Day 18 – Almost a weather day

• Lossiemouth to Portgordon
• 20 kms

The sound of the surf had been a constant companion as I lay in my tent, so it was no surprise to see it piling into the beach when I extracted myself from my sleeping bag.

Today, I was to be joined by David, the experienced member of “The Team”, and Mike Devlin, a hugely experienced kayak guide. They were both on the way back from leading Wilderness Scotland clients on a kayak adventure in Uig and Arisaig on the West Coast.

When they arrived at 9am, the Beach Hut café was still shut, so we ventured into the Moray Golf Club clubhouse for a coffee. Our scruffy paddling clothes would not have been suitable attire for a round of golf, but the clubhouse staff made us feel very welcome.

Here, we discussed our paddling options, and the conclusion was that none of us fancied going out in the current conditions. The forecast gave no certainty that things would be better tomorrow. Mike departed back to his home in Forres and David to Edinburgh – both to make better use of their time, rather than hanging around waiting for the weather to change.

Before David left, we took a short drive over to Lossiemouth Harbour on the east side of town. The scenes here only reinforced our view that we’d made the correct decision.

I had time on my hands now, so I walked back through town and along the front. I stopped for a relaxed breakfast in the Harbour Lights and took photos as I went.

This view across the bay to the lighthouse is almost identical to the one I took earlier this year when Wendy and I came up here for a short walking holiday and recce trip for my paddle. I have used it on the home page for my blog – only the sea conditions are different.

Everything started to change around noon. The wind dropped away to a very light breeze, and the white tops on the waves out to sea faded away to a constant blue. Could I get a short paddle in now? Where could I land if I went across the Spey Bay? It was back to my tent to review the maps and East Coast Yachting guide.

At 2pm, I made the decision to go. Both Portgordon and Buckie on the other side of the bay had harbours that should be suitable for entry with a north easterly swell.

Rather than trolley the kayak back to my exit spot from yesterday, I chose to launch on the beach directly in front of my camping spot. There was more surf here, but it looked manageable. It was – but not quite the easy ride I had anticipated. A couple of full power paddles up the face of close to breaking waves ended with resounding thuds as the front half of the kayak dropped back to the water from the height of a meter or so. Once out, I took a very wide berth of all the remaining skerries and headed east across the bay.

Although the swell was still substantial, the paddle across the bay was easy going, and I was able to get my camera out a few times. I probably saw more seabirds on this short paddle than I’d seen on any other full day so far.

As I approached Portgordon, I spent my time trying to determine if there was any pattern to the way the swell behaved. There were definitely periods when bigger waves came in, but how many at a time and the interval between just seemed random to me. I was still several hundred metres away from the harbour entrance when I had to quickly turn into the waves and paddle hard to avoid a cresting monster of a wave. Portgordon wasn’t the harbour for me.

I paddled on, thinking I’d have to head for the large commercial harbour of Buckie. But as the coast curved round from SE to NE after Portgordon, I noticed a stretch of coastline where the surf wasn’t breaking.  I paddled towards it and wasn’t disappointed when I was able to make a remarkably surf free exit – I could even get my camera out before the final landing.

I think the curve of the coast here resulted in some wave defraction/refraction that dissipated the energy of the waves further up the coast. I wasn’t complaining, whatever the reason. I had a flat spot for my tent and some caravan neighbours for company. All was good, apart from one small dog who couldn’t get over me appearing from the sea and yapped incessantly.

After setting up camp and having a bite to eat, I wandered into Buckie for a bit of sightseeing and a celebratory pint of Guinness.