Fifty Years On

In 1975 I was waiting to start flying training with the RAF, along with over 100 other recently commissioned officers.  The training system was in a bit of trouble, so we were put on an interim system to give us other sorts of training while we waited.  In the summer of 1975, as part of that training,  around 16 of us launched kayaks in the harbour at Hopeman, on the Moray Firth, and set off for the harbour mouth.  As we emerged from the harbour at least half of us capsized in the swell and we spent the next hour or so drifting downwind along the coast.

I managed to remain upright and took a friend in tow, along with his waterlogged kayak, and we made it to the beach some time later.  The SAR helicopter arrived to rescue some of us, called out by one of the students who had waited on the harbour wall for his turn, but my friend and I could walk back to the minibus that had brought us to Hopeman.

Mrs B has heard this story many times (:-)) but it was good to show her the change in sea between the inner harbour and the open sea; it was no wonder some of us went over.  We had done no sea kayaking, our only experience had been white water kayaking down the Spey a couple of days before.

In the Extra, a closer view of the mouth, with the Cromarty Firth in the distance.  It's a beautiful part of the world, and I was lucky enough (3 years later) to convert to the Jaguar at RAF Lossiemouth, a few miles east of Hopeman.