to all visitors to seakayakphoto.com. As way of a celebration of the last year and in anticipation of sea kayaking adventures yet to come, here is the 7th annual sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar from seakayakphoto.com. The above link will lead to high resolution photos in four different desktop sizes.

January, Arran, Firth of Clyde.
February, Loch Creran,

Guaranteed seal sighting at Corrie, or your money back!

 We left Sannox to paddle down the east coast of Arran to the ferry terminal at Brodick.

 We were surrounded by torrential rainstorms...

which turned the sky black and chilled the air.

We always see a seal basking on the rocks at Corrie. In the distance the MV Stadiongracht, a 172m cargo boat, was making its way from Brodick Bay up the Clyde to Greenock.

Off Merkland Point, we got a great

There be dragons at the end of rainbows in the Clyde!

We arrived at Ardrossan ferry terminal at dawn. The low sun was just lighting the mountain tops of Arran. We left two cars here and the four of us drove north to Portencross in my car with the sea kayaks on the trailer.

Heavy clouds and rain were blotting out the landscape but just as we were about to be enveloped in wet greyness, a rainbow appeared.

The new type 45 frigate HMS Dragon appeared

A pasting, a couple of scones but not a Brownie in sight, at Big Jessie's.

From the Mull of Cara we made our way back to the crescent of sand where we had left the boats. Cumulonimbus clouds towered into the sky forming great hammerheads. Over on the mainland, someone was getting a pasting with torrential rain but it wasn't us!We set off from Cara back to Tayinloan in a light wind and I soon had the sail up......as Phil put in a cracking pace. However, when the breeze

In the picture: a blaze of glory in Glen Etive

By the time we launched from Achnacloich, on the south shore of Loch Etive, the sun had set. With the approach of night, a layer of cloud flooded the sky from inland and the summit of Ben Cruachan was lost from view.After a while, I turned round to see where Jim W was. I was amazed to see that the sun, which was by now well below the horizon, was illuminating the advancing edge of cloud in a

The skies cleared over the Firth of Lorn.

We left Oban harbour under cloudy, grey skies......but no sooner had we entered the Firth of Lorn......than a remarkable meteorological transformation took place......and the clouds parted above us.We continued our voyage up the Firth of Lorn under welcome winter sunlight.