Saturday 7 July

An overcast, windy and very cold day. Well, the strong northeasterly wind made it feel cold, particularly as there was no sun. 12C is not that fantastic either. Tomorrow is going to be worse, as we're going to have some rain. Although, after two months of virtually no rain, I should not complain about some wet weather. People in the south of England have much more reason to complain about the rain, after the dramatic scenes of severe flooding in places. The weather is topsy-turvy at any rate; the hurricane season in the Atlantic has been going for some 5 weeks now, and the first hurricane is yet to form. There have been some low grade tropical cyclones (tropical storms) so far. The Eastern Pacific basin, southwest of Mexico, is the scene of hurricane Daniel and tropical depression 5. No land is currently under threat.

7 years on from 7/7

On Thursday morning, 7 July 2005, four suicide bombers headed into central London and proceeded to detonate their devices on board three Underground trains and a bus. Fifty-two people died, and many more were injured. The attacks came the day after London was awarded the Olympic Games of 2012, which are due to start in three weeks' time.

This post is dedicated to the memory of the 52 innocent lives lost that day.

Friday 6 July

So Dunblane boy Andy Murray is playing in the final at Wombledon. Well done. Now he's got to beat the other guy in that final on Sunday.

It's been a foggy day here in Stornoway, with haar rolling in from the Minch. As I type this, visibility is down to a quarter of a mile. The tanker ship Sarnia Liberty is off the port, blowing its horn to warn nearby vessels of its presence. We did manage to get up to 14C / 57F. I'm not complaining, by the way: there has been serious flooding in parts of northern England, and feel very sad for those whose property has been ruined by floodwaters.

The fog played havoc with the air service at Stornoway Airport, with no planes in or out until 1.30pm. Our mail and papers arrive on a plane at 7 am, but they were obviously delayed. I had to go to the shop at 8 pm to get my daily rag, the Press and Journal. Can't do without the paper, can we?

Thursday 5 July

A bright day, but during the afternoon the fog in the Minch crept ever closer to and onto the shore. Nonetheless, we managed 17C / 63F. I gather from my American friends on Facebook that they started the day somewhere between 80-90F (27-32C). I think I prefer our temperatures. There was a 20 mph breeze from the north, which took the edge off the temperature.

Our ferry seems to be back to normal, after returning to port at 3.30 am (two hours late) this morning. The only thing hampering her crossings today are fogbanks in the Minch. The ferry between Harris and North Uist is on an amended timetable due to the springtides - it can't sail at low tide as there just is no water in the channel at certain key points in the journey.

Two Tornado jets collided in mid-air between Inverness and Wick on Tuesday. Fog in the Moray Firth has hampered rescue efforts. Two airmen were recovered alive from the wreckage, but two other remain missing presumed dead. One of those saved later died in hospital of his injuries. The RAF base at Lossiemouth, near Elgin, is in mourning for its lost personnel. An investigation is on-going into the cause, which could take some time.

Be careful around spell checkers. The Stornoway Gazette on-line posted this line:

MV Isle of Lewis set sail for Ullapool this morning (Thursday 5th July) at 7.00am, just 10 minutes later than secluded, after overnight repair work.

Methinks that should have read scheduled.

Wednesday 4 July

A warm day again today, with good spells of sunshine and the mercury up to 18C / 64F. Had lunch outside, admiring the cloudscapes of cirrus. Not a harbinger of good weather, as they gradually took over the sky and thickened. Fortunately, no rain ensued.

Our ferry sailed today, but as I type this, it is running very late. What should have been a 19.45 departure incurred a 2-hour delay. At this rate, it will be returning to Stornoway not much before 4 o'clock tomorrow morning; only to have to go out again at 7. There is a sneaking suspicion that these continual breakdowns might be down to a change in fuel oil. Cheap is nasty, it would appear. As I type this, an update has appeared on the local news website, indicating another technical fault. Well, if this happens next week, when the very well attended Hebridean Celtic Festival is on, we can expect chaos on an unprecedented scale. On average, 15,000 people attend the festival (roughly double the resident population of Stornoway, yep, we're that small).

I have previously written about the trials and tribulations of Rangers FC of Glasgow. The club was in severe financial difficulties, and its business has been wound up - and relaunched as a "newco" Rangers. Today, the 11 clubs in the Scottish Premier League voted against Rangers being readmitted to the SPL. In fact, Rangers could be made to resume in the lowest (3rd division) league.

Rangers is one of the most successful football clubs around, with 54 league titles in its 140 year history. The "Old Firm" matches (against fellow Glaswegian club Celtic) are legendary, but not always for the right reasons. Rangers and Celtic are always numbers 1 and 2 in the SPL, and the other clubs in the Scottish Football League deeply resent this, as they never stand any chance. With Rangers now dumped to the lower divisions, this would give other clubs a chance.

Tuesday 3 July

A warm and fairly sunny day, with the mercury shooting up to the princely value of 20.5C / 69F. In the meantime, the ferry is out of action with engine trouble - no sailings to or from Stornoway at all. This means that all traffic is diverted 40 miles south to Tarbert, from where the MV Hebrides plies its route to Uig in Skye. Uig is 170 miles by road from Ullapool... Fortunately, Calmac made the announcement fairly early in the day, and put on an extra sailing which is currently en-route between Harris and Skye. It is due back in Tarbert at 23.40 tonight. This is the second time within a few weeks that the MV Isle of Lewis is laid up with technical problems, leading to awkward questions from Western Isles Council to Calmac, and Calmac admitting to being red-faced over the issue.

Two RAF jets have crashed into the Moray First, north of Inverness. Two of the four crew involved remain missing, and a search is on-going for them.

This afternoon, I went on a 3½ mile walk through Stornoway and the adjacent Castle Grounds. It was pleasantly warm, sunny and very green. The return leg took me across the Golf Course (one of the hilliest in the country). I post some pics for (hopefully) your enjoyment.

Monday 2 July

Quite a nice sunny day, except for this cool breeze. We seem to be bucking the trend nationwide, with our mainly bright and sunny weather. Over the next day or so we should see slightly warmer weather, but only for a few days. It was reported today that June was the wettest on record, with many places having more than double their normal monthly totals. Here, we only had half the normal rainfall for June.

The Big Minch Swim has now collected £15,000, after a successful weekend of fundraising in the pubs of Stornoway - more than £1,000 on Saturday alone.

Yesterday, we all lived a second longer, when a leap-second was added to our time. This was necessary, as the earth's rotation is continually slowing down. However, it is reported that certain major websites tripped over this extra second and crashed out. Google circumvented the problem by adding milliseconds through the day. 430 years ago, Pope Gregory ordained that 12 days should be omitted from the calendar.

Sunday 1 July

We've passed the halfway mark in 2012, and the days will start to draw in very soon. Sunday is always a quiet day, and today started likewise. Although it had been wet in the night, the day ended with bright sunshine as we passed the sunset hour of about 10.30pm.

I spent a little time trying to make a start with building an index for the Napier Report, but have to think carefully how that is going to pan out. You can categorise in so many ways, and the devil lies in striking a balance between too much detail and too little. The Napier Report being a session of 46,000 Q&As, you have to read carefully to determine how each question should be filed. I went as far as #150, but probably have to start from the top. So far, there are 46 headings for the index; there will be many more as I progress through the report.

Saturday 30 June

Starting cool and overcast, it did try to brighten up before the rain returned by late afternoon. We managed 14C, which is a darn sight better than the 40+ degrees that some places in the USA are currently experiencing. Severe thunderstorms resulting in extensive powercuts are the inevitable outcome, but the forecast shows no let-up in the extreme heat over there.

Heavy showers have also wreaked havoc over parts of England, causing severe flashfloods and all the attendant misery that that entails. I once cycled through a flood on a road, which rose to 50 cm (1½ ft). The water was murky, filthy and stank.

The Big Minch Swim has, so far, collected more than £13,000. Tonight, a raffle is being organised with prizes donated by local businesses. The organisers hope to bump their total over the £15k mark, which would be a fantastic totals. Anyone wishing to donate can do so on http://www.justgiving.com/thebigminchswim.

I posted a few pics on Facebook, which I shall also share on here.

Eyeing up the birdies


Stillness at dusk


Busy bee


We've got our rain back

Friday 29 June

A surprisingly warm day, with the mercury shooting up to 18C at 2pm, when the sun came out. It has been a fairly bright day with varying amounts of benign clouds. It was even possible to have lunch outside. I pity the folks south of the border who have suffered quite severe flooding, likewise those in south Belfast. It wreaked havoc on the railways, with a landslip at Tulloch, 20 miles east of Fort William, knocking a train off the tracks. It was a goods train, but due to the remoteness of the location (miles away from the nearest road) it will take a considerable time before the wreckage is removed. Passenger trains suffered incredible delays, with one service arriving into Glasgow at 3 am, having taken 15 hours to travel from London, a journey that normally doesn't take more than 5 hours.

And then there was this article on the website of Dutch broadcaster NOS, claiming that research showed that fish oils (omega-3) did nothing to reduce the risks of heart attacks. When I clicked through to the original article, I found that NOS had not read the article properly. The study had been to investigate the effects of fish oils in people with diabetes and at risk of heart attacks - effects that were no better than not taking fish oils. You can't generalise that into making out that this applies to the whole population.

Hurricane update - 29 June

No real hurricanes to report on, except for this tropical cyclone in the southern hemisphere. 21P formed southeast off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea, but will not live beyond the weekend. The system is carrying winds of 35 knots, may strengthen to 40 knots before being torn apart by adverse winds in the higher atmosphere. The precursor to 21P existed in tandem with a disturbance across the equator, named 96W, which is heading west through Micronesia. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu is giving that system a high (> 50%) likelihood of turning into a tropical cyclone.

Further north, tropical storm Doksuri has made landfall in the estuary of the Pearl River, west of Hong Kong and will dissipate inland. Tropical cyclones tend to dump rather large amounts of rain (tell the people of Florida that, they've had 25 inches over the past week out of Debby), so I'm expecting that to happen in southern China as well.

Thursday 28 June

Overcast, grey and wet sums up today. We had a few breaks in cloud and rain, but it is quite the reverse of the weather we've been having over the past two months.

Next Sunday, Calmac (our ferry company) is starting Sunday sailings from Tarbert (Harris) to Uig (Skye). That is the last service to the Outer Hebrides that was not yet operating on a Sunday. The Presbytery of Skye and Lochalsh (sic) has called upon Calmac to repent their sins, alluding to the Fourth Commandment. In doing so, they are ignoring the Fifth Commandment, which Calmac could invoke in justifying their Sunday service. For this ferry will make it easier for islanders to go to and from the mainland, in order to visit their families. I am highlighting the location of the Presbytery, as this is in fact a mainland community, and Skye (although an island) is not in the Outer Hebrides.

This morning, the Queen unveiled the memorial to Bomber Command in WW2, situated in Green Park in London. Bomber Command has been ignored for 67 years after the end of the war, because of the huge loss of life inflicted by some of its bombing raids on Nazi Germany, particularly on Dresden in March 1945. The raid on Dresden was authorised by Winston Churchill himself, yet Churchill himself did not award BC any campaign medals. A military man does what he is told to do by the politicians. It should be the politicians getting the stick, not the poor sods in the planes.

Wednesday 27 June

Overcast, grey and sopping wet today. Uploaded videos and photos taken at yesterday's Big Minch Swim finale, and am pleased to find that there is a lot of interest in them. My pics don't normally attract  many viewers, but more than 30 for each pic within the one day is unusual. I'm equally pleased that quite a few team members are also interested. End of ego-trip.

Today, the Queen met former IRA commander Martin Mcguinness, now deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. A historical occasion, as the IRA once murdered a relative of the Queen, and she was regarded as the enemy by the Republicans. I have always held the view that the only good thing to come out of 9/11 was the ending of the civil war in Northern Ireland. This because 9/11 showed Americans who supported the Republican movement in Ireland and thereby the IRA, what terrorism actually meant.

The Big Minch Swim

On Monday at midday, eight people started a relay by swimming away from Ullapool to reach Stornoway, on the other side of the Minch. One orca, one unidentified whale, quite a few porpoises and dolphins and 34 hours later, the group splashed ashore on the bit of beach between piers no 1 and 2 in Stornoway. The distance between Ullapool and Stornoway is 45 miles, but the group probably covered up to 65 miles. They were accompanied by the support vessel Cuma, a small boat that takes people out to islands off the west coast of Lewis and Harris, as well as by a canoeist in the water.

Last night, at half past eight, I installed myself on Goat Island. The ferry came in and blasted its horn at the team as it approached Holm Point, the promontory at the entrance to the Outer Harbour. The lifeboat also came out and accompanied the team on its way. It was raining quite heavily, but there was no wind. A BBC cameraman was on Goat Island taking shots; his colleague from competing station STV had managed a lift in a local crab boat, and the two were exchanging good natured banter across the water.

At 9.30, the team passed the Arnish Lighthouse and approached Goat Island. Now within shouting distance, there was a lot of yelling and shouting going on, also as excitement rose on board the Cuma and in the water, now that the finishing line was in sight.

I quickly walked round to pier no 2, reaching there just in time to see the group, now all in the water, swim the last few dozen yards to shore, splashing onto the beach on the stroke of 10 o'clock. Champagne corks popped, horns hooted and sirens wailed as hundreds looked on at the excitement reached its peak when the eight stepped ashore.

This feat was accomplished to raise funds for the RNLI. When I just checked, £8,800 had been raised. Feel free to donate here.

I took a few videos, which you can see on the links below:
From Goat Island
Reaching land
Coming ashore

I shall post a separate entry with photos, which I have not yet uploaded.

Tuesday 26 June

A bright day, which has now degenerated into spells of light rain, which have moved up from the southwest. I have spent the day (so far, it's 5.40pm) monitoring the progression of the group of 8 intrepid swimmers who are crossing the Minch from Ullapool to Stornoway. Other people take the ferry, but this lot take turns swimming the 45-65 miles. The ferry has been tooting at the team as they ploughed their way through the swell, and passengers on board have been asked to donate. The swim is organised to benefit the RNLI. A pod of killer whales came to check out one swimmer, who lost no time getting out of the water. A 20 ft whale is not something to trifle with, and orkas have those nasty, sharp teeth. The swimmers were south of Point an hour ago, and are expected into Stornoway between 9 and 11pm tonight. I'll keep an eye out for their support vessel, the MV Cuma, which will be cue to head out to the shoreline. I'll update later with pics of the team as they enter the harbour, something I can monitor from the window here.

Monday 25 June

Moving from overcast to bright and sunny through the day, although it did not feel cold.
News came through today that Count Robin Mirrlees, proprietor of Great Bernera, died in a Stornoway nursing home at the age of 87. His is quite a story to read, but I'll just refer to the link on Hebrides News.

A debate has been on-going for about a year on the subject of Scottish independence. The Scottish National Party have announced that a referendum on the issue is likely to be held in October 2014 or thereabouts, and have launched their campaign to pursuade the undecided to back their cause. The opposing camp, who have adopted the slogan Better Together, inaugurated their campaign as well. Think I'm with the latter. I'm not given to make strong political statements on this blog, but a number of issues were raised by the pro-Unionist camp that resonate with me more strongly than the SNP arguments. For a party that has been promoting independence for 80 years or so, the SNP appear to be markedly thin on the subject of the practicalities of independence. I also find their tenure negative, divisive and confrontational. That's my colours nailed to the mast, but to long-term readers of this blog and its predecessor, this should come as no surprise.

Sunday 24 June

An overcast and grey day after some rain in the night. A local weather station reports just over 2 mm of rain, it still does not amount to very much. However, the humidity is quite high so the likelihood of wildfires will be much lower than of late, and neither is there much wind.

Continued with my researches into the WW1 casualties, this time those from Portvoller, the village closest to the Tiumpan Head Lighthouse. Port Mholair, as the Gaelic name runs, is in quite a scenic position by a loch.



Did I ever mention that virtually all the placenames in Lewis are of Norse origin? The people in Orkney and Shetland appear to regard themselves as the modern day Vikings, but the influence of the Scandinavians extends as far south as the Isle of Man. The name Stornoway means Anchorage (Bay of Steering), and only the village of Achmore (Big Field) is purely Gaelic in origin. Achmore lies 5 miles from the sea, 370 feet above sealevel. It is a practiced joke to trick people into thinking that there is a pier there.

Saturday 23 June

An overcast day, during which the sun made a few efforts to burn away the low cloud. Unsuccessfully in the end; we are stuck with grey middle-level clouds. At 10 am, the cruiseliner Marina hove into view and dropped anchor just off the Arnish Lighthouse. She is twice the size of the ferry, at 785 feet (240 metres) in length. I went into town to buy stamps at the time, and a fleet of a dozen coaches were lined up at the disembarkation point for the tenders. That means about 700 people were about to be taken on tours of the island. Marina can have about 1200 passengers and has nearly 2000 crew. Her next destination is Ísafjörður, in northwestern Iceland.

Sometimes you buy a card and forget to look inside. And when you do, you regret buying the card. There was only one solution: cut off the offending half and hope it doesn't get noticed by the recipient.

Friday 22 June

The day started off wet and windy, but during the afternoon the wind dropped, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We managed 15C - and 5 mm of rain (one-fifth of an inch). We need more rain to really soak the ground and prevent the recurrence of those wildfires.

Spent a good part of the afternoon looking into the WW1 casualties from the village of Portnaguran. One family lost four of its five sons in the First World War. I wrote a blogpost about them on my local history blog Pentland Road. Portnaguran is a fishing village some 10 miles northeast of Stornoway, near the Tiumpan Head Lighthouse on the farthest point east in this island.


Portnaguran


Tiumpan Head Lighthouse

Volksbund

As part of my researches into the casualties of both World Wars, I sometimes access the website of the Volksbund, the German counterpart of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Since I once submitted a query, related to the grave of a German submariner on one of the outlying Hebridean islands, I sometimes receive promotional material related to their work. This includes the promotion of reconciliation between former enemies or placing of flowers on wargraves of German soldiers abroad. A laudable aim, which I support by word only.

Today, I received a message regarding the 32,000 wargraves of German soldiers in the cemetery at Ysselsteijn, Holland who fell during the invasion and occupation of the Netherlands between 1940 and 1945. I shall leave it to German subscribers to the Volksbund to fund that project. I also adopt the same posture when German wargraves in other countries are concerned.

It is as a matter of principle that I shall not support the work of the Volksbund financially. I am quite happy to draw attention to their work, as in death, we are all equal, and most of the soldiers buried at Ysselsteijn just did what they were told to do, as soldiers. I am a former soldier myself, and know the score on that account. But for those left behind without their relatives, friends or ancestors, taken in sometimes extreme cruelty for no other reason than their religion or creed, by many of those now interred at Ysselsteijn and other places, I cannot bring myself to be more actively involved with the work of the Volksbund. As I said, that is up to German people to do.

I do not hate Germans, neither do I feel any animosity towards people from that country. During the past few years, I have met many German people and they are fine folk. In fact, Germans and British have a lot in common, in terms of character traits. I never refer to the years between 1933 and 1945 to them, although if broached, I will not fudge the subject. We all know what happened, but this is now the year 2012 and we should move forward - whilst being aware of the past, it should not rule our future.What happens if it does? Well, here are two examples.

In 1990, a war was started in the former Yugoslavia on account of the Battle of the Field of the Thrush in 1389 in Kosovo.

In 1969, a civil war commenced in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics, which continued for more than 30 years until the atrocity of 9/11 demonstrated to the American backers of the IRA what terrorism actually meant. This civil war in Ulster was being justified by reference to the Battle of the Boyne of 1689 between Catholics and Protestants.