Petestack Blog

I’ve got three things to talk about here, but am covering them in almost reverse chronological order…

Firstly, I’m building a sea kayak store along the side of my workshop shed. It’s a current project for which the only physical work carried out so far has been marking and clearing the ground where it’s going to go: (more…)

It was Dave who, reading about my Appin paddle with Amanda, suggested the Round Eriska trip from Port Appin which he’d also previously done as ‘excellent, needing skill and cunning with tides.’ So of course I was intrigued, took a look (or two) and replied:

I’m looking at this again now because of course I want to do it, and can see three major factors:

1. Tide of up to 4 knots at entrance to Loch Creran, so a complete stopper if going the wrong way.
2. Tide of up to 2.5 knots at north end of Lynn of Lorn, so effectively as bad at springs but possibly fightable at neaps.
3. Height necessary to float through that channel [An Doirlinn south of Eriska], where the chart’s not much help and Google’s not telling me any more so far.

(more…)

It’s the winter solstice but, before I get to that, let’s talk briefly about PLBs. (more…)

Something I hadn’t been that aware of before starting to get into kayaking is its year-round potential, but it now seems that most of my paddling friends paddle all year. Of course you’ve got colder air and colder water in winter, but look at sea-temperature graphs for anywhere in the British Isles and you might be surprised at when it’s coldest if you don’t already know; the answer is basically March, with the November sea as ‘warm’ as June in many places and March at the bottom of the curve between. (more…)

Here we have the Gumotex Safari 330… ordered in June, delivered yesterday morning and taken straight out to try before Friday and Saturday’s wind warnings take effect! (more…)

From the title, it should be a long post. Thousands of pages long except that I don’t know how to fill them yet. The word ‘sea’ is ultimately superfluous when I’m just getting started with kayaks and have even less experience of, for instance, rivers and whitewater, but what I want to talk about because it’s where I’m currently wanting to go. So let’s start with what I’m learning so far and why what I still don’t know matters so much… (more…)

No, this isn’t about walking through ankle-deep water, but about paddling boats!

Having tried kayaking many years ago and been actively considering buying a kayak for the past few years, I suddenly find myself with the prospect of owning several paddling boats not so long after getting my first in June. But how and why? (more…)