The Craic’n: January 2025

By graham Comment Closed
The Craic'n: January 2025 Editor’s Welcome Belated Happy New Year to you all and welcome to the first Craic'n of the year. 2025 has already given us plenty of un-paddleable weather, first the snow then the wind, with all four seasons in between. Included in this edition is a summary of a few weather apps for kayaking and other water sports to help us decide where and when to go out on the water. It is good to know that a good-sized group of hardy souls braved the cold and made the most of the window between the two weather events for the January’s Second Saturday Paddle. This time it was to Inchcailloch for the postponed Mince-Pie Paddle. - Were there even any pies left over from Christmas festivities for the event 🤣 But a good opportunity for trying out some of Santa’s gifts. Not a mince pie in sight! The committee are still working on trips and events for the coming year, these will include night...
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Epic Summer Expedition to Orkney – Margaret’s Tale

By graham Comment Closed
Graham, Misha, Pat, Joe, Bev, Danny, Geoff, Leigh, Cam, Richard, Liz, Margaret The trip lived up to its name, a truly epic kayak to the cold and windy northern isles of Orkney whileGlasgow basked in the sun. Several days were 30k, most capsized at some point testing their rollingability or the team’s rescue skills from dodgy rocks and headlands, and day 1 winds were Force 5,gusting 6! Had I realized beforehand….!!?On Friday 26 May, nine of the group gathered at Thurso campsite. Plan A was going ahead, plans B(Shetland), C (other) had been cancelled. We were glad of Pat’s organizational skills with campsitespaces booked and just what we needed, a pattern that was to continue for the rest of the trip. https://dckc.smugmug.com/DCKC-2023/Orkney/i-NRM7PhZ/A Sat 27 th It was a windy, rough crossing from Scrabster to Stromness on the large Northlink ferry. Surely wewon’t be kayaking today was my thought. Little did I know. In Stromness we went to look at thesea, westerly, force 5, gusting...
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Remote West Coast and Small Isles Expedition, September 2022

By graham Comment Closed
AKA the Shetland Trip Revised Shetland was the trip that we just couldn’t pull off this year. We had cancelled in June as the winds were consistently F5 and above and we cancelled again in September with a similar weather picture. Misha and Alan were moving on with Plan B before we got together ahead of departure and our best window was West Coast near Skye and fingers crossed out to the the Small Isles. By then, we were grateful to be getting away at all. We all signed up and swallowed hard our disappointment. Bev, Danny, Graham, Joe, Leigh and I were the rest of the crew. We met at the campsite at Ardleve on Loch Alsh in the evening prior to the launch, half of us coming direct from work, arriving late that night. Day 1 Kyleakin to Eilean a’Mhuineil, Loch Hourn 33km We broke camp in the morning and regrouped on the shore at Kyleakin. A posse of drivers set...
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Wow, we got there to St Kilda!

By graham Comment Closed
A trip report by Janice Gow. MV Cuma Kayak Store Saturday 13th August Arrived at Miavaig Pier, West Loch Roag and MV Cuma at 4pm today. (Some of us, Bev, Marcus, Joe, Graham, Hannah and I, had travelled through the night from Glasgow before the ferry from Ullapool at 10am – thanks Hannah and Graham for all that driving.) Met everyone else there – Pat, Alan, Misha, Angus, Danny and Geoff. Got kayaks on, tied to side of boat with our roof straps, got all our bags on and got our cabins. Murdo, our skipper, had said we were going to Scarp, that St Kilda wasn’t possible, and we’d known it wasn’t likely given the forecast. BUT as we travelled, we became aware we were going away from the coast and going west? A big cheer went up. We were going to St Kilda! St Kilda is 45 miles west of Harris, an archipelago of five islands, the biggest one being Hirta, the one that...
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Equipment Sale June 2022

By graham Comment Closed
We are offering a number of items of equipment for sale to members. These are items that were generously donated to the club by retiring kayakers (some of whom weren't club members but were looking for a good home). Most items donated have become part of the club equipment for all members however some items weren't quite right for club equipment. All funds will go towards club activities, helping coaches and trip leaders with their training and key safety equipment. Items for sale include dry bags, BA's, dry tops, v-bars for roof racks and more. We are proposing to do as a mini-auction and are able to take maximum bids in advance. Please email graham (graham.m.swanson@gmail.com ) with the item(s) you are interested in. We aim to have items that people might want to try on available at the June 28th Loch Lomond session. Closing bids by 5pm Monday 4th July! Important: The equipment is only for sale to club members - please do...
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Amazing Lottery Award from Awards for All

By graham Comment Closed
We have been awarded £6500 from the National Lottery Awards for All to allow us to purchase new sea kayaks for use by all our members. This will make a huge difference to how many people can go paddling and we have managed to source a range of kayaks including ones suitable for a range of paddler sizes. Last year we had organised and been supported by club members to run a number of community events including for youth groups, litter picks and for a disadvantaged groups. As well as being great fun at the events they helped us to show the funder the ways the club contributes to our wider community....
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Sea Kayaking trip report, Skye 18 to 23 August 2021

By graham Comment Closed
by Gianni Filippi ably assisted on Day 1 by Danny This trip, Plan E, was organised at short notice to take advantage of a favourable weather window after a strong winds forecast delayed our start by a few days. The location was Skye, the great playground for sea kayakers. The launch point was the working harbour at Meanish Pier and ended at Elgol, a focal point for tourists taking advantage of the varied boat trips on offer. This trip involved setting up a shuttle between Elgol and Meanish Pier. Day 1 - Spar Cave With great anticipation we met at 12.00 noon at Elgol. Before setting up the shuttle, we took advantage of the time allowed to have a short paddle from Elgol which was of course all carefully planned. The aim of the day’s paddle was to discover and investigate Spar Cave. The tide was high which meant we would not be sharing our experience with walkers who can...
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Awesome DCKC Expedition August 2019

By graham Comment Closed
A group of fourteen paddlers signed up for a week’s sea kayaking in the North East of Scotland, we were holding off making decisions about the final destination in the hope that the winds would ease sufficiently for us to head for Orkney or Shetland. We conceded a night or two ahead of departure and converged instead on the Old Brewery Hostel in Cromarty on the Black Isle. The Hostel was a treat – and we nearly had it all to ourselves. Day 1 Saturday : Rosemarkie to Cromarty 25km 5 hours Conditions: Dry, light wind, flat calm initially F2 later in day Oil rigs in Cromarty Firth We launched from the beach at Rosemarkie Bay tucked in behind Chanonry Pont, and paddled out to the Point then directly across to Fort George. We had a lunch stop at the atmospheric Eathie salmon station – and learned a thing or two about the salmon fishing industry over the past 2 centuries. As we...
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Wonderful Donation to Club

By graham Comment Closed
In May 2021 the club was contacted by a retiring Kayaker looking to pass his much loved equipment to the club. Read more about history and adventures below. I am glad to donate 2 Nordkapp kayaks and kit to the club, and I applaud the club members who give of their time to coach and encourage people to participate in this activity. I trust that others will find the recreation that we experienced in them. Ian Smith and I were long time friends, kayaking blood brothers and business partners. Our kayaks gave us privileged access to one of the best kayaking venues in the world - Scotland. From the Mull of Galloway to Muckle Flugga on Shetland, and everything in between, we had the best of times over more than 30 years on the water. 3 tours to Orkney and 4 to Shetland are imprinted on our kayaking souls. Unforgettable the first time we experienced the hugh rhythmic swell around Noss headland, the pleasure of...
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Grant Award for New Paddles from Sports Council for Glasgow

By graham Comment Closed
In April we were awarded £250 towards the costs of some new paddles for the river/loch and pool. The paddles are on order and should be with us soon and an extract from the grant application is shown below… “This project is the purchase of kayak paddles suitable for a range of uses. Our club welcomes kayakers whether novice or more experienced and our volunteer coaches run a wide range of activities including pool session, loch sessions and canal/river trips. We provide the necessary kayaks, paddles and safety equipment. The club currently has a limited range of general purpose pool/loch/river paddles most of which are over 20 years old (Ainsworth K100 is the model). These paddles have a number of issues that would be addressed in this project 1/ Feather angle. Kayaking has developed and paddles are now normally at a 30 degree or 45 degree feather. This alleviates strain on the paddler’s wrist whilst still cutting through the wind. ...
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Sea Kayaking Paddler’s Guide

By graham Comment Closed
If only every day was like this! Following a few events and trips during 2019, the committee felt that a little bit of the ethos of the club needed to be written down. It wasn't a big issue but it was felt that it would be useful to try to help newer members to become aware of how trips are organised, what responsibilities people have and how to be a "good group member". The new guide is available at Sea kayaking paddlers guide We would encourage all sea paddler and others to have a read through. (It will always be a work in progress so any typo's, queries or suggestions can be sent to the club's email address for the next version!)...
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Elterwater Lake District River Weekend

By graham Comment Closed
Having undertaken extensive research Graham was able to identify a suitable Hostel in Elterwater which was cheap, had both male and female sleeping areas, a dry room, a full English breakfast, close to a pub, and central to a wide range of rivers. The last criteria obviously being the most important! Travel arrangements in place we headed down to the Lake District as we experienced the tail of Storm Freya. Sandy’s wee van did well to make it up a 25% gradient hill fully laden and Sandy did well manoeuvring all the tight corners in the dark. Having dumped our kit in the prison…..sorry hostel….we headed down to the pub to wait on Graham and Campbell.   After a good nights sleep (in the ladies dorm) and a noisy sleep in the boys room we stocked up on energy reserves with a very tasty cooked breakfast. Following a most excellent exercise in skilful (tandem) navigation we arrived at our put-in point on the...
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GlenIsla trip 10th and 11th November 2018

By graham Comment Closed
This year was an alternating year when the Lochawe weekend goes on tour. After phoning just about every village hall in Scotland we went to the GlenIsla village hall near Kirriemuir. A great hall with showers, a fantastic kitchen and a pub 300m away. It also brought a new area with new rivers and sea trips, but more later. After some ins and outs the group ended up as 12 people, with a mix of river and sea participants. A game of paper-scissors-stone on Saturday morning gave Misha a sea day followed by a river day, whereas Graham had a river day then a sea day. Rain overnight had meant that a debate of West Water (Grade 3 / 4) or South Esk (Grade 2/3). The group (Graham, Derek, Gianni, Marcus and Sam) stopped for a look as we crossed the South Esk and it looked big and brown and seemed a good choice. The gauge when we got a phone...
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Sound of Luing trip report 08.09.2018

By graham Comment Closed
Rab, Leigh, Sandy, Hannah, Pat This trip was carefully named to reflect the difficulty of predicating where you might end up depending on the tides and wind conditions in this area. We had hoped for Garvellachs but it became apparent as the week progressed that we would get there but couldn’t be sure whether we would get off the island anytime soon. We settled for Belnahua, an island at the north end of the Sound of Luing where we would camp and set off early the next day to escape the worst of the weather. We launched from near Craignish point, west of Ardfern. It was F2 and we were slow to make progress across Dorus Mor against a 2 mph tidal stream to Dearg Sgeir which lay 1 ½ km off shore. We then headed for Scarba with the Corryvreckan opening up to the west. As we got closer, we could hear the roar of the body of water passing through...
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