Night Paddle: Friday 21st April 2017

Paddlers: Vonna, John, Colin, Steve, Mark, Geoff, Allan, Gordon

Weather: Dry, clear, light breeze from west.

Route: (included so that the paddlers know where they went!)Night

Report: There was a good turnout of club members most of whom had never had the pleasure of a night paddle. As expected from the forecasts, as Friday progressed the weather got much better; the wind dropped and the clouds disappeared. An almost perfect night except that it was moonless. The darkness made navigating in the complex of islands problematic as the “gaps” between them could not be identified. We left Luss around 20:45, when it was still light. By the time we got to the narrows little light was left and it disappeared completely as we headed west along the south coast of Inchmoan. At the south east corner a decision was needed and we decided to head across to the island in the distance, which we mistakenly believed was Inchcailloch and turned out to be Inchfad. The light breeze seemed to be growing and the temperature was, by now, dropping quickly so we decided to abort and head for the jetty and beach on Inchcruin. Although the navigation  was nigh on perfect we nearly paddled straight past the beach; it was simply impossible to see any further than 5m (unless brightly lit).

Enhanced Photo with Duck Bay in distance
Enhanced Photo with Duck Bay in distance

After an increasingly cold break we headed north west into the breeze, guided by the bright lights of The Lodge on the Loch. Apart from colliding with the odd pile of rocks/islet never noticed before, this final section was simply relaxing, dead quiet and, in its way beautiful, with the dark sky dominated by the bulk of Beinn Dubh. We arrived back at 23.45 having what had, all agreed, been a memorable paddle.