Hi, I'm Ryan from Lerwick in Shetland. I've been using RIBs and inflatables since the early 90's.
At the moment I have a Zodiac Classic I HD / Honda 20hp. I use it for exploring and filming sea caves around Shetland, where it's small size is ideal for fitting through narrow gaps and turning around inside the caves.
Below is a link to a vid filmed at Papa Stour, an island off the west coast of Shetland.
Yes I love doing this type of exploring .. we dont have as many 'through' caves but masses of deep inlets on the West coast .. Excellent stuff.
What amazes me is how the same places can be so differnt at either tidal extremes, and you can easily visit the same place for a whole new 'view' each time welcome BTW !
The tides are very strong around Papa Stour but thankfully we don't get a lot of difference in tidal height. The constant Atlantic swell always makes things interesting and most of the caves are only accessible on the calmest days in summer. Can only imagine what this one is like in a NW winter gale! The island on the horizon at the end of the vid is Foula.
I was brought up in Shetland and have been thinking about taking my RIB up for a good tour. Spent my youth exploring around Mousa in my dad's 12' boat with 5HP on the back. Hope to cover a little more distance with a bit more oomf. There's a fantastic cave on the south of Mousa that goes right in but I'm not sure I'd take the RIB in - probably a job for the canoe.
Arranged to go in at Aithsvoe in Cunningsburgh for the tall ships this year but it did not come to pass - work. Cost on the ferry was pretty bad for 14m train. Almost cheaper to motor up from Aberdeen.
As the weather is so fickle I was wondering whether to take car+boat up a few weeks in advance and leave it there so I would just walk on the ferry after work if the forecast was good.
Mousa is a great island to explore. I was in the cave at the south end with my Zodiac this summer, see attached pic, and dived the cave many years ago.
Hope you manage a trip north next summer, be sure to give my a shout if you need any crew!
Been in there a few times! Its a pretty long cave as I remember - although you tend to remember everything being bigger from when you were young.
Took the boat to the beach right at the back and got out - think my name is carved in the back somewhere. There was an old bull seal lying there when we when in. Pretty spooky in the dark. He went in the water as we approached the back but stayed real near the boat and followed us for a good distance back to Leebotten.
My neighbour is moving up in a few months to be the manager of the new Total terminal at Sullom so I'll definately make the trip happen 2012/2013.
Imogen
Breawatch
