Summer sojourn on the Moray Firth - Sandend to Whitehills

Our camp site for the night had been the very pleasant Sandend Caravan Park (which also has tent pitches).  Wild camping isn't so easy to find on this part of the coast, so this was a perfect base - especially as we were able to carry our boats straight onto the glorious Sandend beach to launch.

It was going to be another cracking day, hot sunshine, light winds and low swell, ideal conditions for sea kayaking on this predominantly rocky coast.

The fun starts almost straight away with a series of narrow channels piercing the West Head.  Confusingly, this to the east of Sandend....it's actually the West Head in relation to the bigger harbour and town of Portsoy.

Often the swell at this exposed spot is too high to get safely through thes chanels, but no such problem today - it really couldn't have been better.  Allan, Lorna and I have paddled this coast many times and it never pales - but this was Raymond's first visit and it was great to share it with him.

We passed through the third channel at Redhythe Point and paddled slowly on along sheer cliffs.  Raymond asked if this was the end of the rock architecture so early in the day......

...erm, Nope! A fine double arch is the next delight, almost invisible unless you happen across it or know exactly where to look as it's hidden behind a buttressed cliff. A pool at the back can be entered at most states of the tide so that you can paddle it in either direction - or both directions as we did.

A short distance further to the east is the lovely harbour of Portsoy.  Actually two harbours, the older one dating from 1692 is unusual in being constructed of large stones set vertically.  A white sand beach at the back makes for a pleasant stop.  The red boat in this image is a very solidly constructed clinker built traditional fishing boat made in Denmark nearly a hundred years ago and still very much seaworthy and serviceable - she featured alongside Portsoy harbour in the 2016 remake of the film "Whisky Galore"

It's easy to see why you'd choose this harbour as a film location, it has great charm and is very well kept.  Each June Portsoy hosts the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival....when it's a lot busier than this!  Some of the warehouses around the harbour were used to store and trade Portsoy Marble, a red and green serpentine much in demand at one time.  Although the trade is long diminished, you can still buy items made from this unusual stone locally.

A modern addition to the harbour is this very evocative life-sized sculpture of one of the Moray Firth's Bottlenose Dolphins created by the artist Carn Standing in 2016.  It's a striking, graceful piece and adds to the public sculpture which Scotland is becoming so good at hosting and producing.

After a break for coffee at Portsoy we continued east with a warm afternoon sun on our backs, passing a couple of lovely small beaches which are the favoured haul-outs of Grey Seals before landing at a third one.  Difficult of acces from landward, these beaches are almost always deserted and simply lovely places to spend some time.  We almost dozed off in the warm sunshine, with a gentle hiss of rhythmic waves and glorious summer colours to add to the relaxing effect.

The last leg took us along a stretch of lower lying coast with jagged reefs running out to sea - it's a place to be wary in a sea kayak or any other craft.  We continued past the main harbour at Whitehills, once a busy whitefish port but now developed to become the largest leisure boat marina on the Moray Firth.  Our landing point was a tiny harbour to the east, once home to an 18th century brickworks which produced clay pipes as well as bricks.  It was demolished in 1978 and a caravan park now stands on the site.  The tiny harbour gives a good landing spot and there are still lots of brick fragments lying among the pebbles in the harbour.

Our first two days of paddling had taken us from Findochty to Whitehills amongst some of the best sea kayaking anywhere - rock arches, caves, cliffs, channels, friendly harbours, caves, a castle and several stunning beaches - this area really has so much to offer (but we would say that as it's our local patch!).  We still had another day of good weather before strong winds nd rain would arrive...and we had the pleasant dilemma of where to paddle the following day.  We headed back to our camp at Sandend to discuss the options.....

Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival

Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival is held annually and has grown from a small event to a large celebration of food, drink, music, coastal rowing and of course traditional boats. This year's event was held on 30th June and 1st July and was the 25th festival, a notable landmark.  The staff of Mountain and Sea Scotland visited on the Sunday with a family group ranging from 8 to 80 something years old.  The festival occupies the whole harbour area, surrounding streets and the village green - and there really was something for everyone to enjoy.

We arrived quite early, and at low water which gave an opportunity to view some of the vessels in the harbour.

There were some absolutely beautiful craft on show, many of which would have been a regular sight when Portsoy was at its busiest as a fishing port.  Fish are still landed, processed and sold here; a fish seller has a shop in the newer part of the harbour.

In the very traditional harbour setting, the boats look entirely "in their place"

The coastal rowing races were a real draw, featuring crews from all around the UK and further afield - a Dutch crew were very much in evidence in the races.  This sport has really caught on and the numerous small harbours of Scotland's north east coast nearly all have rowing clubs and boats.

Boats are crewed by four rowers and a cox'n and race over a variety of distances.  A strong breeze and choppy conditions had limited the races to shorter distances arranged as out-and back legs....

.....which resulted in some close and exciting racing.  Crews are of all ages and compositions, coastal rowing seems to be one of the most inclusive of sports.

In the boatsheds near the harbour examples of traditional boatbuilding and nautical skills were much in evidence.  But the festival isn't all about boats....

It's also a celebration of the best of local food, drink and music.  Two full areas were dedicated to food and drink, with lots of food vendors on site to refuel hungry visitors.  On the harbour side, spars full of haddock tied in pairs await the magic which will transform them into....

.....Arbroath Smokies.  The haddock are cleaned at sea, then salted for a time to draw excess moisture from the flesh before being smoked in a half whisky barrel over a fire of beech or oak shavings, when the time is right the barrel is covered with a hessian sack to retain the smoke.  The result is sensational; tasty, fresh and healthy.

What these images don't show is the crowds of people at the festival.  We'd arrived early to avoid the busiest time but it was still a busy, vibrant day of sights, sounds and tastes. The music stage featured some great performances and by all accounts the Saturday night had been a real party.  2019's festival is scheduled to take place on 22nd and 23rd of June - it's a great day out.

And if all this nautical theme isn't for you.......

...then check out Hamish the "Coo Van" at the Visit Scotland stand!

Rockhopping and rainstorms, Part 2

This is the second of two posts catching up on a number of sea kayaking day paddles around the northeast of Scotland during July 2016. Having managed to entice Mike north with tales of the dry and sunny climate of Aberdeenshire, Allan and I rendezvoused with him at Findochty for a trip to Sandend which would take in some of the best bits of the Moray Firth coast. It was indeed sunny and warm when we met up in the morning.......

.... but it didn't last!  A torrential rainstorm hammered down for  an hour or so, and strangely this actually added enjoyment to the day.

The rain passed through soon enough and we were left with calm conditions - perfect for this part of the coast which is prone to swell - and perfect in particular......

....for Mike to experience paddling through this iconic arch near Portknockie and so become a "Bow Fiddler".

A different day but similar weather on the Moray Firth - Lorna heading through one of the hidden channels to the west of Sandend - a rockhopping delight even in the rain.

Another day with outbreaks of rain when one tactic was to shelter in caves from the heavier bursts!  This is one of the many caves near Portsoy , one which which Allan, Lorna and I hadn't previously explored. It turned out to have a blowhole and the landward end and became very tight at the back - the scrape of paddle on rock the only indication that there was a paddler within!

The coincidence of calm conditions with rainy days continued right through July - Allan and I made our way to Collieston on a day of rare flat calm on this exposed part of the North Sea coast.  We drove from inland Aberdeenshire through very heavy rain which continued on and off all day.  Heading north towards Cruden Bay, we took the opportunity to explore close inshore while the conditions were so calm, passing noisy seabird cities and paddling amongst large rafts of Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins and Fulmars.

This part of the coast has been the scene of many shipwrecks, documented wrecks include the 1594 destruction of a Spanish (actually believed to be from the Spanish Netherlands) sailing ship "Santa Catherina", from which various artefacts have been recovered.

In more recent times there have been numerous wrecks, a combination of wild weather, a rocky coast with little shelter and a busy shipping lane all contributing to the numbers.  This rusted piece lodged at the back of a rocky cove looks as if it may be a ship's boiler.

Just north of Collieston we came across the entrance to a cave which is entered through a curtain of water dripping from the cliff above. 

The rock is quite soft and porous here and the roof of the cave was marvellously featured with calcite formations.  Probably the violence of swells driven in here will prevent the formation of stalactites, but it was still one of the more striking caves we've explored.

We rafted up to get headtorches out and explored deeper into the cave.  It splits into two tunnels deep under the cliff and the left hand branch goes back a good way to where we found a tiny beach of exquisitely coloured pebbles

The air in the cave was markedly cooler than outside and there was a strange absence of the echo normally heard in caves - a remarkable place.  Half-tide and absolutely flat conditions are needed to explore this cave - the roof is quite low and it would be hazardous in even a small swell....it's well worth waiting for the right conditions though.

Sea kayaking in sunshine on blue seas is, of course, perfection....but grey skies and heavy rain aren't bad either!

Between gales - northern visitors

We weren't the day's first visitors to the beach at Strathmarchin Bay when we landed for lunch, a line of tracks led purposefully from one side of the bay to the other.  I assumed that they might be Otter prints but on checking properly they're almost certainly the tracks of a Fox.
 

The low and long-period swell coming into the beach was showing no signs of dropping away although the offshore breeze had eased quite a bit since we'd set out.  We waded out a little way and waited for the bigger sets to come through before clambering in and paddling out past the break.  I was one wave too early and got a nice refreshing shower, Allan's timing was once again much better!

The morning's wind had now dropped to almost nothing, a welcome change from what seemed to have been weeks of gales.  Most of the beaches on the coast between Strathmarchin and Sandend are stony and were exposed to the northerly swell so we decided to make a quick stop in the harbour at Portsoy.......

...where we could land easily in the outer harbour and empty our cockpits of the last of water from the surf launch. 

As we'd set out at near low water some of the channels and stacks we'd normally explore didn't have enough water on our outward leg.  At mid-flood there was more opportunity and the swell made for some fun too.... Allan's in there behind one of the hills of water......

...which were rolling through this gap - great entertainment!  The tide-line on the rock gives a good indication of the swell height.

Rounding the West Head into Sandend Bay we came across this little chap swimming close to the cliffs.

Little Auks (Alle alle) are winter visitors to the north and east coasts of the UK in small numbers and can sometimes be seen following northerly gales.  At 20cm long and weighing around 150 grams Little Auks are about the size of a Starling, by far the smallest of the European Auks and among the most numerous at an estimated 15 million breeding pairs.  The species nests on islands in the high Arctic and after the young fledge the eastern populations move to wintering areas between Iceland and Greenland along the edge of the drift ice.  It seems incredible that these tiny birds can be absolutely at home on the open sea in the savage conditions found at such high latitudes.

Probably blown downwind in the long series of gales in November, this was the first Little Auk I've seen on the Moray Firth.  Confiding and even curious, it seemed very relaxed at our close proximity and it's entirely probable that Allan and I were the first humans it has encountered.  We backed away and left the bird in peace; it will probably have quite an adventure if it's to get back on course.

Our own brief visit to the Moray Firth was nearly over; a short day snatched between gales and limited by  the seven hour day length of December.  As we paddled back into the tiny harbour at Sandend our VHF radios were receiving the maritime forecast from Aberdeen Coastguard with a warning that the next gale was "expected soon".

With impending work commitments due to take me away from home for a few months this was likely to be the last day of paddling in 2015 and it had been a really good one.

Heartbeat

Having made some adjustments to the rigging on my Flat Earth Kayak Sail, I'd hoped to give the new components a test during a paddle on the Moray Firth. So, obviously the day I chose turned out to be one of the few windless days in several weeks! I left the sail in the car and set out.....

...from my regular launching spot in the tiny harbour at Sandend.  Although the sky was overcast it was a pleasantly warm end of September day and the Moray Firth was unusually calm.

I headed east towards the West Head (it's the West Head of Portsoy rather than Sandend!), crossing the bay to engage in some gentle rockhopping.  My vague plan was to head past Portsoy to Whitehills before returning to Sandend.

The east side of Sandend Bay offers some good rocky inlets which aren't often accessible due to swell and surf - Sandend is a noted surf beach herabouts.  On this day a combination of calm conditions and proximity to big Spring tide high water gave a rare opportunity to get up close in some of the narrow geos.  A fellow paddler had left Sandend at about the same time I did and followed much the same route - it's good to see other folk paddling this gem of a coastline.

At the West Head there are two clefts through the tip of the headland.  The narrower of these is usually passable in calm conditions but a very dramatic place in a big swell.  As I lined up to paddle through, a gentle but powerful pulse of swell poured over from seaward, the Moray Firth heartbeat of three bigger swells in a pattern of smaller pulses making for some very interesting conditions - what this image doesn't show is the metre high swell travelling along the cleft in tune with the surf pouring in.

My own heartbeat was sufficiently raised.....  I paddled around the outside!

On the Portsoy side of the West Head there are some great cliffs and a couple of tiny, hidden bays.  There's also a tall arch which is surprisingly difficult to identify from seaward and "goes" at most states of tide given calm-ish conditions.

A glance back at the West Head gave no indication of the "interesting" conditions in the narrow cleft - the heartbeat now just a gentle hint of swell.

Last of the summer

The Moray Firth has some great stretches of rocky coast cut with channels, outcrops, stacks and arches - it's a super area to paddle and always seems fresh and different.  As this would be the last day of paddling for a good while I was glad of the calm weather which made for a very relaxing day.

A sandy bay near to Portsoy with crystal clear water gave some great reflections as I paddled through....

......to find one of the hidden arches.  Narrow and in any kind of swell very committing, it's one of several concealed delights on the stretch between Portsoy and Findochty.  Difficult to spot from most angles, it's worth looking out for on the Portsoy side of the West Head (Redhythe Point).

At the West Head itself are a series of channels which cut through the end of the headland and can provide some fun, but are more often than not too full of swell for me to attempt.  Today all was calm and I was able to paddle the medium-sized one.....

.....and the narrowest of the three which is only just over shoulder width at its narrowest.  Even in calm conditions the water rises and falls quite markedly in here!

On the way back to Whitehills I stopped for a leisurely second lunch, deliberately taking my time and enjoying the warm sunshine.

 The next time I paddle here it will be deep winter, kayaking opportunities snatched in brief calm days between storms.  There will be bitter cold and fleeting daylight on days when going out on the hill or kayaking - mountain or sea - bring much greater challenges together with the frustrations, rewards and stark beauty of a northern winter.

It can't come soon enough for me!