20 years on.

In 1990 I went ski touring in Norway, the weather was atrocious. Afterward back in England I was talking with some mates down at the climbing club about it. One friend, Phil said he'd always wanted to go sea kayaking in Norway. I said "tell me more", soon after I got my first sea kayak. We decided to have a trial run in Scotland and meet up with some friend of Phil, Brian and Steve. Our route went from Arisaig to Egg on the first day and then on to Rum and Soay on the second day. From there we made out way back along the southern coast of Skye; not bad for a first trip. Eventually Phil emigrated to America and we lost touch with Steve but I still keep in contact with Brian and every year or two we have a trip out on the west coast. This year we went out to Canna and then back to Rum and Soay, twenty years after we first padled this way.
Brian paddling off soay 1990.

Brian (standing) and Phil taking a lunch break on Rum 1990.

Brian with Basking Shark Canna 2010.

Brian taking a lunch break on Rum 2010.

Rockhopping.

Arbroath to Auchmithie, the slowest three miles you'll ever paddle!

Rocks, caves, sunshine and just a little swell, heaven.

I took my camera but didn't take a single shot, I was that absorbed in the paddling. These were taken by Ray Wilson.

Gigha; it's always worth going.

Went to paddle around the Isle of Gigha over the weekend. The weather really didn't look good as we drove down in heavy rain. Some of the party had gone down friday night and had been held up by a road accident at the "Rest and be Thankful" pass. As we packed the rain stopped. As we paddled the 3 miles across to the island the wind dropped. We pitched our tents by the pub and had a little siesta. By three o'clock things started looking brighter. We decided to go up to the top of the island and have a look. Once at the top it was flat calm so we carried on around. We were back at the campsite by seven and a merry evening followed.

Chel so

The campsite at "The Boathouse".

Christine and Greg

Ray hard at it.

On Sunday the sun really came out we went and played around some skerries before heading home. There was another accident at the Rest and be Thankful; ha ho.

Isle of May.

As the video takes up so much space on the camera card I only took this one still. It shows the landing beach.

I took these shots with my compact camera in it's waterproof case, I used a cheep table top tripod tied to my deck elastics. I have to remember not to edge the kayak whilst filming as it tips the camera to much.

Isle of May 2.

Part 2, there were hundreds of Guillemots, Razerbills as well as Puffins. The Puffins and Turns didn't seem to be nesting yet but the Eider ducks were mostly hatched.

Isle of May 1.

Sunday was a lovely hot sunny day so 16 paddlers from Fife Sea Kayak Club made the 5 mile crossing to the Isle of May. I made this video of paddling the west coast of the island, it's to big to upload in one go so I've split it into 3 parts.