Whirlpool

Thoroughly enjoyed a trip in a very fast boat through the Gulf of Corryvreckan on the west coast of Scotland. The photo is of a whirlpool forming in the Corryvreckan. You can see the other boat a hunderd or so metres away to give some scale to the scene and context to the roughness of the Corryverckan water and the forming whirlpool.

I gather from the operators of the boat that the Corryvreckan is the third largest whirlpool area in the world. It seems that as the main flood flows north passing the Mull of Kintyre it sucks the water out of the Clyde Estuary, resulting in an extraordinary anomaly between Crinan and Lochgilphead. The channel is narrow - only six miles apart and the tide is high at one side and low at the other which creates a huge anomaly and resulting maelstrom. As the flood moves up the Sound of Jura the water is squeezed by the narrowing of the Sound. This increases the flow to a point where it passes through the Gulf of Corryvreckan at eight and a half knots on a full spring tide. There is a steep underwater pinnacle which rises to 29 metres below the surface and a very deep hole 219 metres below the surface so when all this water hits these features whirlpools form and fade and the water fairly bursts with energy. It sure makes for an exciting boat trip.

A friend who was on this same boat trip plans to swim the across this span of water next year on a neap tide when the water is calmer. That looks like quite a challenge!