It was a nice traditional almost gale force Orkney morning and the forecast was for worse so I decided to go on a U3A walk in St Mary's. Just to make sure that we would get exposed to the full force of the wind, the walk was round the coast.
I have seen bunches of crazy old people wandering round the countryside in all weathers before and now I am one of them. Oh the joys of senility.
It was actually very enjoyable and I was surprised that there were some lovely little coves with shingle beaches so close to St Mary's that I had not seen before. I was quite surprised that there were no seals on the beaches as these coves looked ideal but then the beaches were rather shallow so maybe they are under water at high tide. Several people commented that they thought that it would be a very pleasant walk in good weather. Damning with faint praise. Still it was better than sitting around the house.
The forecast was right and later on the weather got worse until they closed the barriers at 5:15PM, just in time to stop all the people returning from work in Kirkwall from getting back to Burray and South Ronaldsay. Some people had already decided not to try and cross anyway and 3 people had sustained damage to their cars while trying to cross, mainly damaged windscreens. (I don't think that windscreens are designed to take a few tons of water descending from 10 feet above the car when a wave comes over the barrier.)
A lady in Burray shop said that she got across but lost all control of her car on the barrier because it was just aqua planing all the time.
Maybe they let people off work early if they think that the barriers may be shut. Otherwise half the population of the two islands would be stranded in the bar at The Commodore waiting for the barriers to re-open.
Thursday dawned even worse. Force 9 south easterly gales so the barriers were shut again and presumably nobody got to work. After the wind eased off a bit I decided to go and have a look at the barriers like a well behaved tourist.
Number 3 barrier from Burray to Glimps Holm was OK but No 2 barrier from Glimps Holm to Lamb holm is always the bad one and it was this one that was shut. The weather had been improving for a few hours and the tide was half way down but it was still having waves breaking right over the top. Even if it had not been closed, it would have taken a suicidal idiot to try and cross it. There are plenty of them round here though.
They opened the barriers later in the afternoon and I was supposed to be taking Molly to her obedience class in Kirkwall at 6:30 but I decided against it as high tide was due about 8PM. This proved a sensible decision as the barriers were shut again at 7:30 so I would have been stuck until midnight when they were re-opened.
The waves had also badly damaged the road on the other side of Holm Sound so the council have shored it up with sandbags. The waves move 125 cubic foot concrete blocks off the barriers so I do not think that the sandbags will be overly effective.
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