Evenings on the Water

We've been getting out in the kayaks fairly frequently recently, not least because we've had some beautiful, calm evenings.  We even went out last night after having a very good bar meal at the Kilchoan Hotel, and had the pleasure of seeing a small pod of dolphins.  We tried to follow them, but they were in a hurry to get out of the Sound, so quickly left us behind.

We saw places where the surface of the sea seemed to boil - sure sign that predators, probably mackerel, were feeding off shoals of bait fish.  A man fishing from the point below the house managed to drop a lure into one of these, and immediately hauled in a mackerel.

What's nice about a gentle paddle along the coast is that we bump into all sorts of people and, in true Ardnamurchan fashion, stop for a chat.  This is Nan MacLachlan and her collie Jack in their neat little boat returning from some mackerel fishing.  Captain Jack is in charge on these expeditions.  He does the navigating and fishing, while Nan does all the hard work, like keeping the engine going, emptying out the bilges, and gutting the fish.

There seem to be fewer mackerel around this year, and they were much later coming in than usual, but they do seem to be bigger.