To-day has been one of these ‘Rona’ days. We had a VHF call from Claire last night but could not get back to her, so first thing I went out ‘fishing’ but would call to see how she was doing. As we did not manage to connect I would go onto her Island to say hello and go through a procedure for touching Base everyday if need be.

What I found on Claire’s camp was a bit worrying, her tent did not look familiar and when I got close I could see that there was a serious problem.

Flattened

Anyway, more on Claire’s Castaway page go to Castaway Claire’s Page   for to-day’s excitement.

Customs n Excise

I got Claire sorted out with a promise to touch base at 9pm, then went fishing and returned to Big Harbour at 12ish. Kenny from Shieldaig had appeared on the horizon and he had bait for me so I headed in to the pontoon to see them. I was sorting out the catch and chatting to Kenny when this RIB with four on board arrived, for all the world like the Customs and Excise, but it was just the four florescent jackets they were wearing that threw me, not that I had anything to hide!!!!!!!!!

The visitors had come from Gairloch, they were on a fortnights holiday, enjoying the flat calm but not seeing any wildlife, possibly more than home in Denny!!

I eventually got away from the pontoon and got my lunch late. In between visitors buying post cards and venison we quickly went to Dry Harbour, L wanted to get on with the cleaning. I asked her to take pictures of the daisies which were covering the garden, I left her to it  but then she put her hand in her pocket and realised she had left her keys to the cottages at Dry Harbour!!!!! Senior moment!!!!!! So she took the pics’ then enjoyed a walk home.

Daisies Galore

Paul from Arinish had been on the blower earlier, his new neighbours that bought his old house had problems with their Trace inverter, we have two duds, ‘Would I give him one to try and get some parts to sort them out’? No problem, have two I said and when I got back to Big Harbour I found Paul and his son Ross coming up the path. We jumped  into the jeep and headed over, Ross took up the rear with the ATV. Half way across we blew the exhaust, Ross ran out of petrol, less haste more speed. We got that sorted out after another half hour we then removed the Trace inverters from the wall in the genny shed where they were mounted and took them over to Big Harbour.

Heavy Load

The load on the boat does not look much but I can assure that they are pretty heavy, fingers crossed Paul can make something of them, check out his blog on Life at the End of the Road  but he is pretty busy and has been off line for a while.   Horrendous to think that just over 10 years ago these two inverters, state of the art, then, cost around £3 to £4,ooo each, the price of living off grid, great. One had a lightening strike, the other just died. Good luck Paul. To-day has passed in a flash, only one yacht in and they came ashore with fleeces on all buttoned up, it certainly is not a normal day or year all round.