Thursday 10 May

A fairly bright day, although a veil of cloud slowly moves over from the south - we are just about on the right side of a weatherfront. The downside is the low temperature; only 9C / 48F. In southern England, the mercury has peaked at 20C / 68F, quite a sharp contrast. Summer is on its way, as we have just welcomed the first cruiseliner of the season. The Ocean Nova, a small ship on its first visit here (in my spell here) left for the Shiants at lunchtime. The Shiants lie about 20 miles south of Stornoway.

At noon, a helicopter, carrying oil workers, has ditched into the North Sea some 25 miles east of Aberdeen. All aboard managed to get into a liferafts and have since been transferred to hospital for a check-up. The cause for the ditching appears to have been mechanical, as an oil warning light came on. A few years ago, a helicopter crashed into the North Sea off Peterhead from an altitude of 2,200 feet, killing all 16 on board.

The world's oldest blogger, Ray White passed away in hospital in the USA on Wednesday, aged 98. Ray, better known as Dad, blogged on Dad's Tomato Garden Journal since late August 2003. He was among the first to embrace AOL Journals, but transferred to Blogger in October 2008. Ray is mourned by his family and friends, both on and off the Internet.