Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
On Tuesday 3rd November, for some reason I happened to look at Drumchapel and Clydebank Kayak Club's calendar on their website, where I spotted a club trip to Skye planned for the coming weekend. I immediately contacted Ewen to see if there were any spaces still available on the trip. Luckily for me, there...
Having spent the morning with my chainsaw and chipper, chopping trees and processing the branches, I decided to take the afternoon off and head out in the Taran. It was a beautiful day, after all. With no particular plan in mind, I headed across to Clynder to gain some shelter from the wind blowing...
Russ was keen for another paddle the following evening. I nearly said no, but I was so glad I didn't! This evening we decided to head around Loch Scridain in a different direction. It was a gorgeous evening. The ever present wind was still blowing though, creating a choppy swell with hard going into...
We were having a lovely relaxing afternoon on the Port Nan Gael campsite, when I saw another camper van with a Rockpool Taran on its roof come into the campsite. This is not something you see every day, so I went to say hello to the owner, explaining I also own a Taran, but...
With the passing of our Greyhound Gemma, we decided to get away from it all and headed for a short break on Mull. We stopped for a couple of nights in our campervan at the rather excellent Port Nan Gael campsite on the Ross of Mull, next to Loch Scridain. The weather was brilliant,...
Having been awoken in the night by the hum emanating from the ship in the bay, I surfaced from my tent. Looking at the MarineTraffic app, I looked up the ship's details. It was a wellboat called the Inter Alba. The Inter Alba is basically a salmon farm within a ship. It is Scotland's...
Waking up at about 4am in the morning, I stuck my head out of the tent – it was already light. The view of the Sound, "Caol Rona", didn't look great from a paddling perspective. Looking at the wind and swell coming through the Sound, I could see that going around Rona would be...
After a four-and-a-half-hour drive in my campervan, I finally made it to my destination: a John Muir Trust car park near Torrin on the Isle of Skye. I opted for this car park because: a) it was only a 20–25-minute drive to the ferry port at Sconser; b) the car park had toilets open...
At Tuesday's DCKC Loch Lomond session I told Iain, I probably wouldn't make it on the Maidens trip planned for Thursday. I have been having a few car issues of late, with my car mysteriously going into limp mode every now and again. Wednesday morning, out of frustration with the garage "who will not...
End of day 1's 16 hour Outdoor First aid training. A quick blast to Bute was in order from Toward Seasports Club. Toward Seasports Club graciously allowed me to park my camper van on their car park for a couple of nights, whilst attending the course near Dunoon. It is a lovely spot. Annoyingly,...
Solo kayaking in my Taran from Whitby to Staithes - and back. Although due to a file corruption error on the GoPro Max, I only have footage of the Whitby to Staithes section and a little clip on the return leg. Conditions were not easy, due to large sets of swell coming in every...
After such a brilliant time in Looe yesterday in the Taran, I wasn’t ready to head home just yet. I booked into a campsite for two nights, giving myself a full day to make the most of paddling before driving home early Friday morning – and crucially, avoiding the dreaded Friday afternoon traffic. Eddystone...
First Date with a Rockpool Taran I’ve had a bit of a hankering for a Rockpool Taran for a while now — probably made worse by scrolling through the blistering times that Taran owners post on the Performance Sea Kayak pages. For the last few years, I’ve been paddling a Tiderace Pace 17 Tour...
A nice little trip around Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli). I've been eyeing up Bardsey Island for a while. Now I was staying in Aberdaron and the weather was looking good, I had my chance. I had looked at the tides and studied various tidal stream atlases. But I had another parameter to account for,...
Friday 6th June A quick paddle from Helensburgh Leisure centre. At first, I didn't have any plans on where I would head too. But on getting into my boat, I decided to head into the wind and against the ebbing tide. Low Water wouldn't be for a few hours so at least I would...
Monday 6th May I was up in Whitby visiting an old friend, with also the cheeky intension of getting a sea paddle in. Having looked at the forecast before setting off, I decided to take my surf boat along, as well as Tiderace Pace Tour 17, AKA "the Carrot", just in case the conditions...
So you may (or may not) be asking how come I've only logged one sea trip so far this year, and it is now April? Well, it's been a bit of a funny 2025 so far, with lots of family stuff happening. Mainly clearing and selling houses, and hopefully moving to Scotland, once we...
With high pressure in the forecast and little to no wind, I knew it was time to head out for some long-overdue sea kayaking. The year has been disappointing in terms of weather, so the chance to hit the water was too good to pass up. I recently visited Whitby for the Scatterings, so...
With the first anniversary of my wife’s mother’s passing approaching, my wife felt it was time to scatter her mum’s ashes, along with those of her stepdad, "Six-Foot-Ten Ken." They had both loved Whitby, so we decided to hold the scattering at sea, just outside the harbour. The plan was for my wife to...
Holiday Paddle on the IOW. Ok so it's really called Yaverland, but due to me misreading the paper map, it became Jaberland and so it will always be (to me)! The photos and video captured the day really well Distance 10.5 nm Time: 2 hours What a fab paddle...
