SusExp 2009 Day 3: Portree to Camas Ban (1.5km)

Woke up this morning and the wind was howling – the forecast was right then – southerly backing south-easterly 4 or 5, gusting 6 to 7. I was relieved to have one more day to sort stuff out – we hadn’t packed the boats yet or practiced rescues, two big tasks. So we had breakfast, unset camp from our forested site, and drove to the pier in Portree – yes drove, our expedition hadn’t really started yet and it was poring last night and we needed good shelter and also wanted to get a fire going, which is why I justified the driving to myself.

I was starting to get restless because it was now two days of paddling that we had missed due to the weather – will we be able to make it up and get all the way round Skye? This was the main question running through my mind, or variations on a theme of how we could make it. I also had the conflicting interests of the trip: 1) to paddle as far as possible when we can, in order to make it all the way round, and 2) to spend time on land trying to find and catch enough food to sustain us and getting to know the land and its people. This is the problem with circumnavigations, if you don’t make it round, you feel like you have to come back and try again, but there are lots of other things I’d like to do – big climbs and other big paddles – so I don’t want to have to come back for a full attempt again. That said, if I had to, I would, and I wouldn’t compromise the safety of Sam or myself to any disproportionate degree.

Back to the objective stuff…we had another great coffee (Sam had cappuccino, I had espresso) from the café below the Caledonian Hotel in Portree – thankfully the coffee picked me up and kicked my brain into gear. We looked at the maps more, and talked about safety and what we would do in emergency situations.

We packed the boats, Sam packed and it seemed like packed and repacked and repacked. Understandably he wanted to make a good job of it and I was sensing he was erring on the side of perfectionist, but I was keen to get on the water. I let him take his time without complaint from myself and we got on the water about 4ish after finding some Portree girls to take a leaving photo. They were telling us about the Skye Highland games dance tonight as it had been the games today. No time to consider that just now – we headed off.

Ten minutes later we arrived, set up camp, then had a quick discussion about what rescues we’d practice and how we’d practice them. I had no wetsuit, so wasn’t keen for continual dunking.

So we practiced Eskimo rescues, rolling, self rescues plus played with various strokes. When we were satisfied that we were cold and wet enough I headed in to start dinner and Sam went to find firewood. I got the dinner of tatties and sausages going on the MSR petrol stove – no time tonight to cook on natural fire – and Sam returned with a few logs. After dragging them through the water and in my ignorance, I wasn’t optimistic about getting a fire going. However, after having a chat about the motives of the trip, I think Sam was keen to not waste his efforts and to get the fire going – and I was keen to know how to do it also.

Low and behold, two hours later, after sawing up logs, splitting them with an axe, splitting into smaller bits with a knife, shaving off the wet bits, making feather sticks and splitting into as fine as possible, we managed to get the Kelly Kettle going pretty easily. I was amazed and impressed that we (Sam) had managed to get a from a damp looking log that had just been towed through the sea. I went to bed satisfied, and unknown to me, Sam was setting up the fire for a treat in the morning…

Food diary:

• Breakfast: uncooked oats with water and blueberries; fried potatoes and egg;
• Lunch: fish and chips;
• Dinner: boiled potatoes and sausages; blueberries and gooseberries for pudding;
• Tea boiled on Kelly Kettle lit from driftwood towed to campsite in the sea.