Monday 22 April

Once more, the news is dominated by ferry woes. The MV Hebrides, which served the ports of Uig (Skye), Lochmaddy (North Uist) and Tarbert (Harris) has broken down, and its repairs have thrown the timetable into disarray. Worse than that, the newspapers for Uist were left stranded at Uig for longer than normal, so people down in Uist were left deprived of their daily reads.

At the moment, NATO is holding a military exercise in the Minch, which involves the use of fighter jets, warships and the jamming of GPS signals. The latter is of significance to mariners, who are therefore having to rely on traditional methods of finding their way around. The RNLI lifeboat went out in early evening, responding to a shout to Loch Grimshader, 5 miles south of here.