Day 28: Garenin Hostel, NW Lewis to Port of Nis, Butt of Lewis (25Nm, 10hrs)

Today was a fantastic finale to the expedition, involving the longest paddle, the most exposed paddling and the best finish.

It started at 7am in my bivvy bag with a nice sunrise. I went up to the hostel to boil the kettle for a cup of tea and to fill my flask, and heated up my black pudding and potato omelette from last night. It wasn’t as tasty as last night for some reason but I ate it nevertheless. After chatting to various people I managed to get on the water at 9.45am, 45mins later than I planned to, so that meant I’d be arriving around 7.45pm.

So I was off on the last day of the expedition, I’d nearly made it, so far, I couldn’t believe it, I’d nearly managed to paddle the whole length of the Outer Hebrides! Although it was far from over. I came out of the mouth of the inlet the hostel was in,and started along the coastline. There was coastline as far as I could see and further and I seriously wondered if I was capable of doing it. I carried on paddling. I was pretty good at being happy in my own company by now, not to say a paddling buddy would have been great, and coped with various activities such as singing and making up songs, talking to myself which I thought was pretty good conversation (!) and listening to the few hundred MP3s on my mobile phone which I now knew off by heart. The coast just went on and on and on.

One nice thing that happened was befriending a Fulmar who thought I was a fishing boat and kept on landing in front of me and watching for waste fish as I drifted by. It did this for a good 20mins and I started feeling sorry for it I aimed straight for it when it was in front of me, which scared it and it flew away and didn’t come back. The weather was great, clear blue skies, not too much swell - I stayed roughly 1km off the coast to avoid swell in the shallower water - and I was working with the tide (the whole 1Kt of it!). The paddling was a cycle of paddling as long as I could before the aches and pains got too much, then having a rest to stretch and move around to get blood flowing in my legs/feet again.

A nervous point on this leg was paddling past the army firing range which had ‘Danger’ labelling the boundary of an area on the map that I was paddling through. I thought about phoning the coastguard to make sure it was safe, but in the end thought they would probably see me if they were going to shoot anything. I couldn’t help wondering if things were going to fly past me at any time and explode!

I got to the planned lunch spot at Siadar, recharged the mobile phone which had run down due to listening to music, had some coffee and a cup of soup with the locally baked bread. After a 20min break, periodically floating my boat inshore and moving my stuff as the tide came in, I felt refreshed and ready to carry on.

So I continued with the tide and the sun into a light northerly wind on the next 4.5 hour paddle - the final leg! I was pretty ecstatic for a good while (probably partly due to the coffee), coming to terms with the fact that I had nearly paddled the 250Nm (275 statute miles) up the Western Isles. I looked back to see how far I’d come, grateful to see the headlands fading into the haze.

If paddling long distances does anything for you, it forces you to think about forward paddling technique! I think the technique frequently anyway but forward paddling is really the most essential skill in sea kayaking and good technique makes paddling much more efficient. Coaches often talk about aspiring to make kayaking skills effective and efficient, but I’d now like to coin the term EESSy (effective, efficient, smooth and stylish - in that order) which I think adds two more important qualities to skills and I’ll be using that in coaching - ‘…how can you make your strokes more EESSy?...’

I passed some creel buoys and was happy to see them downstream of the rope in the water meaning the tide was flowing in my direction. Then I got to a skerry which had an eddy NW of it, again comforting me because I was going with the tide. I was getting closer, now only an hour from the Butt. The anticipation was killing me! Eventually I got there, great!

What a place for paddling, with loads of islands and a natural arch above the HW line, but I couldn’t explore because it was 7pm and I needed to get on. I was nearly there! I rounded the Butt and had 3km to Port of Nis. I enjoyed the coast with the deepening light from the start of the sunset and the reduced swell on the east coast of Lewis. The tide had started flowing in the wrong direction for me and the last headland I had to cut in close land to avoid the current which looked a good 2-3kts.
Then I got to the harbour - woo hoo! It was like some kind of Mediterranean beach and with a flat sea, everything lit with sunset orange, I landed at the slip way in Port of Nis! I had done it! I sat down to come to terms with the fact that I had done it! Then some pals (Sean ZS and Innes) arrived with their bio-diesel, from used vegetable oil, van. They gave me a can of Tenant’s Lager which I gulped down - thanks guys! The rest of the night is another story which involved sausage rolls, whisky, more lager, and a party in Stornoway.

The next day we went for a trip out into the Minch on a 67-foot yacht which Innes and his dad Angus charter. What a life! Sean, Innes and Alison gave me a lift and buddied me down to Leverburgh where I paddled across the Sound of Harris with the wind which was great, and had a wee play in the wind and against tide next to the hostel which was quite a big area of 1ft standing waves with the tide ripping through at 3ish knots! Stayed with Brian and Kath, the friends with the wind turbine, left the boat there, stayed over night and then got the bus the next day to Eriskay and the ferry back to Barrabados!

So now I’m back at home, eating lots of green vegetables that are growing in the garden! That’s it. The first Sustainable Expeditions expedition is finished! I’ll wait a couple of days then I’ve got a few kind of results of and thoughts on this expedition which was really a bit of an experiment.

Day 9: (Morning) Preparing to leave Loch Ayenort for Roisinis

I was too tired to write last night, so I'm now sitting on a rock on the shore in Loch Ayenort, in front of the fire that I cooked breakfast on and am now burning some peat, which has got a lovely yellow coloured ash and nice smell. The morning sun (9am) is casting a pretty light on the Loch, and I'm just about to start packing my boat before going up to say a final good bye to Archie, Angie, Margaret and Graham, who are some of the most generous and hospitable people I've ever met - thank you for all your help!

Yesterday was as usual, a good day. I got the fire going for breakfast, cooked some porridge with jam and boiled some water for a flask for tea, collecting some of the leaves that Archie said could be used for medicinal tea - I later found it was Comfrey.

Then I went up to meet Alistair McEachan, who again was very kind. We had already arranged by e-mail to meet, so Alistair came with gifts of Record potatoes, lamb chops, a joint of lamb and a leg of venison! That'll be on the grill tonight with a few herbs! We had a cup of tea with Alistair before he left.

Then it was off fishing with Archie along a few headlands and reefs out of Loch Ayenort. My fishing attempts so far had failed, so I was eager for success! And to cut a long story very short, it was successful and by the end of a few hours we had over ten lithe and sathe. Also on the trip out we collected some pigeon Cach from a cave, saved a lamb from certain death on a cliff, collected some sea gull eggs which I just hard boiled for breakfast and lunch, and collected some mussels which are tonight's dinner together with fish and venison, or maybe I'll save the venison and mussels for tomorrow!

We had a nice tea with chicken soup, mussels, Barra (Jimmy Ferguson's) pork with Alistair's potatoes, and some jelly for pudding.

I've learned quite a bit over this few days, not least that mussels like a bit of fresh water. So with my faith in humanity refreshed and my water bottles full, I head off to face the next challenge...

Oh swell...

A few days ago I paddled home round the west coast of Barra from Halaman Bay to Cleat bay. It was a personal challenge that I'd been wanting to take on for a while. The swell was probably about 5 to 6m, and I know the you often see that forecast and it's not that big when it hits the beaches, but I guess the forecast (from Windfinder.com) is for out at sea.

I packed my boat, did a final pee, and set off through the surf. Watching the houses and people shrink, I headed north, side on to the swell and wind. So I was off the west coast, coming past Borve, where there is a reef quite far out. You can see massive waves breaking over it when the swell is big. I've kind of got a phobia about big waves - phobia or healthy respect, I don't know, bit of both - so I wanted to go out and see them. So, after the session with the kids, I headed off. It was difficult to get a photo that conveyed that intimidating nature of the sea I was in, but below is my effort.

I was surprised, as I usually am, at how quickly when you are put in a new situation, you can get used to it. After I had past this reef, I was quite happy, no, more than happy, in the big swell. I was on my own. The feeling of solitude and relying purely on your own ability and judgement is awesome! I was glad to get round the corner, when I could then paddle with the wind. At one point I surfed the reflecting waves back out to sea to get away from the rocks! Trying to take a video was a wee bit awkward at the headland as I was being thrown around like a puppet by the clapotis, recovery strokes galore! I was glad to see the following at the end of the paddle...

After a wee surf in, and collecting the things from the water that weren't tied on to my deck, it was home for nice hot bath.

I'm really looking forward to the Sustainable Expeditions expedition up the Western Isles next month. Like it says on the website, I've kind of divided up training into on, and off, the water skills. So I'm not just doing these crazy paddles for the fun of it, though that is the main reason, it's also to gradually increase my comfort and ability zone so that I can handle the expedition confidently. Train hard, play easy!

Learning experiences :
1) Using charts and in particular depths, you can get a really good idea if how the waves will behave, i.e. points of shallow/reefs will break, steep sea cliffs will not have breaking waves, but will just have up/down movement. This is common sense I know, having to avoid a reef with 6m breaking swell was a very graphic illustration.
2) Everything that's on the deck needs to be tied or fixed on, or expect to loose it!
3) Sometimes videos seem to tell the story of a situation better than pictures, at least when you get the videoing right.

Anyway, enough. I'm off to read others' blogs...