Robin Lloyd-Jones - Argonauts of the Scottish Isles: Sea-Kayaking Adventures

Robin Lloyd-Jones grew up in India and studied at Cambridge. He has served as President of the Scottish Association of Writers (19931996) and the Scottish Branch of PEN International (1997 2000) and has also taught Creative Writing at Glasgow University. His book The Sunlit Summit was Saltire Society Research Book of the Year Award in 2013 and his novel The Dreamhouse was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1985.

Other books by Robin Lloyd-Jones

Fiction

Red Fox Running (Anderson Press, 2007)

Fallen Angels (Canongate, 1992)

The Dreamhouse (Hutchinson, 1985)

Lord of the Dance (Gollancz and Arena, 1983)

Where the Forest and Garden Meet (Kestrel, 1980)

Non-fiction

Fallen Pieces of the Moon (Whittles Publishing, 2006)

Scottish Wilderness Connections (Rymour Books, 2021)

The New Frontier (Thunder Point Publishing, 2019)

Autumn Voices (Play Space Publishing, 2018)

The Sunlit Summit (Sandstone Press, 2013)

Radio Drama

Rainmaker (BBC radio drama, 1997)

Ice in Wonderland (BBC radio drama, 1993)

This edition published in 2022 by

Birlinn Ltd

West Newington House

10 Newington Road

Edinburgh

EH9 1QS

www.birlinn.co.uk

Copyright Robin Lloyd-Jones 1989, 2022

First published in 1989 by Diadem Books as Argonauts of the Western Isles
Subsequently published by Whittles Publishing

This edition published under licence from Whittles Publishing

The right of Robin Lloyd-Jones to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any means,
electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978 1 78885 310 1

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available
on request from the British Library

Papers used by Birlinn are from well-managed
forests and other responsible sources

Typeset by Hewer Text UK, Edinburgh

Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.

Argonauts of the Western Isles was first published in 1989 by Diadem Books. Then, in 2008, Whittles Publishing put out an edition containing an extra five chapters covering my kayaking adventures on the Scottish west coast since the original version. With the addition of some fresh photographs, this current edition by Birlinn has the same content as the 2008 version, but is in a smaller, more compact format and with the slightly different title of Argonauts of the Scottish Isles. The fact that the book has not been out of print for over thirty years says much for the lure of Scotlands remote islands and wild shores. It is my hope that this latest edition will introduce new generations to the adventure and joy to be had in these wilderness places.

Readers should bear in mind that some of the adventures described in the early chapters might be nearly sixty years in the past. When you read the word now, it refers to a historical kind of now. Equipment and techniques have changed over the years and much of the advice offered in the earlier chapters is out of date. However, I have not altered any of this because I think there is value in letting it stand as a record of how things used to be done. In the intervening years there has been a much greater emphasis on safety. There are parts which at the time seemed like grand adventures, but now read more like cautionary tales.

One obvious change is that there is a lot more sea kayaking being done these days. Kayaks on top of a car used to be an unusual sight. Now you see them everywhere. New and more efficient kayaks and paddles, improved clothing, instant tidal predictions off the Internet, and satellite navigation have all made life easier. I am amazed at the discomfort I was prepared to put up with in the old days. Better equipment has helped push up the standards of performance. So too has the coaching efforts of the kayak clubs, assisted by the British Canoe Union and the Scottish Canoe Association. Routes which were regarded as fairly advanced in days of yore are all in a days work for the average modern paddler. And talking of changes like the mountains, which for some strange geological reason are becoming steeper with the passing years, Im sure the sea is getting colder and my kayak heavier!

Most of the places described I have returned to several times over. Each time is a new experience. The weather, the tide, my companions are different, and I myself see things through different eyes. I visit the wreck of the Captayanis regularly. Like me, it gets a little rustier each year.

I would like to thank my friends Archie, Martin, Michael, Ian and Colin, whose companionship has doubled the pleasure of all those miles paddled. My profound gratitude goes to all the moments and places recorded in this book and the many unrecorded incidents too which have refreshed and recharged me in body and spirit.

I will end by quoting from the Preface to the 1989 edition. With the environment increasingly under threat and now that I have grandchildren, the words mean even more to me than before:

In spreading the word about remote and beautiful spots am I hastening their destruction? I think not. Those who reach them using only paddle or sail have experienced a closeness to nature. They know such riches are worth preserving. It is my hope that this book will increase the number of voices in favour of conservation so that the islands and coasts I describe are still unspoilt when our childrens children beach their kayaks on their shores.

Robin Lloyd-Jones

Helensburgh

January 2022

When I was five years old, my aunt, recently returned from Canada, assured me that Red Indians parted their hair down the middle in order to balance their canoes. From that day on I had been quite convinced canoes were tippy, unreliable things. So, years later in the 1960s, I was dismayed to find myself taking part in a canoe expedition. Under the impression that I was the instructor of mountaineering, camping and general hillcraft, I had arrived at the Outward Bound Moray Sea School near Elgin in Scotland only to be told that I was scheduled to lead a group on a grand circular expedition which included not only a four-day walk across the Cairngorms (never seeing more than about ten feet ahead of us the whole time because of thick mist), but also 100 miles of cycling, a journey in small boats up the west coast, the rounding of Cape Wrath in the sail-training ship the Prince Louis and a canoe trip from one side of Scotland to the other via the Caledonian Canal which links the Moray Firth on the east coast to Loch Linnhe on the west coast by way of Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. But Ive never sat in a canoe in my life! I protested. If youre officer material you can lead anything, was the reply. Another favourite saying of the course commandant was, Instructors are expendable, punters arent. Like an eighteen-inch welly boot in nineteen inches of water, I was filled with cold dread at the thought of being expended in one of those dangerous vessels. The leader was really a punter in disguise. The expedition was preceded by ten days of training, much of which was aimed at fostering teamwork. For this reason all the canoeing was done in double canoes and the rescue drills were specially designed to involve the whole group. In retrospect, I realise I didnt learn much that was subsequently of use to me as a reasonably serious sea kayakist, but it whetted my appetite. I had felt the bows lift to a wave, I had felt the sea rolling beneath me and become part of its rhythm. Sitting a few inches below its surface, separated from it only by the thickness of a skin, I experienced an intimacy with the ocean I had known in no other craft every wave individual, every motion communicated, man and sea with a minimum of technology between. In short, I was hooked for life.