Sun, Surf, and Solitude (and fire lighting)

I needed to get away for a camping trip to keep my skills up to date, and find out if I was capable of paddling around happily on my own for the expedition in May. A quick bit of packing, check of the pilot for tidal stream times, check of HW times, and weather forecasts, and the planning was complete. F6-7, gusting 8 - great! It had been blowing Westerly for a few days, so no doubt, a bit of swell. Off I went from Castlebay, not exactly sure where I would go, maybe Mingulay, maybe Pabbay, maybe Sandray, it was getting late - and I still had to find firewood and get a fire lit to cook dinner - so probably just Sandray!

After a few hours paddling, I rounded the headland and was confronted with a beach with a wee bit of foam, and a bit of surf landing was required. I counted the sets, and the period, found my moment, and went for it! It was all going well, until I felt/saw something rearing up behind me, luckily it wasn’t huge, so I ended up side surfing in the right way up. Having not approached many beaches recently that I did not set out from, I was reminded how difficult it is to judge the size of waves from the sea side rather than the beach. When I got ashore, I was a little disappointed at what I had pumped so much adrenalin around my body for!

So after my heart had calmed down, I got on to collecting and chopping firewood, finding a campsite. The axe and machete (brought the latter because I lost my knife surfing a few weeks ago) were invaluable in making tinder, kindling, and graded fuel for the fire. I had taken some of my own drier wood, and some tinder that had been dried on a metal plate on the stove at home. To cut a long story short, I couldn’t get it lit just using toilet roll and my tinder, so I had to result to petrol from my stove! Mental note: practice fire lighting! But hey, in the end I got it going, and practiced using different structures for fires. I now like the one below, using a wedge shape of thick wood which doesn’t burn too quickly, to give a structure that you can either put a pot on top of, or a wooden matrix to dry it out, the latter of which gives you simmer control for cooking - fantastic. 30mins later I was munching on pasta with pesto sauce, with fried onion and tomato.

After dinner, the solitude got to me a bit. Being alone on another island was a bit lonely at first. Eventually I resorted to talking to myself, which was surprisingly comforting, and as the evening went on, I listened to the MP3s on my phone. I had forgotten that I didn’t have credit on my sim card, so had to wait up on the hill (where I had a signal) for 2 hours for the phone call at 9pm from my folks, which I said I would make at 8pm. I was glad they phoned, because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I was half expecting the lifeboat to come round the corner in the middle of the night. It was a long night.

I woke up cold, thinking the waves sounded really big. Thankfully, when I got up, they were much smaller than they sounded! I had my porridge/raisin mix that been left soaking the night before, packed up, and to my horror, watched the waves getting bigger! The tide was nearing low water, and it was starting to dump. To cut a long story short, it took me 20mins to get out, after rescuing a lunch box and set of splits! But finally I made it, “woo hoo!”

I knew the swell round the west coast of Sandray was going to be awesome - I had to do it! I couldn’t resist seeing what the sea was like. The swell was indeed awesome! Scary at first, the power of it and what it could to do someone if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time felt surreal, so I kept my distance from the rocks. No photos as all I had was my phone for pictures. Progress was slow into the wind, and bouncing around in the clapotis. Out of the clapotis, it wasn’t too bad. The long rolling swell passed underneath me. Sometimes in the trough, I’m sure the swell must have been 12-15ft at times. Intimidating at first, but it was surprising how I got used to it.

So that was the exciting part. I decided against going up the W coast of Barra to get home to Northbay, into the wind and swell, and went back to Castlebay, using the east going stream. 3 hours paddling - I can’t wait till I get my own boat, so I can kit it out so that it’s comfy!

Learning experiences:
1) Always remember the IKEA bag!
2) Always make sure you’ve got credit and more than one sim card;
3) Big swell isn’t that bad when there’s nothing in its way!
4) I need to practice fire lighting with tinder;
5) When I get my own boat, I'm going to pad it out how I'd like it as soon as possible!
6) Contact tow also works well as an emergency contact between you and boat in case you come out when alone;
7) I’m going to make a general comprehensive kit list and just print it out for each trip, whether it’s a 1 night camping trip, or a 3 week expedition;

8) Daily activities like fishing, fire lighting, finding food, chopping firewood, visiting local food suppliers and internet places are going to take a lot of time out of the day! I'll probably have paddling days, and food days.

Happy paddling! I look forward to, and am off to read about others' stories…