ron-t kayaking blog
19 October 2012 .............. Luing - all the way round
After my trip out with the Anas Acuta some 9 days ago, I did some modifications to it to increase the comfort level and my fit in it - I changed the footrests, which are home made, and also changed the backrest, also home made.
So it was time to try it out, and seeing as the weather forecast was for a calm day, although maybe a bit drizzly, I went back to Cuan. It was just after the full Springs, so not the biggest of tidal ranges, but a fair size all the same, and bigger than some summer Springs. I wondered if it might be possible to do the full circuit of Luing - get the ebb tide in the morning, slackwater around lunchtime, and the flood tide for the journey back up to Cuan. It was a good theory - if only it had worked !
Crossing Cuan Sound was extremely challenging - it was in full Springs ebb flow. From the pier, I paddled up the sound against the current as far as I could, but then met a headland with just too strong a current, so had to retreat somewhat. I looked for somewhere where the flow in the middle looked a bit smoother than the other bits, and headed out for a ferry glide across. Not surprisingly, I was losing ground the whole time, because the current was stronger than my forward speed, but eventually I got across the fast current and started to cross over an eddyline into a big eddy.
The problem was that by this time I was half way down the eddyline, and halfway down an eddyline is the worst place to try and cross it, because by that point the eddy line is at its widest and nastiest - masses of whirlies that try to eat you. So I spent the next few minutes dodging whirlies, and getting washed backwards all the time. It wasn`t very nice, but eventually got into the eddy, and headed upstream again.
If I had been in any other boat I am not sure that I could have done it. A conventional sea kayak with the normal artificially extended keel-line that tracks like a train would have been far too slow to turn, and I would just have been washed out of control downstream. So the Anas Acuta won the day.
I still had a couple of headlands to pass, the first one I powered past okay, the second one was a no-no - there was just too much current. But I noticed a little passageway round behind it, so did a wee bit of rock hopping into and through this passageway, and out upstream of the headland.
At that point I was happy that I had got across and through the Cuan Sound, and confidently set off. However the tidal currents were not yet finished with me.
Further round the end of Luing, I discovered that there was a huge eddy, and instead of picking up the ebb current flowing south, I was in a north going current that curved round and flowed straight back into Cuan Sound. So a bit more fighting was required, and once again I am sure that in a normal sea kayak, I would have been pushed round and back into Cuan Sound, but with the manouverability of the Anas Acuta, I could get round and head south.
I didn`t intend this to be an advert for the Anas Acuta, but it did behave very well in these conditions.
The rest of the morning was uneventful, I headed down towards Cullipool, then towards the islands that sticks out from the side of Luing. There was a very impressive tidal race between these islands and Dubh Sgeir, and I went screaming down the side of Eilean Mhic Chiarain with the tide race just off to my right.
After that things calmed down, and the rest of the Sound of Luing was plain sailing, although you do get some tide rips out in the middle for the next kilometre or so.
About halfway down to Black Mill Bay, I cut across, and headed for the Grey Dogs. The Grey Dogs are good in the ebb current, if you don`t like what you see, you can just let yourself be washed back out into the open water again.
By the time I got there, it was heading down to slackwater, and I paddled and eddy-hopped up the north channel, round all the islands, and back out the south channel, and headed straight back over towards Luing.
About two thirds of the way across, I met a ship - a big ship - that was heading north up the Sound of Luing, and he seemed fairly determined to drive over the top of me, so I had to stop and wait for it to pass about 100 metres or so in front of me.
Then it was down to the bottom of Luing, and of course by that time there was no ebb current to speed me on my way, round the corner, and started back up the east side, before stopping for lunch, and waited for the flood tide to start.
So here are the few pictures I took from the bottom end of Luing - it was grey day, so they are not very exciting, but I couldn`t not have any pictures, so here they are. First off, looking south towards Jura, Reisa an t-Sruith, and the bottom end of the Craignish peninsula. Somewhere in there lies the Dorus Mor, but it is not too clear where it is, because there are several islands around that area.
Round a bit to the right, there is Jura - the Paps must have been hiding in cloud, and the Corryvrekan is a bit round the corner of Scarba, so is also hiding from view.
Round a bit more and Scarba had its hat on, and the Grey Dogs are hiding as well.
I eagerly set off northwards expecting to be whisked up the side of Luing by the flood tide, however it was actually a very slow journey against a quite strong northeast wind. For much of the time I seemed to be going against the tidal flow as well - maybe there are eddies up the side of Luing.
So it was a good morning, but the afternoon was a bit tedious. But my Anas Acuta proved to be a lot more comfortable that it used to be.
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