Quest night out

Last month a group of us went for a night trip around lady isle.

P&H Quest

i have now been very lucky and became the proud owner of a P&H Quest, thanks to Douglas Wilcox putting me in touch with Simon Willis. http://simon-willis.blogspot.com/Simon was selling his Quest and am very happy with my new purchase. This is a superb kayak.

looking forward to many miles of happy paddling.

sandstone cliffs

I love the beauty of sandstone. Something very impresive about it. How it has weathered over time showing its layers.

bracken bay

On another trip a little later I went from greenan shore to bracken bay. This is a beautiful little bay with stunning sandstone cliffs.

greenan to dunure

My first trip was from greenan shore to dunure and back. almost right away i could tell this was a nice stable kayak for a beginner like me. With a following sea i made very good progress south past the heads of ayr and bracken bay. My heart was in my mouth as i had no practice on the sea at all.

wilderness tempest 170

This is my first kayak a wilderness tempest 170. I was flicking through the paper one day and came across an add for a carbonfiber right handed cranked paddle for £100. WOW I thought thats good but its no use without a boat. Then right bellow the add in small print was a sea kayak for sale also £100, same phone number.

I called right away knowing at that price I would be lucky if it was still there. It was. I arranged to go see it there and then not wanting to miss such a great deal. The kayak was ideal for me with the only fault being the skeg did not work, but for the money I was over the moon and almost afloat for £200.

saxon bay to brodick

The sun was now out as we headed south to brodick and the ferry back to ardrossan. This had been an amazing journey

saxon bay

There are no pictures of the trip across from bute to saxon bay as the wind and tide created a very intense crossing!!!! i needed to focus just to stay upright. waves were coming from every direction or so it seemed. I was relieved to reach saxon bay.

This is us landing on arran at saxon bay with blue skys complete contrast to the start of the trip.

portencross to arran

Phil in his recent purchased P&H Quest. The fog was now starting to lift as we left the south end of bute.

portencross to arran

this was a trip last spring from portencross to arran with Douglas,Tony,Gavin,david and Phil. We started from portencross in calm conditions with a light fog. On the trip over we enjoyed a very varied weather front. first it was calm with light fog which started to lift as we neared isle of bute.

sharing with friends

As i sat by the tent enjoying the sunset i thought i would share the event with friends. I text a picture of the sunset to a very good friend Douglas Wilcox. Douglas has one of the most inspiring blog sites Sea kayaking with SeaKayakPhoto.com. http://seakayakphoto.blogspot.com/have a look and you will see what i mean. when i first got my first sea kayak i found seakayakphoto.com and every picture and comment made me want to get out there and see for myself what i had been missing.

isle of bute

This was the view from my tent. the sun is setting over the south end of the isle of bute. time to sit back and enjoy the sunset with a wee dram or two.

another night on little cumbrae

next day i walked around to the north end of the island only to see that i was not leaving little cumbrae today either. back to camp and put my feet up.

campsite long bay

this was to be my camp for the next few days. the weather picked up even more. from where i was camped the sea looked fine, almost calm. thought i would have a wee look round the island, and enjoy the peace.

ndk explorer

I hired this explorer from http://www.kari-tek.co.uk/ i highly recomend this company they are very helpful and will go out of thier way to help you.

portencross to little cumbrae

this was a trip i went on last spring. the plan was to paddle from portencross out past little cumbrae over to bute then circumnavigate round bute then back to portencross. i was wanting to put a kayak to the test and what a test i got!!!! the kayak i was paddling was a NDK Explorer hired from kari-tec. this was a fantastic stable very able kayak. if it was not for this kayak i think i would have never managed the conditions.

well that was the plan! but as a great poet said "the best laid schemes o mice an men gang aft agley "

mother nature had other plans for me. the wind and waves started to increase as i began my trip. the waves picked up more than i would have liked as i made my way across to little cumbrea. I quickly realised that the conditions were way more than than my abilities. i made a mad dash to long bay on the west side of little cumbrae and set up camp to wait out the wind.

this was the only traffic i had to deal with. i just lay back and drifted along

enjoying the peace and quiet.

ayr harbour

this is the green bouy at the entrance to the harbour. what a beautiful sunset this was, not a ripple on the sea.

ayr harbour

this was an evening trip just outside ayr harbour. i finished work early and rushed down the road. what a fantastic night.

first steps

well here goes. this is my first tentative steps at creating my blog site.

what i would like to do with this blog is to share with you the fun and beauty of sea kayaking.