This is without doubt the best experience Christine and myself have encountered in Scotland, going through the second largest whirlpool in the world. It was awesome when the captain shut down his engines and we pitched from side to side and front to back in the stillest waters you could find anywhere. The water looked like velvet whilst round the whirlpools it was rough, it is really incredible. When the waters of the lochs push in bad weather towards the ocean you can get a thirty foot high wave that can be heard ten miles away on the mainland, thankfully for us it was a calm day. Our trip was with Sealife Adventures also visit our page from Easdale where there are more images from this day.
The Gulf of Corryvreckan is the name of the narrow stretch of sea between the Northern tip of Jura and the Isle of Scarba. It is famous for its whirlpool, the second largest in the World, and is the only place in the waters of the British Isles classified as unnavigable by the Royal Navy, although small vessels are able to pass at slack tide when the weather is calm. However, many boats and lives have been lost over the years trying to do this, and during his stay on Jura the author George Orwell nearly drowned when his boat capsized in the Gulf of Corryvreckan. The whirlpool is also believed to be Homers's Charybdis , mentioned in The Odyssey . It is best seen between flood and half-flood tide when there is a strong wind from the West or South. Some visitors are dissappointed because they do not see it at the right time of day.
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The dinghy takes us out to the boat and some of the 12 passengers maximum
Speeding down Loch Melfort
We enter the Corryvrecken and you see the whirlpools
Rough and smooth it's amazing
It is hard to stay straight for the photos
The engines are shut down and we are just drifting in the Corryvreckan
