Category: The Team

• Rest day at Nairn
• 0 kms

This was the second of two planned rest days. The sun was out and the winds were light for most of the day. I felt a little guilty not being out on the water, but still managed to have a lovely day.

I’m just going to do a short post to tie up a few loose ends from the first two weeks of paddling

Clyde Puffer

On Day 5, I passed this boat coming down Loch Fyne:

Graeme, a friend and fellow paddler, was on Arran that week and spotted the same boat – VIC 32. He referred to it as a Clyde Puffer. This prompted me to do a little more research. The boat is indeed a Puffer and is now a tourist boat available for hire – Puffer Steamboat Holidays

Scottish Islands Peak Race

On day 9 when I arrived in Oban, I spoke with the skipper of the yacht Tahira. He had sailed up from Southampton over 10 days to take part in the race. The race actually started later than I expected, on May 16th. The first boat completed the course in just under 2 days. Unfortunately, Tahira retired with the comment – “Retired but will continue around to do the runs”. There’s a great little app – YB Races – that you can use on your phone to see the tracks and positions of all the competitors. You can even rewind to see how the race developed over time.

The Nessie Story

As I approached Loch Ness, I knew I wanted to do something about Nessie for my nieces who had been excited to hear that I would be seeing her. I knew AI generated images were possible, but I didn’t have the resources while out paddling to investigate how to actually do it. I decided to get in touch with the girls’ father, Will, to see if he knew any more. As luck would have it, he had just started playing with the tools a short while ago. I told him what I was planning, and within minutes he came back with a quick test image using one of my earlier blog post photos. Although, we finally went with a more ferocious Nessie, I do quite like this first slightly mischievous looking one:

Ritchie arrived last night after a hard paddle in a strong head wind. I met him at Nairn’s harbour where he was looking very salty, literally, and very tired. He was on the harbour wall with Mike, a very good friend of Ritchie’s brother-in-law. Mike and Corinne retired to Nairn several years ago.

We came back to our most excellent holiday home, The Meadows Chalet in Auldearn, a few minutes’ drive from Nairn. Wanda and Steve, the owners, have made us feel right at home. They have two delightful dogs on their welcoming committee, siblings Penny and Tuppence. Ritchie had a much anticipated warm shower, put on dry, clean clothes from home, and ate an enormous dinner. He was so tired he looked like he was going to fall asleep at the table. After a 30 minute restorative nap, he sorted out his wet kit and talked with our nieces Anna and Wendy in Houston. Wendy had just celebrated her 7^th birthday with a trampoline party.

Ritchie was up at 5:15 this morning, on his own. Once I got up, we had an enormous cooked breakfast and several cups of tea. Ritchie did laundry and spread his gear from one end of the house to the other, including outside each end of the house. We had a homemade cookie snack before lunch. (There is a definite food theme here.) Then we drove into Inverness to buy a VHF radio, 2 map cases, and food for the next leg of the journey. We came back home and started snacking again.

In a previous blog, Ritchie mentioned meeting Donald Macpherson. This evening, we met Donald on the beach in Nairn with his partner Diana and their two dogs, Harris and Louie. Donald brought Ritchie a book by Rowland Woollven, who completed a circumnavigation of Britain by sea kayak from 2008 to 2012 using a Greenland paddle like the one Ritchie uses. Donald runs Explore Highland, offering canoeing and stand up paddle boarding experiences throughout the Scottish Highlands. Diana and I talked about dogs, people and her amazing job while the boys talked about boats.

Tomorrow, we plan to make a more concerted effort to get some chores done ready for Ritchie’s early departure on Wednesday. We will take a break to have a fresh seafood lunch in Nairn with Mike at the Sun Dancer Bar & Restaurant. It has been lovely today to just sit around, relaxing, chatting and eating.

I will send Ritchie off to Lossiemouth a little more rested, quite well fed, and ready for the adventure ahead. And I’ll miss him all over again.

We stayed in a hotel last night, so Ritchie could paddle today with very little weight in the boat. Sorting gear last night was a palava, with things being lost and then found and trips back and forth to the car hunting for those lost brownies, tooth brush, etc.

I was surprised at how excited I felt waiting for Ritchie to arrive in Bowling. I’d just seen him 6 hours before! You can see his smooth, under-the-bridge manoeuvre in this video.

Josh and I drove to Muiravonside Country Park, near Linlithgow, at lunchtime after seeing Ritchie off in Edinburgh. We brought sandwiches to share before he crossed the aqueduct. Josh took these beautiful videos with his drone.

Ritchie, Dave, Mike, Josh and Wendy all set off from home at 6am today.

Everything fit in the boat. The morning was perfect for his start. Ritchie was very happy and relieved to just get paddling.

You can track Ritchie here:

https://spotwalla.com/trip/ecb5-99a34cf0-1637/view