The heart sinks when you see the forecast for Saturday (changeover) is bad. This Saturday was a beauty, grey, wet, windy, cold and no visitors. Well they had been forecasting it all week so no surprise to see an empty harbour, Saturday morning.

Our hearts went out to Castaway Claire on the Island, she had spent most of Friday afternoon/evening holding onto her storm poles to support the tent but now the wind was round to the South West so she did get a bit of a break, but she did report it being very cold.

All week we could have been over to Portree in our wee boat, but Saturday was a no no. Kevin on MV Aspire was keen to try out the boat in this wind with passengers because it is after all an ex trawler and has probably seen some pretty awful weather and has many tales to tell. As it happened everything went well and it was a text book drop off and depart.

Waiting For Aspire

I took shelter in MV Rona calling up Kevin for instruction.

The Rain Stopped

After the boat came into the harbour the rain stopped, for enough time to get unloaded, over to Dry Harbour and back to Base.

Steve Took It Literally

I asked Steve my sister man, to take the jeep down to the Pier, I should have said to the bunkhouse at the top of the pier, he got stuck at the turn (thank goodness, it is a tad tight)!!

And They Are Off

The wind picked up but with a full tide MV Aspire sprung off the pontoon and headed for home, reporting a very stable sail to Portree in 30+ knots of wind, excellent.

We had been a bit concerned about the Yacht on the mooring being in the way, the crew had been caught out on Friday making for Plockton. The wind had got up and was making for a very trying sail. So they decided to come into Rona and were delighted to have a mooring for the night. Their dinghy had been burst, possibly be the result of being bashed by the transom. It was following the yacht rather than on the boat (I guess they will not do that again, it was quite a gash)

Caught Out

They got away Saturday night around 6.30pm.

Last week we caught up with loads of little jobs and it was great to have a willing helper in Steve.The grass had got out of control so we mowed down everything and it was good to see the gardens looking trim for a change. Usually the deer do it for me but this year there is so much grass they are in the forest. In fact after cutting the grass I went up behind the cottages for some firewood and saw three cracking stags running across the track. Nice to see. Cutting sticks in summer to stock up the depleted boxes is highly unusual but just a reflection on how cold it has been.

Filling the Boxes, They are well Used This Summer.

The water in the Lodge had become progressively darker so the filters were the first job after returning from Dry Harbour. They were particularly dirty and I can remember cleaning them not so long ago. No wonder with the rain we have had.

Dirty Filters

It had been a good week with out visitors, my sister and Steve were enjoying the ‘summer’ weather and relaxing, we had a bit of fishing and some lovely meals. We have a bit of a break for the moment with an empty house but it will all start again by the end of next week when we hope to clip the sheep.

Relaxing Sunday

As I write this we have had 5 yachts come into the harbour, all of them wanted the 1 mooring but unfortunately we have only 1. The sun is shining, at last, and it is a bit warmer. Just the job for a cuppa outside.

This morning I had three hours sorting out accounts and paperwork. Sadly neglected this month.

We will be out to see Claire tomorrow and have a full report on the state of play, many thanks for the cheques in the post for Claire’s charity and her total is steadily rising. A wee bit sun would brighten things up at the half way stage.