Le Grand Bleu

Wednesday 19 August

Not a very good day in terms of weather, with a strong southerly wind. Although this morning's heavy rain has subsided, the brightness is only slowly turning up.

This morning, the large private motoryacht Le Grand Bleu is lying anchored in Glumag Harbour. It is one of the largest privately owned yachts in the world, weighing in at 108 metres in length and 5,556 gross tonnage. It is owned by one of the richest people in Russia, who had it gifted to him by Roman Abramovich, well known in football circles in the UK.

Hurricane Bill is now a category IV hurricane and will steadily veer on a more northerly course over the next couple of days. New England and Nova Scotia should start keeping an eye on this system for the coming weekend. The forecast shows the storms skimming the southeastern point of Nova Scotia in 5 days' time; a very long way off as yet, so keep an eye on the NHC output.
Typhoon Vamco is in the open Pacific, 1,000 miles from any land. It is not certain if any land will be affected by this system; if so, it will be no earlier than the middle of next week.

Ardbheag and Lochresort

Ardbheag and Lochresort
This article on the website of the Uig Historical Society shows pictures of a recent trip they did to Hamnaway, Ardbeag and Luachar - strange names of some of the remotest areas in Lewis and immediately adjacent Harris. It is still on my to-do list to walk to Hamnaway and Ardbeag (a distance of 8 and 10 miles from the road at Carnish).

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Like a ship out of water

Just like last Sunday, AIS is throwing a wobbly. The ship, the Arundo, is shown as sailing across the Harris hills. Wish I was there, I want to see this lol

Tuesday 18 August

It's supposed to be summer, but you could have fooled me. Rain only a short distance away (oh, it just passed over) and more to come this afternoon.


The Russian ship "Arctic Sea", shown above, was found off Cape Verde (West Africa) on Sunday, after being missing for more than 2 weeks. Its last sighting was off the French coast on July 30th, and it took the Russian navy a wee while to trace it to West Africa. Investigations are underway, and 8 people are under arrest aboard a Russian naval vessel under suspicion of piracy. This piracy is alleged to have started in the Baltic Sea, not exactly known as a hotbed for pirates.

Seven US Senators have registered their opposition to the intended release of Lockerbie bombing convict Megrahi from prison in Scotland. It would appear that the decision by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny Macaskill will be his alone to take, and the signs are that the transfer to Libya could well be going ahead. It is my personal opinion that although Megrahi's guilt was proven beyond reasonable doubt in a Scottish Court of Law (sitting in Holland), he was put forward as a scapegoat or fall guy to take the rap for something that had the pawmarks of a certain colonel all over it.

Roll of Honour

The Roll of Honour for the Isle of Lewis 1914-1919 has been published on-line on this link. It is a straight transcription, with some paraphrasing here and there to condense wordy descriptions. Otherwise, no information has been added that was not in the copy, residing in Stornoway Library.

More extensive information on men that died as a result of the war has been collected in the Faces from the War Memorial site.

Project 2996

I have posted about this on Facebook and Twitter, and will also put this on here.

Every year, tributes are being published on blogs around the world in memory of the victims of 9/11. The effort is coordinated by D. Challener Roe on http://project2996.wordpress.com. If you'd like to participate, please visit his site. You don't need a blog or website of your own.

Hurricane update - 17 August

I now have six tropical cyclones to cover, most not threatening land.

1. Tropical depression Ana is falling to pieces to the southeast of St Croix in the Caribbean, and only rain will remain a threat.
2. Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, is not threatening land at this time either.
3. Tropical storm Claudette moved ashore in the Florida Panhandle at midnight local time near Fort Walton Beach. Again, only rain will be a threat.
4. In the Pacific, Guillermo is being torn apart by contrary winds in the atmosphere to the northeast of Hawaii.
5. Tropical depression Maka is still trying to keep the show on the road in the middle of nowhere, 400 miles east of Wake Island
6. Tropical depression 11 has formed 800 miles east of Guam, and is heading north - in the general direction of Japan. If its course does not alter, Japan might be in for a nasty surprise in the shape of a typhoon in a week from now.
   

Hurricane update (2) - 16 August

Tropical storm Claudette is continuing to move north towards the coast of the Florida Panhandle. It carries winds of up to 50 mph, which will continue to strengthen until landfall, expected around midnight EDT. Winds of 40 mph or higher occur within 70 miles of Claudette's centre, meaning that a tropical storm warning has been declared from the Florida / Alabama border to the Suwannee River. This means that TS conditions are expected within 24 hours. Coastal storm surge flooding of 3 to 5 feet above normal tidal levels along the coast of the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend.

Please note Claudette is NOT a hurricane; its current winds equate to force 10 on the Beaufort scale.

Please note That this information is a summary from the NHC, and full details must be obtained from the NHC website.

Gundamain on AIS

AIS (Automatic Identification System) is a system which logs the location, course, destination and speed of most ships over 300 tons. I am an avid user of its reflection on the Internet, www.shipais.com, particularly to find out about ships in my area. Stornoway is not a busy port, so any unknown vessel has me running to the window. This afternoon, nothing is coming or going (apart from the ferry), but AIS shows the following - the boat I'm on about is highlighted in yellow.



The view from the window shows this



My attention was on the large yacht, the Gundamain, which you can see against the backdrop of the hills. Its description as a 2,159 gross tonnage oil products tanker is patently wrong. Just wondering if anyone who reads my Twitter feed or this blog could drop them a line to correct their settings.

Edit: The IMO number refers to the tanker Janet C, pictures of which now feature on AIS in connection with this yacht.

Sunday 16 August

Today's weather is a lot better than yesterday's, with the sun out, a moderate breeze and (as yet) not rain. The radar shows rain moving away east. It's not often we get a full, 24 hour, dose of rain, contrary to the Western Isles' reputation - but it does happen.

A pharmacist from southern England has published an Open Letter to the Americans, with regard to the current debate on healthcare in the USA. All I can say is that I hope the current frank discussion that is taking place across the pond will result in a healthcare system that is fair, accessible and affordable to all. Including the 47 million who currently don't have that.

Hurricane update - 16 August

The Atlantic hurricane season has turned into the proverbial number 11 bus service: you wait for ages for one to come, and then three all come at once. Let's have a look.

Tropical storm Ana, a bit of a ragged affair 560 miles east of the Leeward Islands, is making steady progress west and will affect the islands on Monday. Rain appears to be the main danger, although 40 knots of wind (that's force 9 on the Beaufort scale) cannot be dismissed.

Tropical storm Bill is more than 1,500 miles east of the Leeward Islands, and is expected to pass to their north as a category III hurricane on Wednesday or Thursday.

Tropical depression 04L (soon to be Claudette) has sprung up in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles south of Apalachicola and is moving north towards the Gulf coast. Winds are expected to rise to 45 knots (that's close on force 10), rainfall up to 10 inches and a 3 to 5 feet storm surge. If you're in the Panhandle, please monitor the 3-hourly output from NHC for updates and warnings.

The Pacific is not quiet either, but for the moment nothing is threatening land. Guillermo is blowing himself out more than 1,000 miles east of Hawaii, and will not affect that state; Maka is in the middle of nowhere (hundreds of miles from Wake Island, if you can find that on a map), although a 75 knot typhoon (by Wednesday) is always worth watching. And something is brewing northeast of the Polynesian island of Pohnpei (again, get the atlas out). If interested, keep an eye on the Joint Typhoon Warning Center's website.

For reference: a typhoon is the same as a hurricane.

Came and went

I mentioned in my previous post that the cruiseliner Delphin was approaching Stornoway from the south, closely hugging the Lochs coast. About an hour ago, it hove into view from my position but then it made a graceful turn from a northwesterly to a northeasterly course and went on its way again.



ShipAIS shows a vessel's destination, which was marked as Stornoway until about 12.30pm; now, with the Delphin moving away into the Minch again, it is due into Invergordon at 6 am tomorrow morning.

I can understand why the ship chose to abandon its date with Stornoway. The southerly wind, blowing at a steady force 6 with higher gusts, has already whipped up the sea to choppy state (clearly visible in above pic), making transfer by tender a hazardous undertaking. The Delphin has a draught of 6.3 metres (21 feet), which is only 1 metre / 3 feet below the maximum draught that Stornoway harbour can take.

I hope the passengers on the Delphin have a comfortable crossing to Invergordon today, and that they will one day return on a better day to see what the Isle of Lewis has to offer.

Saturday 15 August

Quite poor weather for a day in the middle of August, with heavy squalls lashing the island, with only intermittent flashes of sunlight. The Northern Lighthouse Board's inspection vessel Pharos is currently leaving port, and although she is only just past the Coastguard Station I can barely see it. On the way in is the cruiseliner Delphin, probably doubling as a vomit comet this morning. It was due in at 11 am, but the adverse weather conditions will probably delay its arrival until 1 pm. Its position on AIS is currently off Loch Erisort, 15 miles south of here. The wind? South southwest, force 6, with gusts to 40 mph, galeforce.

Did I hear anyone mention the word umbrella? I remember the city gent, some years ago, who came here on a day like today. Rain pouring down, but the force of the wind was lost on him. Although we suggested he take a taxi to go to his meeting (10 minutes' walk up the road), he insisted on going on foot, with an umbrella. On leaving the house, the force 8 gale gleefully took hold of his brolly, and he nearly took off with it. He sheepishly returned indoors, having changed his mind on the subject of taxis.

Hurricane update - 15 August

Tropical storm Ana has formed in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands. This system will move west at a speed of 16 mph, and will gradually gain strength. Its course will veer from due west (at present) to west northwest, taking it past Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and the Bahamas towards Florida. The latter section of the forecast track is full of uncertainty, and close monitoring of the NHC output (every 6 hours) is required if you are at all concerned.

The Pacific currently shows two cyclones, a weak tropical depression called Maka, which has drifted across from the Central Pacific - it formed southwest of Hawaii 4 days ago. The second system is category III hurricane Guillermo, which is located 1,450 miles west of Baja California and is heading west northwest, towards the sea area north of Hawaii.

Late on a Friday

Twenty to eleven, and it hasn't been dry all day. Ferry is doing three crossings today, and it left port at 8.15pm, some 75 minutes late. It is by all accounts booked up to the gunnels. Spent the last wee while totting up the number of portraits I can add to the Roll of Honour files - 700. Need to process 220 pictures to get up to that total though, so that'll keep me busy over the weekend.

I am frankly stunned at the way the NHS is vilified in the United States, as a way of opposing the changes that President Obama is seeking to implement. Although far from perfect, the NHS has served the United Kingdom very well for more than 60 years, and there have been some gross inaccurancies being bandied about by those in the USA who don't like Obama's reforms. If it is true that 50 million Americans do not have access to health care insurance, and therefore no proper healthcare, then that is a disgrace. The NHS is a model that could be emulated by many other nations. I agree that it has a propensity towards costliness, but on the whole, it is geared towards those without the means of paying for their own private healthcare.

Friday 14 August

Sopping wet in Stornoway today, a layer of nimbostratus overhead doing what it is good at: rain down on us below. The cruiseliner Mona Lisa is hiding behind Arnish point, across the bay, only showing its superstructure over the low hills there. Why she is sheltering there puzzles me: the wind is a light easterly - and the Mona Lisa is in the lee of land there. The harbour is bristling with vessels at the moment: the ferry is in for its second of three calls today, the French fishing vessel Jean Claude Coulon has just left after effecting a crew change and the Ronja Skye is on the Goat Island slipway getting a clean out.

The Libyan man, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted of bombing flight PanAm 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, is to be released from Greenock prison in the next few days or weeks. He is terminally ill with cancer, and the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, has decided to free him on compassionate grounds. The families of the victims are opposed to his release, and the US government has similarly voiced its opposition. Although I would agree with those views, I have had this nagging feeling that al-Megrahi was put forward as a scapegoat. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the sequence of events in the late 80s: Gadaffi orders bombing of Berlin nightclub frequented by US servicemen, president Reagan orders bombing of Tripoli (killing one of Gadaffi's relatives), and Gadaffi engineers Lockerbie bombing.

Thursday 13 August

Bright day, with a fair bit of cloud about. Typical summer's day, temperature at a temperate 15C / 60F this morning. It was pouring with rain last night, so us in the Western Isles missed out on the Perseid meteor shower. This was reported to be a spectacular event, pity.

During the last week in August, the Faclan book festival will be held in the Western Isles, centered on the An Lanntair arts centre in Stornoway. Apart from lectures, there will also be excursions across the islands. More info here.

A few hundred miles south of here, the Tall Ships are in Belfast and opening their doors (read: decks) to the thousands.

Lay-out

Have reverted back to previous layout, as I found the new one too cluttered. Will continue to think about a new layout.

Community notes

Sybil, as I already posted on Jland Central and Jeannette on Call for Support, is back blogging - so keep it up! It's not all that much different from AOL, just a few bits and pieces, and everybody can help.

I was sorry to read of Jane's setback in her fight against renal cell carcinoma, in the shape of boney metastases. These were the cause of the pains that have beset her in recent weeks. Fortunately, Jane is not one for giving up that easily, so she duly turned up at her son's passing out parade with the RAF.

Dearmissmermaid, our blogger-in-hospital-in-the-Caribbean, is still there, 3 weeks down the line, and getting heartily fed up with it all. Why not pay her a visit, she feels like a fish out of water and misses her kitties.

Zoe has put in an appearance, after an absence of more than 2 months, but she thinks nobody is there to read her. So, off ye go, prove her wrong.