Attempted St Kilda Crossing Recreation - Today?

I previously wrote about the attempt to recreate Ann and Hamish Gow's 1965 kayak crossing to the islands of St Kilda.

Hamish's original home cine footage (video below) features in our DVDs Sea Kayak With Gordon Brown-Vol2 and Hamish's Kayaking Films.  Download for just £3.99

This new expeditions is being organised by our friend Mike Sullivan for a BBC Alba TV programme called 'Trusadh'.

Now it seems their custom kayak, built close to the original by local boat builder Angus Smith, has passed its sea trials and is ready to go.

This time two women are paddling the double, Christine Stewart and Dolina Swanson, to whom we wish the very best of luck.


According to their Facebook page, it seems today Thursday offers the best weather window for the pair and their support boat, which presumably is also carrying the TV folk.


Reed Chillcheater (obviously) came up with their kit.  It needed to look as authentic as possible while taking account of modern safety developments.

I wonder whether either of them is going to wear a headscarf?  That's not a daft question!

Hamish shot his cine footage from the rear seat of their double kayak.  Ann sat immediately in front.  So the stand out image is of Ann's headscarf fluttering in the breeze under the cliffs of St Kilda.

If you haven't seen that amazing original footage, some of it is in the video below.