Tuesday 14th July: Kirkcudbright - Port William

Rose, breakfasted, struck camp and packed, towed the boat down to the river and was on the water at 0930, launching on the last of the ebb from the yacht pontoon. This is the only mud-free access at low water, and the inner pontoon is accessible from the shorewards side of the security gate. There were only inches of water over the "Devil's Thrashing Floor" (strange how much of our coastline is assigned to him, one way and another...), so I had to take the long way out via the marked channel, passing two yachts just weighing anchor at Little Ross. Once outside the estuary, there was plenty of clapotis, but a beautiful craggy coastline.
I went north into Wigtown Bay for a bit, to get out of the flood tidal stream in the Solway, and then crossed to Portyerrock on a bearing, despite some reservations about the clouds to windward (lightning having been forecast for the afternoon). In the event, torrential rain calmed the sea state and I made up over an hour on the plan, lunching in the lee of the land at Portyerrock.

The ebb seems to set in a bit early around Burton Head, so I paddled on into more clapotis, my buoyancy aid now chafing my shoulder abominably.





Into Luce Bay, and a new landscape consisting of a grand grassy escarpment with evidence of early fortification, and cup and ring marked rocks indicated on the map. All this stands behind the raised beach which is a feature of the coastline of the Scottish highlands and islands, and which is a result of isostatic rebound following the melting of the glacial ice sheets.
Tried to land at Monreith, but made a mess of it, as I was very stiff after hours in the boat, and stumbled around, swamping the boat and bruising myself on the boulders. One campsite is now only a static van site, and the second one marked on the OS map no longer exists, so I carried on to Port William, where a very pleasant camp site overlooks the boulder-strewn foreshore. Nathan, a young canoeist and outdoor enthusiast, helped me up the foreshore, and I pitched camp at 1900, very tired and sore.