View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Thursday 18 June 2009

Missing yacht

The French yacht "Actuel", en route from St Pierre & Miquelon (Canada) to Le Havre (France) is overdue. The yacht left Canada on May 21st, and has not been heard of since May 24th. Its crew was contemplating a stop over in Scotland or Ireland along the way. An international search effort is underway in the middle of the Atlantic, where the yacht was last known to be.

If you have any information on or communication with this vessel, please advise the Coastguard as soon as possible.

Please relay

Thursday 18 June

Breezy day today, with plenty of beefy showers about. The ferry just came in, pretty much on time, but with a bit of a green haze about it. Can't be a pleasant crossing.

Here in Stornoway, Woolworths are making a come-back with a store named Wee W [Wee = Scots for small, little]. I have to stop myself calling them Wee Wees, because Woolies is actually sorely missed by shoppers and shopkeepers alike. Although we have a backstreet shop called Alladin's Cave, which stocks all sorts of knick-knacks that Woolies used to keep, it has nowhere near the capacity of the larger store. Woolworths went bankrupt in December, and it left a large void in Stornoway's Cromwell Street, the main shopping area in town. The below picture was taken in April 2005.