we had a rare week off the two of us and we were in huuuuge need of some good quality epic adventure time together ..
so we decided to jet off to 'sunny' orkney for some sea kayak adventures!
we realized crazily it had been over a year since we actually managed to sea kayaked together!
neither of us have ever paddled in orkney, i once managed to touch the bottom of south ronaldsy with my sea kayak after crossing from stroma and swonas, but had to get the ferry back straight away, and never actually got to paddle in orkney! it's been a place we've both wanted to go paddle together for such a long time! and it definitely lived up to its expectations!
after a long drive from wales to john o groats we woke up in the morning and were ready and psyched to get on the sea and get across the crossing to south ronaldsy.
weather looked good .... we had both planned the tides and come to the same timings and conclusions, so everything looked promising!
leaving john o groats, pointing north, we ferry glided up to the east point of stroma, and flew with the tide that splits halfway up the island round the north east coast to land at a little sheltered beech.
spending some time exploring the deserted island, we watched the tides rip quite fast and look interesting past swilkie point, confiriming our planning was correct and that if we left now ... we would end up out at sea!!
we managed to control our unpatient urges to go, reminding ourselves we deifinitey cant paddle faster than the tides here, and waited for the tides to lessen off for the next stage of the crossing.
We crossed to swona around slack water, and then after paddling up the interesting east coast of swona, looked to the south to see a big fat black cloud covering mainland scotland, appearing to be moving very quickly towards us! the wind was due to pick up and weather crap out later that evening, but it seemed it was coming in a few hours early! yay! anyway, the wind had started blowing and visibility was quickly crapping out! we had a quick discussion about weather to stay on swona the night or cross quickly .... we decided together to quickly cross straight over to south ronaldsy. a breezey force 4-5 started blowing halfway into the crossing with losts of waves and sea spray splashing us, and heavy rain had also started pouring! lovely! anyway it gave us a bit of adrenaline burst, its a bit of a funky feeling crossing one of the most renowned tidal waters in scotland, the pentland firth, with increasing winds and dissipating visibility! but we knew exactly what the tides were doing, where we were aiming for, knew the strengthening southerly wind would just mean we had to paddle a bit harder, and may just push us a bit further north, so felt confident with the decision. we paddled a bit faster than normal to get to land though, as we looked behind us and swona had just about dissapeared with the visibility and lots of whitecapts out at sea with the winds against the strengthening tide .... perfect timings, wouldnt have wanted to leave anything more than 10 minutes later though!
with the crapping out weather we decided to find a sheltered beech and call it a day for paddling
in the next morning we woke up to find sunshine and southerly winds still blowing but not much as strong as through the night. as a quick look at the map and tides ... and we decided to go to hoy!
up the east coast of south ronaldsy, across to flotta, and across to hoy. the tidal stream kicking out between switta and hoy was much stronger than we had expected, going about 3.5 knots we reckon. we had to paddle hard and surf the waves across to make it to hoy, exciting!
there was a bit of a westerly swell rollinng in, and as we looked out at the tidal race to the south of hoy, the waves created from tide mixing with swell and wind were boooming! it looked like we might get crushed by the waves if we followed the tide, so stuck on the inner, slower tide, outside the eddyline still making decent speed. wathcing big booming crashing waves in the tidal race to our left, glas we werent there!
rounding the south west corner of hoy was exciting, we felt the full effect of the westerly swell and kept us on our toes with a lively sea full of supride breakers around us! epic seenery to our right as well, shame we had to keep a fair distance off shore though to avoid the breakers and couldnt get close to the cliffs and geos.
the afternoon was an absolutely epic paddle up hoy, some of the most incredible sceenery ive seen in scotland!! and a lively swell to keep us on our toes!
passing little rackwick reef break was exciting, we had to make a fair detour out to sea, as the swell was causing fiesty waves slamming on the reef! seemed to be an a bit of a tidal race occuring here as well, and we had fun surfing some good waves out there!
aroud here quite a breezy force 5 ish southerlies kicked in , which was fun to surf the waves up the coast!
we kept going and reached rackwick bay, where we saw a bothy! we could have carried on surfing the waves and swell up the whole coast of hoy .... but had to remind ourselves its ok to stop early! we're not in newzealand yet! in fact we're on holiday!!!!!! so we decided to pull in for the night! we landed through some surf, wasnt too hard or big.
as we landed it got windier and winder!!! the sea was alive and a mess of whitecaps!!
we had a nice night in the bothy
but could hear the wind howling strong all night!
waking up to the mornning, we could still hear the wind howling .. hmmm...
i hopped in my sleeping bag to the little window on the bothy, and oh no my suspisshions of what was going to happen was confirmed!
'james! theres a bit more fucking surf than yesterday!!!!'
we both went outside, the wind howling from the south still!! it was definitely breezy today!!!
we stood there drinking a coffee assessing the surf for a bit ... it was a good chunky 8 foot pounders!
anyway, we decided it was fine ... well fine was a bit of an understatement ... but 'just about doable' a better word!
this is how new zealands guna be .... so we better man up!!!
we got ready and packed up ready to lauch. as we were getting ready the tide was coming in, and it was now just about high tide as we were gunna launch .. making the laucnhing a lot harder! as the waves were now crashing on the steep boulders, rather than the sand below! but we needed to leave now to get the tides with us for todays plans ... rounding south west orkney tides race.
we were ready, james walked off to his boat! 'see you out there!!!' he said and pointed out at sea!!
i stood with my boat watching the surf .... there was a line of surf pounding the steep bouldery beech where i needed to launch, then there was a lot of white rollers, then there was a line of 8 foot pounders roaring in a while away out the back!
i spent a time looking at it trying to visualize it working ... there were some gaps betwen the sets and it was doable. once i launched i would get past the horrible first line of breakers ... hold my ground in the white mess, wait for a break in the sets then power out past them. but actually launching off this steep bouldery beech was the bit worrying me most!! the inner line of breakers was breaing powerfully, rolling up the boulders and sucking out quickly to break again. getting myself off the boulders succcessful through the first line of sumpers didnt look easy! capsising or getting chcuked sideways would have been very bad, ad i would get thrown up on the rocks and potentially broken boat!!
i looked over left, james had scooted off the boulders and had made it past the first line of dumpers.
oh fuck it now i have to go i thought!
boat positioned just low enough i quickly hopped in and got spraydeck on before next wave crashed up boulders and i managed to push myself down with it , but it sucked out too fast and i was stuck between two boulders kayak leant far to the right, ahhh fuck it i thought!!
next wave came in and i managed to push hard, scraping my poor fibreglass down the boulders and got in the water, paddled like mad and punched through the line of dumpers!
first stage complete!!!
i paddled forward, got hit by the white mess rolling toward me, BAM it slammed me in the face waking me up, it was powerful!!! a lot more powerful than i had anticipated...
i looked to my left and could see james hadnt made much progress strugling to make headway into the powerful waves!
oh dear ... landing wasnt really an option now, it would be difficult and quite possibel end badly recking our boats ... there was only one thing to do, get out to sea!
the waves were really more powerful than i had thought, each one i paddled forward into slammed me hard, one nearly flipping me. my shoulders were knackerd already!
i looked left at jam,es he was level with me having same issues...
then a break in the swell appeared!
i wasnt far enough forward where i wanted to be making this break, but had to go anyway!
i paddled forward as hard as i could!!
as the next set started to come in, i thought i was doomed as a big horrible 8 footer started steeping and capping, paddled hard out, and JUST cleared it, my entire kayak becoming airbourne, stomach flying, and landing with a huge THUD on the sea. the next wave looked bigger, i kayaked hard towards a bit of cross swell i could see and managed to avoid it. i then kept going over the waves buliding and kayaked probably an extra 300m out than i needed to! just to be sure!!
james had succeflly got out in the break to and we met out at sea, laughing and comparing stories!!!
smiling and spirits high we pointed north and kayaked out! some breakers round some reefy headlands we had to avoid, checking where we needed to go to when the swell bought us up high we could see. we kyaaked past the old man of hoy, a stack i always wanted to see and it was incredible!!
as we then continued north the wind really started to pick up big time!!! going from about 10-15knots to about 20possibly 25k. things went from been quite plesent and nice ... to actully pretty spicy!!!
paddling together in hardconditions like this is great! we both know what we're doing well enough, we always manage to keep eyes on each other but dont need to look out or worry abouyt the other person as we're both totally capable! its really great theres few people i can paddle in conditions like this stress free with!
as we continued north it was getting very fiesty out here! the wind gusting was trying to rip our paddles from our hands at times! there were big breakers on some places we had to keep concentrated and check every time we rose high on the swell. we were surfing the waves with the very strong wind on our backs and going at super speed!!! it was sitting a little on the edge of the seat paddling! reminded us a bit of going up the exposed and wild coast of ffiordland!
the wind was already stronger than forecast and was forecast to get stronger the day went on, we were now having big doubts about commiting to the west coast of orkney ...
as we rounded the north west corner of hoy, the wind was really hooning now!! much more and it would have been quite serious actually ...
we were met with a big line of breakers stretching quite a way out to sea we had to somehow avoid ...
and we made a decision to pull into the sheltered water, land and reasses the situation ... we pulled inround the corner, and found a east facing beech with no wind and no swell! we quickly forgotten how epic the morning had just been!!
we checked the weather and the wind was forecast to keep blowing, with a builidng swell, ... even though we were so so tempted by the potential epicness of doing west coast orkney in strong winds and a chunky swell... we managed to convince ourselves it would be a bad decision! as there were no definite landings for practicvally the whole west coast! and if conditions deteriated any more we would be right on the scope of our physical limits ... it was hard decision... as it could have been one of the most epic paddles we have done ..... but we knew deep down it would be a very very very stupid decision commiting to that paddle with those conditions!!! so .. .we live another day!
we decided to relax for the afternoon on a cool little beech spot. we found a little cafe that sold beers which was great! so we drunk a couple of beers and spent a rare afternoon something we dont do much often ...... just relaxing!!!! it was actually quite nice!
waking up early in the mornning, the weather forecast was still for strong westerly winds, but easing through the way.
the clouds appeared to be moving super fast, but we couldnt really feel any wind or tell what the weather was doing from our little sheltered bay so decided to stick our noses out in it to see what was happening before deciding. we plesently paddled around the little island of graemey seeing lots of happy seals.
as we turned westward, we were hit full pelt in the face with strong westerly winds and could see the sea was a total mess of whitecaps out there! we battled hard to make the 2 km to the westerly point of the island, and it took us forever crawling into the strong westerly wind!!
we reached the point, looked out at sea towards the corner of orkey, where we could see a mess of white! and we could see the big westerly swell rolling into where we were! dammit! we would barely be able to paddle anywhere in this wind, than go east!!
the hoy sound was exciting! a 1km wide channel with fast tides! with strong westewrly winds, westerly swell, and opposing tode ot was very exciting! we played about it it, playing around with wind/tide calculations seeing how much drift was hapening! the sea was very lively and exciting here!!
we eventually got out of it and into a sheltered harbour of stromness. we decided the inly realistic was we could paddle with the hooning westerly wind was east! so east we went!!
easy paddle tosay, we were in sheltered waters with no swell and wind on our backs flying us the entire way!!!!
we flew with the wind and went east!
we next crossed out to a little island called copinsay, and decided to go around it.... the east coast was an incredible suprise, we hadnt really looked at the fine detail on the map, and wasnt expecting it to be so epic. but the cliffs were incredible!!
we camped on the island that night
we got some sun!!! dried our kit out! and sat up chatting and drinking whicky till it got dark! great evening!
alwways feels epic been in so a remote place been the only people on an island! and always better if you have whisky!
next day we paddled back the way we came along south coast of orkney, but managed to find lots of amazing caves that we had bypassed on the way over! we had a relaxed morning exploring some caves, some going really deep into the cliffs, and getting pitch black,, where we would get scared and paddle quickly out again!! this was an epic morning just explorng every ccave we could find!
we then crossed over to south ronaldsy
had a quick lunch stop and carried on down the east coast!
we had great weather conditions today!! great as we needed to start making our way back home!
the east coast was phemonenal!!! amazing cliffs and scenery the whole way down!!
as we got to the south east corner we were met with a fiesty tidal race!!
it was round about spring tides now, the race was in full flow and it was really crazy to watch!!! we flew around the corner of the island with it and paddled very quickly with the tide round the south coast to land in burwick.
we cooked up some dinner, drank some coffee and waited fr the tides to slacken off so we could cross over to swona!
as we were dressed and waiting, we still had 20minutes till our calculations said we had to launch, so we went and explored the little graveyard and abandoned church nearby.
i found it funny that the first grave we saw said 'james', and made some jokes to james!
we then found it quite funny that the next 4/5 graves we passed all said james! i made some jokes to a rather upset james about it been a sign where all the jameses end up after pentland firth crossings go wrong!!
we carried on walking round the graveyard ... and found about 20 more graves that said james!!!
the joke wasnt funny anymore, we were both actually quite spooked!!!!!
anyway despite the bad omen, we got on the sea anyway, and perfectly ferryglided across to swona with great conditions just as the sun was setting, with a beautful pink sky as we looked back to burwick, it was really beitful and great moment.
as we rocked up, we found an old abandoned house, which we decided noone would mind if we stayed in it ...
we slept upstairs, but both of us lay awake all night absolutely terrified the house was hanted! seeing figures outside, and hearing footsteps downstairs we didnt get much sleep at all!! that house is definitely haunted!! never stay in it!
anyway leaving at half 7 in the morning to get the tides right we swiftly made progress to stroma, and we had planned to arrive at swilkie point (the northernmost point) just before slack water ... but it appeared the tide sseemed to have changed about 20minutes earlier, maybe cause it was a spring tide i dont actually know! anyway it meant we had to fight hard to ferry glide across to the eddy behind it! we made it!
we had to fight quite hard with some strong back currents passing down the east coast, but managed to eddyhop and stick close to the coast and make it down before the tides picked up too much.
feeling a bit over confident, we only vaugly looked at the tides between stroma and mainland scotland for the final crossing and did a quick finger estimate of drift. every tidal crossing we had done had worked peffectly, and everywhere the tides had always been a little less than expected.
so rather than working out the detailed we estimated the tide to be going about 3 knots as we crossed
and felt quite at ease that there was a huge amount of land to hit as a target, and we'll just figure it out as we go!!
anyway our transits were working well and we were on track to get to john o groats estimating the speed to be about 3 knots drifiting us pefectly to john o groats, untill about halfway across, our transits started moving a bit more quickly and the tide seemed to strengthen about 4 knots! we had to change the angle, and go with the tide a little bit to make more progress, paddled a bit harder than before, and managed to hit land about 1km down from john o groats! which wasnt too bad, we just followed a nice back eddy back to the harbour.
all in all a great adventure was had!!
it was great to be back in our sea kayaks together!
a great trip to remind ourselves what winds/swell do to the sea!
and to remind us why we absolutely love sea kayaking adventures!!!!
