Club Expedition to Skye 2020 “Team Alaska go on a Skye #staycation!”

Day 10 (Monday) 17th August –Brochel Bay (Rassay) to Manish Point (Via Rona)

Another long day on the water – 20.4 miles. We were up and packed by 7:40am to find a toad hiding under the kayaks. Today we were off to Rona with plenty of seals and sea birds on the way. Ian spotted a dear and a whale.

We had elevenses at an MOD site on the northern tip of the island under the lighthouse. There was a nice breeze and a slight swell behind us as we started to paddle south. There was storm winds on the forecast later in the week so we were coming up with a Plan A (paddle to the Crowlin Islands, camp at Uags and head to the cars Thursday morning) and Plan B (head along the Skye coast sheltering from the SW winds and straight to the cars early afternoon Wed) to make sure we were in a good position to respond as the forecast updated.

We paddled past the small islands of Eilean Tigh and Eilean Fladday stopping in caves and navigating through cracks in the cliffs off Raasay. The views of Skye where fabulous along the Skye cliffs and out to Lewis on the horizon. The breeze started to die so it was time to find a camp before the midges came out. We found a cobbled beach at Manish Point with a stream, pitched and made drinks before quickly taking cover from the midges in our tents. In Jenny’s case head net and full paddling kit seemed the most effective protection – even if a little hot! A short rain shower was very welcome, but not quite enough to fully clear the midges.

As the evening sun returned we snuck out to make dinner and Vic tied the boats up to a large rock as there wasn’t a huge amount of space above the seaweed line and we weren’t quite sure where high water would come to. The boats were packed after dinner in preparation for a speedy departure as we thought it could be midge-tastic in the morning. There was wood around and we were tempted to make a fire, but the midges returned so we jumped back into our tents. We were all content that we’d managed to cook outside though as that’s always nicer than cold wraps in the tent for dinner.

Jenny Brown     More Photos……….