Wednesday 24 April

A bright day, with good sunny intervals but a keen wind. Went out for a drive to Point, visiting the harbour at Portnaguran, 10 miles northeast of Stornoway, and the beach at Bayble, 5 miles to the east.

Portnaguran


Bayble

Tuesday 23 April

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.

Sunday 21 April

Started the day by watching the London Marathon, in which 37,000 people participated. It was run in sunny, and, later warm conditions. As always a colourful and uplifting spectacle, particularly in the light of the awful events at Boston 6 days ago, when two bombs killed 3 and injured nearly 200. One of the culprits has since been killed, another seriously injured.

Here in Stornoway, it was bright and sunny, but with a number of showers around.

Saturday 20 April

It was wet and very windy, a marked contrast to yesterday's warm sunshine. After breakfast, I checked out of the hotel and went on the bus to Berneray. At the ferry terminal, I marched on board the MV Loch Portain, which duly carried me to Leverburgh. At one point, it encountered a bit of swell coming from the Minch, but we reached Harris without incident. The bus took me north to Tarbert, where I had to wait for an hour in rain and wind, having a bite of lunch. The sun came out and I completed the journey to Stornoway by 2.30pm.


Tarbert War Memorial / North Uist from the Sound of Harris ferry

Sound of Harris crossing (in reverse order)

Friday 19 April - picture post

Near the Hut of Shadows, Lochmaddy


Ewe with triplets / Church of Scotland, Lochmaddy


On the Sound of Harris ferry


RNLI 12-36 at Leverburgh / West Harris


An Empire of Stone / Loch Seaforth

Friday 19 April

This afternoon, I took the bus down to Leverburgh, the ferry to Berneray and another bus to North Uist to attend a musical event at the Taigh Chearsabhaigh cultural centre in Lochmaddy. It was a fairly bright and sunny day, feeling warm in sheltered locations. I stayed at the hotel in Lochmaddy, and had a meal there. Whilst there, I was joined by two friends, who I had arranged to meet in the village to go to said event. One of them I had met last month, and had some memorable chats with. This time, we hardly had time for that.

I did take many pics, of course, but have not yet uploaded them. I shall post those in a future entry.

Wednesday 17 April

The funeral for a former prime minister, who served between 1979 and 1990 took place in London today. Some were celebrating the death, on account of the consequences of the policies of said PM. Some were mourning her passing, on the same account; others for personal reasons.

The whole ceremony cost £10m. Big Ben was silenced. The Queen attended, as did 2,000 others.

When James Callahan and Edward Heath died in 2005, nobody took much notice. They too were prime ministers, enacting controversial legislation and policies which had both positive and negative consequences. Yet their funerals were private affairs. So what was so different about Margaret Thatcher? She was a woman? I believe women are capable of any jobs that men do. She served for 11 years? Well, that was indicative of the political scene, with an ineffectual opposition. She went to war over the Falklands? If it hadn't been for that, she would have been booted out at the 1983 elections. So I don't see what the fuss is about.

Monday 15 April

The world has come knocking on the door of the USA again, nearly 12 years after 9/11: two bombs appear to have gone off at the Boston Marathon today, killing at least 2, and injuring several dozen. I'm very sad that such a happy event got marred in this way.

Here in Stornoway, the wind has dropped after a day of sunshine and showers. Went for a wee amble around the Battery in the afternoon. It has become milder, but not nearly as mild as the 20C in eastern England.

Sunday 14 April

A complete change in fortunes for the weather today. What started out as fairly bright soon turned wet and windy. Not nearly as windy as in the southern isles, which were subjected to a force 9 gale. After a while, the sun came back out again, but a severe squall heralded some more breezy weather.

Friday 12 April

So the windows fall out of the schools, the ferry suffers an engineroom explosion, and the papers come in after the shops close. Good week. 

A year or so ago, half a dozen new school buildings were handed over to the education authority. This week, there was a safety scare, after skylights fell out of ceilings - fortunately it is half-term holiday, so nobody got hurt.

The newspapers now come on the ferry, meaning they don't hit the stands until 2pm. In the Uists, that's even later. Two of the ferries to the Western Isles that have been away for refit have suffered breakdowns, meaning that there were no papers.

Thursday 11 April

Yesterday, our ferry suffered a major breakdown, as I posted on here. Well, the backwash duly arrived. I spoke to some people who had been subjected to a 6-hour delay, with diverted journey through Skye, arriving into SY at 2 am. They were still bleary-eyed twelve hours later, as someone had to put them up in their private home.

I went on an amble around the shopping precincts of Stornoway, including Point Street, North Beach and Cromwell Street. From North Beach, it could be seen that the works on Lews Castle are progressing well.

Wednesday 10 April

Today was more of the same weather, with sunny intervals and remaining chilly. The ferry suffered an explosion in one of its engines, putting that out of action and reducing its speed by almost half. The Isle of Lewis limped into Ullapool, where it had to remain pending repairs. Passengers for the island had to drive 170 miles to Uig in Skye, thence by ferry to Tarbert and on to Stornoway. Average arrival time: 2.30 am.

We also had the first cruiseliner of the summer season in port today, the MV Marco Polo lay at anchor all day while its passengers explored the town and the island. I went for a wee amble around town, but did not see much evidence of cruise passengers, except for those that came back, laden with souvenirs.

Tuesday 9 April

The news today was dominated by yesterday's news. No further comment.