After the excitement of Saturday, it is time to get back to the blog I was actually going to write. We had our ferry on Friday due to the bad forecast for Saturday, so it kind of threw me a bit to have a double rescue on my hands on the supposedly quiet day, but I should have known better on a bank holiday weekend. That would be when most of the yachts would be getting going and unbeknown to me there was a kayak convention on Skye.

Kevin’s New Toy

We had no changeover on the Saturday anyway, but it is easy to load up the MV Aspire especially with no landing craft this year (yet). Kevin’s new hoist worked well and I’m sure we will put it to good use. Apart from a small issue!!!!!

The ‘Janet MacKenzie’ group.

I had been in touch with Jim Withers about a possible visit by his Australian family and friends who wanted to get to Rona to visit the house where one of the parties Great Great (Great?) Grandmother, Janet MacKenzie lived, prior to her emigration to Australia. They had booked by Shieldaig but with the chance of coming a day early on the MV Aspire, they jumped at the possibility.
History
The first Rona light was provided by a widow named Janet Mackenzie in the mid 1800s. For many years she burnt a light in the window of her cottage on the beach at Big Harbour,  enabling fishing boats to clear the rocks at the harbour entrance.  Legend is that she lost her husband at sea and hoped that the light guide others safely home.  Many fishing boats owed their safety from storms to the widow’s lights. She received £20 from the Northern Lighthouse Board as a reward for her ‘praiseworthy exertions’.

I will find more about Janet MacKenzie some time soon but it is deep in the PC hard drive (always a mission to find anything there!!!!) She emigrated after she received her pension and I think she was around 70 years plus and in the 1840’s!!!!!

Unloading The Fuel

Once they had all left it was down to putting the delivery away, the tide was good, the bottom of the boat needed a scrub so it was a busy time.

Adjusting the guardrail

Kevin’s small issue was a dent in his guardrail, not to be outdone I did exactly the same, I forgot the forks were down on the front bucket and it rested oh so gently on the rail, putting an almost identical dent in my rail!! Hey Ho.

Checking out the Campsite

Once the boat floated I headed round the bay to give it a run and to check out the camping possibilities on the Island at the mouth of the harbour. We may have a camper wishing to stay there, more later. It was a lovely evening on Friday night and we hoped it would stay over into Saturday.

Saturday’s blog has already been and gone, so no sense in repeating it here, suffice to say it was not sunny just very windy with Frank my new German kayaking friend arriving in force 4 winds.

Sunday Night

Sunday night I took a trip up to the Applenet BB mast which seemed to be ok. I was looking for dead deer, there had been many crows, ravens and sea eagles in the area this week and I was sure they had found a carcase but after a search around, nothing. So whatever it was that was attracting them I could not find it. Quite a few boats were in but the last one did not have enough space and tried to anchor once then left. It was MV Raingoose from Badachro so at that time of night it was not too late to get there, just grey and breezy.

Monday Morning Blues

Frank was enjoying the luxury of the Bothy and I think he enjoyed the bottle of wine he got from Tony whom we rescued on Saturday, as it was he was in no hurry to depart. The wind that was forecast did not materialise so he took off mid morning for a leisurely cruise down the West side of Raasay. He had only left the harbour and several other kayak groups appeared but it seems they only stopped for a short break and then left for the less costly Raasay Mountain Bothy Association bothy.

Admiring the Antlers

I had shown Frank our stag ‘Eric’ the night before and when he came up to settle up this morning he was intrigued to see our collection of antlers, he hopes to come back stalking some day.

It has been a funny kind of Bank Holiday Monday, not that we take them. Lots of kayakers, yachts in 6 maybe more round the corner. And 3 mysterious guys at the top of the hill, where they came from and where they went I don’t know!!!!!!!!!