Tuesday 26 August

Another morning of wall-to-wall sunshine, but with a slightly chilly easterly breeze. We have the cruiseliner Black Watch in. I don't know why she isn't docking alongside, she did in the past. Anyway, between 10 and 10.30, I was watching some drama with one of her tenders which appears to have lost power off the lighthouse. Another tender came to its aid, but the faulty one continued to drift in on the flooding tide. She was abreast of the Glumag before they managed to get the engine restarted. It continued to conk out intermittently, with particularly dicey episodes off the lighthouse and near the buoy. I was reaching for the phone to ring the Coastguard, but the wee boat did manage to get back alongside the mothership eventually

A day of blazing sunshine, which pushed the mercury up to 18C / 64F. Went on the bus to visit the Doune Broch, but by golly, was that bus full. As per usual, the driver turned up at departure time (12.45), but the bus didn't leave until 1.05pm. The reason was dozens of cruise passengers who preferred to pay £6 for the service bus rather than £60 for the organised tour. They all piled off the bus at Callanish, but when we rejoined the next bus at 3.15, there they all were again. Meanwhile at the Broch, there were a few people about, some quite gushing about the stunning scenery. Oh aye, it was stunning today.