ADVENTURE - THE LANDS OF GIANTS & LEGENDS

Ben Kemp shares the delights of exploring Northern Ireland, the Hebrides and St Kilda by sail with his young family

- Ben Kemp

The sharp angular cliffs of Hirta on the isolated St Kilda archipelago were now getting too close for comfort. We needed to tack our 1973 Nicholson 32, Blue Venturer, to get into Village Bay but we were struggling to turn her in the heavy swell and the waves. The steering had also become unusually heavy and sluggish. A check of the wind vane soon confirmed the problem: the rudder was jammed. My partner Alison took my spot on deck as I clipped on to the pushpit and climbed over the transom, a good bucketful of Scotland’s notorious icy waters hitting me square in the face. Crouching at the bottom of the transom ladder I managed to reach underwater to the rudder and detach it, pulling it back aboard via the lanyard.

The relief as we motored into Village Bay and dropped anchor close inshore was palpable. Exhausted, we put the kettle on. Our sons, Reuben, 9, and Donald, 7, had already forgotten about the near danger we were just in and were already back on form, spotting with excitement a basking shark just metres from the boat. I, in my ignorance and tiredness, mistakenly asserted that its fin was, in fact, nothing more than kelp. We managed to stay awake long enough to eat dinner before passing out.

Our voyage had started a few weeks earlier from our home mooring on the Gareloch, in the upper Firth of Clyde. Plans had still been vague when we had thrown off the lines and pushed Blue Venturer’s bow through the cool deep waters. The Mull of Kintyre, Northern Ireland, then northwards, with ideas about Skye, the Hebrides, and then maybe, just maybe, St. Kilda.

After a tranquil first night at Millport we continued to Campbeltown, pausing for lunch and a swim off Arran. Opinion was divided amongst our crew as to the merits and method of sea swimming. I favour the direct plunge off the guardrail approach. Provided one avoids immediate heart failure, the overall experience is, I think, superior.