Sunday 10 February

A bright and fairly sunny day, but perishing cold in the stiff easterly breeze. Further south, snow is plaguing folks, but it sometimes pays to sit at a high latitude. The nor'easter that has dumped a metre of snow on New England will slowly move across the Atlantic, to bring us milder conditions from Wednesday onward, in what looks like a classical battle between cold (to the east) and mild (to the west) air.

Went out for an amble along the shore this afternoon, just as the Sunday ferry left port. It was rather cold in the wind, but the bright conditions, a nice contrast to yesterday's mist and murk, made it worthwhile. I waited for the passage of the ferry at the site of the old Royal Naval Reserves base at Battery Point, known as HMS Iolaire [Eagle]. It was in that lowly shed that the bodies of the 140 servicemen who drowned and whose remains were recovered were laid out, just after their transport, HMY Iolaire, had sunk on 1 January 1919. Windows and doors in the building have now been bricked up.