Friday, November 18, 2005

Kind of Open Water

So far I have been hugging the coast as much as possible in my trips about the Cromarty Firth. Today I crossed at the narrowest point just 1.5Km between Invergordon and Balblair Pier on the Black Isle.( 702,685 ) to ( 703,672 ) OS map 21.

I headed east for 800 metres before heading straight back to the slip at Saltburn ( 728,701 ).

The crossing took me 20 mins and was a bit scary. I found it strange not being able to look left or right and see the land passing by. The sea was dead calm and I had timed my trip to get in a t high water and come back when the tide was starting to go out.

I never noticed the tide until I got to Newhall point, the thinnest part of the firth and I could see the water flowing east. I stopped paddling and was carried along. I put the nose of the boat ashore and had a quick slug of coffee out of the flask before pushing off towards home. The last bit was more or less straight to the take out point.

I saw ducks and comorants but no swimming creatures.

Now where can I go next ?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Paddling Latest


I have recently been arsing about when it's windy. The boat seems stable enough, the only difficult bit is turning. The wind has it's own ideas as to how you should be pointing.