In 1965 Hamish and Anne Gow of
the Scottish Hostellers Canoe Club completed the first recorded paddle out to
St Kilda, some 52 miles west of the Sound of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, in a
Clyde Double sea kayak writes Duncan Winning.
The story of the original voyage features in Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown, Volume 2 with additional archive footage in Hamish's Kayaking Films.
This June of this year Dolina
Swanson and Christine Stewart of Stornoway Canoe Club repeated the paddle in a
specially built replica of Hamish and Anne’s boat. The whole process of building the kayak, the
preparation for the trip and the actual crossing was filmed by Mac TV.
The resulting programme, which I understand
is to include an interview with Hamish and some of his 1965 film is to be shown
in an hour long programme on BBC Alba at 9pm tonight, Monday 17th
September and repeated the following evening, Tuesday 18th at 10pm.
BBC Alba is a Gaelic language
programme with English sub-titles, but a lot of this programme is recorded in
English. The channel enjoys a reputation
for quality programmes and has quite a following among non-Gaelic speakers.
The programme web site is here. It is viewable on Freeview Channel 8, in Scotland only. However, it can also be found on Freesat
Channel 110; Sky (UK only) Channel 168 and Astra 1N 10818V 22000 5/6. By cable on Virgin Media at Channel 188 (Scotland
only); on BBC i player catch up on demand and Smallworld Cable Channel
170. Also on Internet television at BBC
iPlayer (UK only) and Zattoo (UK only).