It has been a pretty breezy day, we are out of it here as the wind is out of the West but in between blizzards, hail and glorious sunshine the wind has been gusting up to 60 mph. We went over to Dry Harbour Mid Day and the journey was like driving into a blast chill. It is very cold, first thing I spotted was ‘a murder of crows’ rising from the shore so there had to be something of interest there. Right on the corner of the stoney beach, well out of the water I found a young porpoise. No sign of killer whale teeth marks, in fact no obvious signs of damage just the crows work. We do not find many porpoises but in this wind we get plenty plastic, the shore is very dirty at the moment. We’ll wait until the spring tides then do a clean up.

The Porpoise Carcass

It has been a busy week since the last hurricane, I hear 129 mph at the top of the Applecross pass, it certainly was full on down at sea level. I’ve since heard that the boat bouncing about before the storm last Wednesday at the mouth of Big Harbour was the divers from Shieldaig, they got home safe but it is not unknown for the boat to have a bit of a journey!!

Not much damage to report although a bit of re-alignement was required for the pontoon gangway. I’ll need to get new feet/shoes for the attachment as the storm lifted them onto the grid and broke the plastic wheels.

Storm Damage

The weather calmed after the storm and that allowed me to get on with the water treatment shed, I put an outer skin on it so now it is finished all that remains is the upgrade of the filters. Oh and Hugh MacKay to come and dig us a new reservoir.

Watershed

I moved the tools down to the genny shed and started phase two of the cladding there. The rain has been finding a way in and with a full shed of electrical equipment it is not good to have it damp, so this is the winter project. I got some timber from MV Spindrift last week and worked away until that run out. Next trip we will get some more.

Taking Shape

The clapboard system is easy to work with and thanks to Iain the joiner for his suggestion about using that in the summer. The weather then turned pretty wintry and all the tools got soaked so it was a mad dash to get them inside.

Sheltering from the snow flurry

Julie the hind was hanging about and I’d been over to get feed when the snow came quickly, but no harm done. Until it cleared, then the Passlode gun stopped working. I found out to-day that it doesn’t like the damp atmosphere, I just wish I’d looked at the you tube video of how to dismantle it before starting to do it!!!!! Anyway, it is back together and cleaned up ready for the next phase.

That’s about it for now, weather like this is a good excuse to catch up on calls, emails and computer work. I had a few calls to-day and enjoyed a half hour chatting with an old colleague JohnK who is looking to visit Rona. Around 40 yerars ago, yes 40!! he was here on an outward bound course with Applecross Outward Bound centre. They used to take young folk out to Rona for some adventure training, Police cadets too and quite a few of them have been back and  in touch.

I think he will see a few changes and we look forward to his visit.

I guess it is back to the computer now!!

George The iCat