isleofronalog

And where did the time go.

Special request from one of my Irish friends, asking are we still alive? So a wee gallery or two to give you an idea of what has been happening.

In no real order, This will take me up till mid September. Venison production in the new larder going well, A visitor from Kuwait off M V Seaflower fell heavily and broke his leg (twice), new freezer arrives, plans afoot for a solar array at Dry Harbour. The weather improved and there were many boat trips to Skye and elsewhere. My sister got married on the hottest days of September. Bryn and Gill were helping for two moinths, just before Stacey, Grant and their family arrived to stay. The Bay getting quiet after a busy season with over 450 yacht night visits.

They are not in any order here but starting with the deer, plenty about, lots of calves, lovely with their mothers in summer, quite calm around the house here. We had Lee and Mel’s wedding, what a daty, more later.Jim Crumly’s book, terrible, not a great read at all. Of course still having a go at ‘keepers!!!The weather has been kind, Swiss friends arrived after 13 years and it was so good to see them, Swiss guys Calle and Lars arrived for a hunting trip, Lars with the famous coat was in great form, in his late 70’s. Still quite a few trips to Portree. Danish girls out hunting and the butchering piling up. That takes us up to Mid October and a present from Dutch visitors, that is enough for tonight. More tomorrow.

To-day it is lashing rain and blowing a gale. The first real stormy day on Rona this summer. I’m housebound (mostly) I twisted my knee in the larder skinning a stag. I could understand it if I had done it on the hill but this was just standing round the skinning bench. What a pest, but it has got me doing paperwork and long overdue emails. Even as the day draws to a close (work wise) I’m still not ahead with the dreaded paperwork.

Back to events this month.

Actually starting last month, I see I posted whales and deer last, so here is the story from July (sometime)!

Great weather, it has been the calmest summer for a long time (not to-day). The chicks came on well despite the attacks by predators. Some survived, most have left only a couple of hungry, very big seagull chicks sitting by the shore, whinging.

We had a glorious calm Sunday a couple of weeks back and decided to visit Shieldaig, it was a good run out and back, it is not much further than Portree but we only went to Ardheslaig. Kenny picked us up treated us to breakfast and gave us a pile of boxes for our venison orders, back home we went. Well fed and enjoying a very relaxing day. Called into the Base for a mooch on the way back, nothing to see here.

Another trip, another purpose. Shopping this time but trying to sell venison and dumping the old freezer, reluctantly, also collecting or being there to take delivery of a new freezer. Delivering on the high seas another box of Rona venison for Raasay and a wee visit to one of the forests we have on Skye to wind up the Camper vans. Who have an unofficial campsite in the entrance. We arrived paced the place out, for a joke I said I was here to collect, then a guy fell out of his camper and produced his wallet, only joking pal!!

Back to Base and the Venison sales were good, we had to re-stock and go out and add another two stags to our cull. Angus and John, Yacht friends were here so we enlisted them to help retrieve the two stags we shot that day. All went well and fortunately or unfortunately there was big demand on our product, we sold most of it pretty quickly. Must get another freezer.

Our new (old) boat has been lying out of the water since September last. Just no time to do anything with it but turn the engineover now and again. But it floated, then ran and now up for sale. A wee dram to celebrate once John MacInnes on Yacht Shivinish cast his eye over it.

The wildlife this year has been quite incredible, the type of summer it has been has meant so much growth, so much sea life, birds, dragonflies, just everything. It has been a long time coming but those that promote doom and gloom in nature should open their eyes, this year has been a bumper year.

Yet another trip into Portree, this time loads of parcels, more venison for Raasay House, great morning rainbow with a huge swell in the Sound. Low tide and the Big Wave at Greinisgeir was showing off. Very impressive.

At last we put the creels out and had a good first fishing, the mail never disappoints with Mark sending a target. Trying to tell me something. The harbour has been so calm that it is a bit of a shock to have such poor weather today. It is still awful.

Lorraine’s birthday last week so a trip off, first stop Donnie’s tablet shed. Had a tea, took in the views and then battled with tourists to Kinloch for lunch. Was a really lovely lunch on a beautiful day. Then onto Shieldaig for a couple of days. Walking on the beach, having a drive around then more food in Shieldaig Hotel. Which was equally as good. The Camper Vans were out in force with 15 to 20 in a train in Lochcarron Wednesday, Italians, just great!!!!

Came back last Thursday, again flat calm and beautiful. 2000 plus folk were coming off this boat, yuck, not for me. Nice to see plenty industry going on at Kishorn though, the boat yard doing well and the smolt farm too. I worked there a long time ago when the concrete rig was built 1976!!!!!

This weekend after a fantastic week our guests were sorry to leave, no wonder with the weeks weather they had. I wonder what they would make of to-day. The air was so clear and views crisp last week, sunsets galore. In the mail our new freezer, at last frozen venison for sale at the pier. Self Service on Rona. We took a leaf out of Donnie’s book.

To-day was one of those grey days where everything you wanted to do was not going to happen (outside). The day started grey and overcast, the midgies were on fire, then it started raining. Nothing for it after the first soaking but go indoors.

Then a text from Ewen on MV Seaflower to tell us that there was a couple of killer whales outside the harbour (Somewhere). Nothing for it but to drop everything, gather up Rona folk and head out into the Sound of Raasay to see if we could hook up with them.

Bryn (the spotter) saw a RIB stationary and two fins sticking out of the water just North of them. We headed for them and spent some time watching two killer whales lazily swimming around. A shout went up and a Humpback whale was spotted further North. The Killer Whales had disappeared so we headed North and the Humpback was very accommodating coming very close to the Rib and MV Rona, a truly magical experience for all on board.

A quick post to-day, the weather is too good for sitting in. Here is a wee selection of the deer outside our house coming back from grazing in the parks overnight.

Starting to see quite a few calves now, mostly with older hinds, some big numbers are now showing. All in good order too.

So that is the short blog to-day, more later, catch up on the Boat Visitors Page for more.

Certainly Rona is not a ‘Nature Depleted Island’. The Conservationists keep banging on about the lack of nature in our beautiful country, Scotland, I wonder do they ever get out and about. For sure there are many people about and that has had an impact. The Isle of Skye is swarming with camper vans, cars, cruise liners in the harbours, the list goes on. The tourists have come and by the time they fall out of their accomodation, much of the wildlife is gone, hiding, until the masses need to eat and later in the evening natures beasties come out to play. But here on Rona, it is quiet despite 5 yachts on our moorings this morning (all paid, I think), they were all sleeping apart from ‘Lady of Heath’ who is heading to Harris.

Here is to-day’s gallery, I had to catch the tide early to unload yesterday’s purchases in Portrere so why not take the camera.

Two blogs in one day!!!!

On our annual antler collection we were on top of the Island Garbh Eilean and disturbed a hind and young stag (her son obviously). They were not too jumpy but eventually they took off and then we saw them swimming over to Rona despite the tide being low and the ford showing. Always good to see.

Finally got MV Rona antifouled. Made no difference I have to say as it was pretty clean anyway. Back to Rona after a Portree Dash with rubbish and venison (more burgers), then back to a lovely evening despite being grey.

Our first ‘Summer’ guests arrived on Saturday a fortnight ago. Friday night we were showing our visitors around and spotted the ‘Bell Tower’ was even more unstable than usual, in fact it was downright dangerous. So we got up early Saturday morning before the guests arriverd and pulled the worst of it down. We are sorry to have to do this but needs must. Our intention is to turn it into a communal courtyard, fire pit, barbecue, seating. Hopefully this comiong winter and not on my own.

More Portree trips delivering yet more Rona Venison. We have posted our venison all over the UK this last 7 months, this trip to Portree was for two boxes one to the middle of London the other to St Albans, both were delivered one slightly later than the other. Next day 24 hour guaranteed delivery. Contact us on the Venison FB page . The larder is now double its original size and the chill actually works better, a win win.

Could not get into the Pier at Portree, Mhairi Bhan was drying out, been there done that.

Although we have had stunning weather there has been rain and oh how it poured on this last Saturday, torrential for a couple of hours, the roads suffered.

Back to the internet, the signal was very poor but I grabbed an hour or so and connected this dish, halleluja. Big numbers now.

The maintenance continues and here we have the rubber boots of the ATV repair, now that was possibly the dirtiest job this year.

Finally last Saturday, ‘After the Rain’ the grey view was just as stunning as the sunny ones.

Jim will be happy now!!!!!

Thank you Jim in Ireland for reminding me that my last blog post was in the middle of April. My only excuse is that as ever we are busy. The weather has been overall great. Sitting doing computer work is never my favourite so it is easier to go out to work than sit in the house when the sun is out there.

A few pictures from the last few weeks in April:

As usual trips to Portree were pretty regular. The weather as you can see, flat calm and sun. Work goes on and of course a wee drop of Gin helps, nice to see the green coming after 7 months opf grey (well not quite total grey). It has ion fact bneen a very good year so far.

Early visitors in this set, nice to see catamaran Orca back, early this year. The deer count continued with a late few days on the hills looking for numbers. Plenty hinds but stags were keeping a low profile. Our cottage guests are full of suggestions and a strange envelope arrived, I could not remember ordering these clips and rings? In the bottom of the box the explanation, Nicola had sent rings for the dogs when they come off the boat. All suggestions and recommendations are considered, anything to help, no problem!!!!

Now here is a thing. No one about apart from a trailer getting moved, no people walking in the road no Chaos!!! You will not see this shot of the Pier much more this season, I must have been early before Portree got going.

The catch up continues, last year a hydraulic hose burst on the JCB as we tried to lift/drag the boat into the sea, the bucket landed on one engine, fortunately it did not do too much damage and we were not held up (very lucky). The hull is not in good shape but we repaired it a few years ago and it is standing up very well. So much so the new boat is parked. Our trial visitors are now coming to an end, we have Work Aways for a short while then a new start for a new couple. Decision time looms. Our many visitors have pointed out quite a few repair and maintenanmce issues so the aftermath is I get to do them. The lodge shower was a difficult one until I remembered an old shower unit in the shed, problem solved as I took the parts from it. Pity about the hole in the wall. Now a hatch.

We were lucky to have some whole haunches (quite a lot in fact) stored ion the freezers and when the order came in for burgers we had the venison to make them. 750 to date!!! From the 15th March. Plus the trimmings for Venison Dog Food, top quality at £4 per kilo, very heathy for dogs, as recommended by our Vet Rhona Campbell. Portree of course bones too.

Finally for April (Jim). The internet!!!!!

I am learning very fast from my back up team, Calum, Ian and Marc how to deal with SSID/DHCP/ISP/IP internet Acronyms (they sound like STDs to me!!!!).

But for sure everything runs on the internet nowadays. It is a great help for looking up electrical problems as well as mechanical although you cannot beat talking to folk who have experience. So it is all thanks to them that we are nearly there with the portal for visitors coming to Rona.

More Later, May just coming

Another year well underway another Spring. Here we are as usual trying to catch up on the Rona Blog. As usual it is not as regular as I would like, so much being left behind.

Our third yacht of the year rocked up last weekend, the weather has been pretty good apart from the most torrential rain last Thursday. So no surprise when a yacht did appear BUT it is still cold enough that it would not be comfortable on a boat without a heater.

Here we have the rest of the month so far. Off to Portree on a venison run, the £3000 of stock is fast disappearing but we will have some in July and thereafter. In the meantime we have lots of roasts if anyone is interested.

4 weeks before the season and multiple disasters. First of all the generator (Stamford) alternator burnt out. It had to be dismantled and packaged, sent to Fraser and MacDonald’s in Glasgow. A very old firm by the look of them. But fast in their turn around (with help from Skye Express) and to-day the whole thing is back together and starting automatically, charging the pretty low batteries. The long awaited replacement glass was bought for the cottages but once we took out the panes we were left with one complete side, the other breaking. So waste not want not I put the old single’ pane back in. We had a gas leak and it was pretty hard to find, the washer in the cap on the opposite side of the intake had leaked, do not know how but it was puffing out propane gas. New gas alarms have been bought and installed.

Finally the Larder renovation is nearly there (well halfway there) and we are on the home straight. Not before time as we need to be processing venison soon. Water filters, stocking up the cottages and very deep cleans meant busy days.

Following on from the Generator repair, it was not all plain sailing. The generator would not work which meant a few more worrying days trying to find out why, but problem solving is our game here and with the help of CS Generators we got it back up and running. The term is ‘Exciting the Alternator’. Claudio Schiavetta the proprietor is a Lister man and even this foxed him for a while but between us we got there. I rigged up a switch to put power in to the alternator from an outside source then to ‘excite’ the windings and with the switch the alternator began to charge, game over!!!! The quick transition did the trick.

We have had several couples up to view the ‘job’ all going well but we want to be sure we have the ideal couple to help us and we must say our visitors so far have all been very good and that leaves us with a dilema. However we have a few to go and this all takes time so we think we will have to get some temporary help as it will be a while before we can make a decision. In the meantime we will keep the head down for the forseeable. We took a visiting couple down to Fladda to check out the cottages before the owners and their family came up for Easter. The deer seen on route and the family around our house are pretty hungry just now.

In this gallery above we had a visitor a couple of weeks back, Rona McSeveny. She had chartered MV Seaflower such was her wish to get to Rona (her Island). Rona’s connection, she was named after the SS Rona on which her Great Great Grandfather served on, it is the one registered in Leith 1884. It is intereresting to see three Rona boats there. I wonder how they got that name and the connection. In my time here I have seen and read about many boats with the name Rona.

An interesting register and to quote: ” it was torpedoed on 18th June 1916 off the coast of Sardinia by the U-35 u-boat, commanded by this guy”.

All good Rona connection history.

Friday last after a very busy week I had a meeting in the Skye Candle Companies restaurant/rooms with a consultant to the Scottish Government on Scottish Venison. It was the perfect day and I had time to mess about in Portree for a change. The weather was perfect and calm. I had time to load the boat and do some shopping.

Skye Candles have made a good job in the Aros Centre but the loud music was hard to get out of the conversation and needless to say there was no venison on the menu. In fact no local produce which was quite ironic that what we were there to talk about was the supply, marketing, price, availability and a host of other connected issues.

With the amount of venison shot on Skye, the restaurants/food outlets at every level should have it on the menu, not even worrying about seasonality as they all have freezers. Also langoustines, crab, lobster, Skye lamb and beef. Where is it?? More later hopefully on the back of this meeting.

Back to Rona later than ever, a full day in Portree, very unusual. But good to catch up. I put my order in for four fish suppers and they were ready at 5pm, I did not pick them up from Dan’s Fish and Chip shop until 5.40pm, by that time they had been in the bag (individually wrapped) for over half an hour, a quick pint in the Pier Hotel and back to Rona for 7pm, the suppers were not hot by this time by any means but 10 minutes in the oven and they came out delicious,. who does not like re-heats?

The deer were there when I got home. Eyeing up my fish supper I beleive.

Finally a changeover on Saturday our first this season and with help from John and Stacia, up to try out Rona for a week. All went well, flat calm and ably skippered home by Willie Beedie standing in for MV Seaflower’s crew.

Interesting souvenier that our guests picked up!!!!! Our new guests (returnees) with just a few bits and pieces of baggage.