I went out for my fishing trip on the "Welcome Home", the Sea Angling Associations boat.
Lovely weather, if a bit cool at times when the boat was facing the wind and most importantly, not very much of a swell.
There were just four of us fishing but fortunately the others knew what they were doing and helped me get the kit together as well as offering advice when needed. Probably because of all this advice, I was the first one to catch a fish. Just two mackerel which I did not even realise that I had hooked until I got them quite near the surface. Being by now a champion fisherman, I was also the one and only person to catch a cod.
The Welcome Home
Pam had told me to catch a cod for tea and so I felt that I would be in trouble if I did not catch one.
It was not strictly necessary as it turned out because Pam had so little faith in my fishing abilities that she had already prepared something else when I got back.
It cost £20 for the trip and I got the loan of the fishing gear from the association including one set of tackle that got lost when it snagged the bottom and snapped (I was not the only one to lose tackle) as I do not have any boat fishing rods etc. We were out all day from 9AM to 4PM so not bad value for money.
Champion Cod Fisherman
All the others were saying that it was not a good days fishing and that not much was being caught but as far as I was concerned, I was very surprised that I had caught anything.
I ended the day with 2 mackerel, 1 cod, 2 whiting and a gurnard that was thrown back as being no good to eat.
I shall definitely be going again and so I had better get myself a proper boat rod and reel. Rods are not very expensive but I think that the reel will have to be an ebay job as they are about £100 new.
At least when Pam objects, I can say that it is an investment in fish suppers.
Prior to going, I had been a bit worried about being sea sick. The rolling of the boat, even in a light swell was quite pronounced when the engines are off and we were just drifting but this proved not to be a problem. We will see if it becomes a problem in rougher weather. It was noticable however that when I returned home I felt as though the ground was moving and began to be a bit queasy and this lasted for quite a few hours.
Folk festival starts the day after tomorrow, so no sleep for a bit.
Tuesday 29th May 2012
A Few Quiet Days Before It All Kicks Off
The folk festival starts on Thursday so we have a few days to try and gather our energy before it all starts. A few early nights and lazy days are called for.
On Sunday I was supposed to be going on a walk with the South Ronaldsay group from Burwick around the south coast up to Windwick but My aged leg started acting up. Well in fact both of my aged legs were acting up and so I had to cry off. I did manage to sit on the tractor and take the topper over the top field to tidy it up and take all the seed heads off the grass.
One of the ducks has gone broody so I have removed her eggs and replaced them with some hen eggs, 3 Andalusian and 3 black Orpingtons. We will have to wait and see how she does.
At the moment I think that we are providing half of Burray with eggs. Pam is keeping most of the duck eggs to bake with but Hilda has had a few as she also loves them for baking.
On Sunday evening Pam decided that she had done enough cooking and baking and so we retired to The Sands for a meal. We saw Magnus Woolham in The Sands and he says that they have had over 2000 hits on the Orkan Adventures website since we put up the whale video on "You tube" and have got some firm bookings. Nice to know that we have managed to do them some good.
Our friends Dave and Clare are on holiday in the western isles this week. Dave is a keen bird watcher and was looking forward to seeing some sea eagles and golden eagles if he could. Of course, "Sod's Law" struck again and on Monday there was a golden eagle and 5 sea eagles seen on Hoy. I had to text him just to rub it in. He has not yet seen any eagles.
I got a phone call from The Orkney Sea Angling Association asking if I wanted to go out for a trip tomorrow. I had earlier said that I would like to try a trip to see if I took to boat fishing and they have an all day trip tomorrow with spare places and some experienced members who will be able to help me learn what I am supposed to do. I can borrow some of their gear so that I do not have to buy my own rods, reels etc until I have decided if it is OK and I am not going to be sea-sick all day. At least it is supposed to be a reasonably calm day tomorrow.
I was supposed to be going out with the painting group tomorrow so I have had to send my apologies. Hopefully the fishing will be more fun.
We sent away to "Vista-Print" for a T-Shirt for Magnus Spence for a joke and it arrived on Monday. I must admit that they had made a much better job of it than I expected.
Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the T shirt but this is the logo that we had put on the front with Orkan Adventures address on the back.
When we took it round both the Magnus's were at Northfield, Magnus Spence's farm and Magnus S dissolved in laughter at the sight of the shirt. He said that he would not dare to wear it but would hang it on his wall. {We have since learned that he did indeed wear it at the folk festival when he was playing with "The Birsay Boys".}
Saturday 26th May 2012
A LOVELY DAY OUT TO A LOVELY ISLAND
Well Rodney and Libby got away on The Pentalina on Saturday and phoned us later to say that they were home for about 8pm. Not bad time.
After they had left, I went down to Kirkwall and joined a trip out to Auskerry.
Auskerry is small island a few miles off Stronsay that I have long wanted to go and see. Many years ago, when Gareth and I used to come up to Linga Holm for the RBST round up of the North Ronaldsay sheep that the trust kept there, Simon Brogan, the owner of Auskerry used to come across and give us a help. He is a really nice bloke and for many years, until he married, he used to live alone on the island with a boat just dropping in every 6 weeks to fetch his mail. He now just spends 10 months of the year there with his family.
When we worked with him, he was so used to being alone that after a while he had to move up the beach a few yards away from us for a time every now and again. This from a man who used to be a road manager for "Jethro Tull" and involved in concert tours by "The Who".
Anyway, I finally managed to get over to the island and we were greeted by Simon as we landed. After a biy of a reminder, he remembered who I was and it was nice to see him again, and this time on his own beloved island. The island is indeed beautiful, with just the lighthouse at one end, Simon's house at the other end and loads of North Ronaldsay sheep and birds in between.
I was very keen to see what his sheep were like. I was not disappointed. He has some spectacular animals and they look brilliant, especially on the shore where they really belong.
The rams were really something special. I have never seen so many superb looking rams. They were much better than those on Linga Holm.
Simon and his family sell wool, fleeces and skins and they have several hundred sheep living on the island just as they should do.
The trip was organised by the RSPB and so I thought that I had better take an interest in the birds as well as the sheep. Simon was saying that there used t be many more terns and puffins than there are now, but there were still a lot of terns and I have only ever seen more puffins on Swona. There were hundreds of shags and tysties, a couple of arctic skuas which are great looking birds even if they are theives.
We had our flasks and butties sat on a grassy bank at the top of some low cliffs and without realising it, we were sitting in the middle of a whole load of puffin burrows. I spent a few minutes wondering why every now and again one of the puffins would leave a raft of about 50 birds in the sea below us and would fly up close to us and then back down to the sea before I realised that they were just wanting to get into their burrows.
I tried to be clever and get a photo of a puffin in flight as they came close to us but most of what I got were empty blue sky. This is the best one so no photography prizes yet then.
The highlight of the day was a Red Backed Shrike. These no longer breed in the UK and though a couple have been seen in Orkney over the last week we were very lucky to get such a good look at one as it sat on a fencepost in Simon's garden while we were having a cup of tea.
Another blurry photo but still it is rare so you will have to put up with blurry.
Simon's house is just what you would expect. I think that most of it has been built by Simon onto a very small original bothy. It has wind turbines, solar panels and of course well water. We were not even allowed to wash our own cups as he thought that we may waste water and I think that the well does not have a huge supply.
A lovely place to live on a nice, calm, sunny day for today but a little bit isolated for me especially in winter storms. Still it must be nice to wander about knowing that it is all yours and that you are not going to bump into anybody else.
Friday 25th May 2012
A busy but very pleasant week
This last week seems to have shot by.
I think that all the fuss about the whale rescue has made it seem more busy than usual.It made the front page of the Orcadian and was apparently reported in "Thw Scotsman" and "The Daily Mail" as well as being on BBC Scotland TV news and being at one time the 3rd most visited item on the BBC website.I was interviewed along with Magnus Spence by Radio Orkney and later recieved an e-mail saying that our interview sounded like a maritime version of the Morcambe and Wise show. (I will take that as a compliment).
Fionn Mcarthur from Radio Orkney decided to do the interview by the harbour in Kirkwall so that he could get all the marine noises. I would have thought that the BBC could just dub the background from "Desert Island Discs" as a background and record the interview inside but Hey-Ho.
I am sure that Rodney and Libby have had a good time up here and hopefully will come again sometime. The schedule was affected a bit by vast hordes of tourists from a huge cruise ship that was in on Monday. We had been planning to go to Skara Brae and Maeshowe on Monday but after seeing how Kirkwall was heaving with visitors we decided to leave it for another day. In fact I think that there were two ships in but one of them alone carried 3500 tourists so all the tourist attractions would have been packed.
Instead we ended up going to The Broch of Gurness, Birsay and the Barony Mills. As ususal, the Barony Mills tour took a very long time. The miller there is so enthusiastic and devoted to his mill that it is infectious. He seems to be especially proud of the fact that they do not have to pay Scottish Water for all the water that they use for the mill because of ancient water rights for the mill.
We dropped into Stromness on the way back but it was shut.They are still replacing the concrete in the main street with original flag stones. It is to be hoped that they have it finished for next week when the folk festival is centred in Stromness or there will be chaos.
Libby and Rodney could still ot book for Maeshowe on Tuesday and so we went round Stennes, Barnhouse, the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae. Unfortunately the Ness of Brodgar excavations are not open yet. They just open for about 6 weeks when the teams from the universities recommence their investigations.
They finally managed to get booked in to Maeshowe on Wednesday and spent the rest of the week going round the island on their own while Pam and I got on with a few routine tasks. I cunningly managed to break the strimmer on Thursday and so had to spend all day doing nothing
I managed to get booked on a trip to Auskerry for next Saturday. It is a place that I have always wanted to go to since meeting Simon Brogan, the owner and sole resident of the island years ago when on Linga Holm for the roundup of the sheep with the RBST. More of that later though.
Saturday 19th May 2012
Visitors arrive,the sun shines and the boat trip of a lifetime.
Rodney and Libby arrived up on The Pentalina on Thursday afternoon and so of course the sun shone, the wind ceased and Orkney was at its beautiful best. It always seems to do this when we have visitors and occassionally even when we do not have visitors.
We had originally arranged to take the boat trip round "the flow" that we had won in the Children in Need auction on Thursday but I had made a cock up about the dates, thinking that Rodney and Libby were arriving Wednesday. Fortunately when I phoned Magnus Woolham there was no problem about re-arranging it for Friday.
By now you dear reader will have probably heard ad nauseum about the boat trip but you are going to hear it again.
It started out a lovely sunny calm morning and we went down to Burray pier where we met up with Angus and Jean who were also coming on the trip as the auction was for upto 6 people.
The two Magnus's and Jon launched the boat at the slip and came round to the pier where we all boarded, then off into the flow at high speed. I think that Magnus Woolham is very proud of how fast his boat will go and likes to impress/frighten people.
We had a good tour of this end of the flow with a really good commentary, looking at the wartime defences and batteries and seeing the obligatory seals and puffins before being dropped off at Lyness on Hoy for a look round the museum and lunch at the cafe. Magnus Spence and Jon had been diving for scallops on our way over and went out to do some more dives while we were at Lyness.
We had arranged to get picked up at 2PM for the return trip and were thinking that perhaps we should have arranged a later pick up time as we had not really had time to look round the museum. As it happened though, in light of later events, our timing was perfect.
We boarded the boat again and set off round Flotta where we stopped to refuel in the shelter of the old submarine nets between Flotta and The Calf of Flotta. Almost immediately after we started up again Magnus Woolham spotted a fin in the water so steered over to have a look. It appeared to be a large basking shark so everyone on board was very excited as you do not see them close up very often.
I was very pleased as this was a real bonus and would make Rodney and Libby's trip to Orkney very memorable. More was to come though.
Magnus Spence climbed up onto the top of the boat to get a better view as the shark came right up to and under the boat and he along with Rodney and Pam saw that the shark had spots right down its back. Magnus also thought that it was the wrong colour for a basking shark and that the front of the mouth and nose were the wrong shape. Amongst his many other talents, Magnus is a marine biologist and has probably seen more basking sharks than most people. What could this be then. It may be very exciting.More of this later. Unfortunately this is the only photo that I got of the shark.
After the shark had got bored with us and swum off, we continued back
towards Burray. Within five minutes however Magnus Woolham shouted that
there was a whale fluke ahead so he hurried over to where he could see
it.
As we got closer we could see the whale was thrashing about and even with my limited knowledge of whales, it did not look right.
Now you have to ask yourself what would you do if you saw a 45 foot
whale thrashing about wildly in the sea and obviously in distress.
Staying in the boat and moving a bit farther away to a safe distance
would probably seem like a good idea.
Magnus Spence however had
other ideas. He grabbed a snorkel and jumped off the boat to see what
was the matter. A minute or two later he returned to the boat and
informed us that the whale had got a creel rope tied round its mouth
with a load of old creels on the seabed fastened to one end and tangled
with a rope to some more creels at the other side.
By this time
the whale was visibly weakening. Every time that it tried to come up to
breath it had to lift all the creels from the seabed and it was tiring
rapidly. A little while longer and it would not have the strength to
lift the creels and would have drowned.
Magnus asked if anybody was in a rush to get back home but I don't think that he expected an answer to his question.
Without any hesitation,and without thinking of himself, Magnus Spence donned his scuba gear and dived over the side again to swim down to the whale and see what he could do. Jon put his gear on and waited in the boat in case Magnus got into trouble.
I have since been told by several people that this sort of behavoir is what they would all expect of Magnus. He is very well though of.
Magnus managed to get down to the whale but as it was thrashing about a bit and the 6 foot long fins were getting a bit close for comfort, he went further down and came up the creel rope as far as he could. He then cut the rope and it slid easily out of the whale's mouth.
The whale then swam off without even popping up to say thankyou and give us a little display.
Magnus was over he moon when he came back into the boat but then who wouldn't be when you have just saved a whale's life.
I later found out that all the women on the boat had been thinking that the whale was about twice the size of the boat and were worried about it capsizing us as it thrashed about. This had not occurred to any of the men who were just enthralled by the nearness of such a magnificent and huge animal. I sometimes think that we are not just different sexes but almost different species.
After a little time after we all had a few minutes to calm down and repeatedly say "WOW" to each other, we set off and returned to Burray pier without any further adventures. Jon suggested that we try and get "The Orcadian" and Radio Orkney" interested in the rescue to give Orkan Adventures a bit of publicity. If any of the crew tried to publicise it then the newspaper and radio would not use it because it would be classed as advertising. I agreed to try and get a bit of publicty for the two Magnus's. From the pier it was straight into the pub to continue trying to get our heads round what had just happened. Then back home and after checking my photo's and videos, phone calls to the paper and Radio Orkney.
Monday 7th May 2012 There is a wrong way up for sheep netting
Another nice few days and we have found where the ducks have been going when they dissapear.
They have been toddling over to Mr Scotts farm up the road and helping themselves to his cattle feed as his sheds are now open.
Because of this we have had to imprison the ducks in the garden. At least we can find the eggs now and we are getting 3 duck eggs per day on top of all the hens eggs.
I shall now have to fence one side of the top field with wire netting because the numpty that originally put the sheep netting round the field put it on upside down so that the big holes are at the bottom.
Gareth and I fenced 2 sides of the field when we first moved in, so they are OK and the remaining side was fenced correctlyin the first place.
After rounding up the ducks and putting them in the garden as a temporary measure, I was thinking that at least one problem was solved when I noticed that the geese had got out into the bottom field. They had somehow managed to get under the 2 gates and when I caught up with them, they were legging it off down the green lane at the side of the field and heading towards the sea. I use the term "green lane" loosely. In fact it is supposed to be a lane but it is full of old farm machinery and slowly rotting silage bales so it is a bit of a challenge to walk down. Surprisingly though, even the one remaining gosling was managing to make it at a good speed.
In the end the geese were returned to the field, the wire netting was put up along the fence and the gate was dropped on its hinges a bit so all should be OK.
I have been having some practice at "flat-pack" assembly for the past few days. On Thursday a filing cabinet arrived and there were so many different bits that I had to resort to reading the instructions. I would have thought that a filing cabinet would be simple but I am sure that they are having a laugh when they design them.
Next day it was a desk but by this time I was getting more experience and apart from sorting out which piece was which, I only had to look fleetingly at the instructions.
On Saturday, Pam's excercise bike arrived and by this time the instructions were almost superfluous. Much to Pam,s surprise, all three items work correctly and much to my surprise, of all the three pieces I was only left with one spare washer.
It was election day for the local council the other day and all was high drama. There has been quite a bit of animosity in all of the Orkney parishes. One of our local councillors had questioned the expenses claims of the council convenor, pointing out that he was getting an allowance of £25 per day for staying in his own second home. ( Shades of Westminster). The convenor represents the northern isles and has a second house on the mainland so he has been claiming an allowance that it seems was designed to allow island councillors to stay with friends or family on the mainland for staying in his own house.
Because he denounced the convenor a few weeks ago, our councillor was forced out from the position of chairman of the accounts committee and there has been a lot of personal animosity during the run up to the election.
We elect 3 councillors for our ward and Ross Madge, the errant councillor romped home with a vastly increased vote and about 3 times the number of votes as his nearest rival and the second highest number of votes in the whole council.
It should be fun at the first few meetings of the new council.
One of the hens has gone broody, so on Monday, I stuck 10 eggs under her. I shall now have to harden my heart and bump off some of the hens that have faults. Some of my Andalusians have bad feet and although they will lay OK, there is no point in keeping those that are not right. There are also a couple of Pam's hens that need to go but I do not think that she will let me neck them. If Pam had her way, we would be running a home for crippled chickens.
That's it for now. I have to go and try to finish another masterpiece.
We have had 5 or 6 nice days and 3 or 4 really beautiful, hot, clam days.
If it was not for the high winds and snow that we are having at the moment, even today has been very nice.
Last Sunday I went out with the South Ronaldsay walking group for an amble from Eastside Kirk to Grimness. We can see Grimness from our house but I have never been there, nor to Eastside Kirk.
The beautiful, isolated places in Orkney never cease to amaze me. Eastside Kirk is a lovely little chapel on the coast close by Newark Bay. a sandy bay with loads of rock pools. It was a great day. No coat needed, even on the coast. A beautiful place and half a mile of sandy beach at low tide with not a single footprint to show that anyone had been there. How many places in the world are so great to live in?
The walk to Grimness was pleasant and more to the point, easy. We stopped at the top of the cliffs to have our selection of home-bakes and tea. Pam had kindly made me some walnut loaf for my contribution. Then it was back to the cars via the "Lang Road", a wide grass track.
Sheena, the woman who takes the art class that I go to, had fetched her 2 children along and her 7 year old daughter "Pip", was flagging a little towards the end of the walk. I dropped back to keep her company and to encourage her to walk a bit faster. Indeed we ended up running a bit, (not a good thing at my age).
Pip really amused me. She reminded me of Maddy. She just chattered solidly and very fast for the last 30 minutes. Amongst other things that I was told, was that she had been put on an amber warning that week for chattering in class at school. Why was I not surprised?
It was very nice however when she got almost back to her mum's car to leave and then suddenly ran back just to say goodbye to me. It quite made my day.
Next day I took Pam down to Newark Bay and we had a stroll down the beach and back throwing balls for Molly.
On Tuesday, the U3A painting group were meeting at the Stones of Stennes. Just to prove that I am going senile , I turned up on Monday morning and wondered where everyone was. At least it gave me a chance to find a nice viewpoint so that when we actuallymet on Tuesday, I knew where I was going to sit.
This is what I was supposed to paint but I am not going to load a copy of my dismal attempt.
I had originally intended to do a pen and ink drawing as I am getting a bit better at this. Gloria, who is in charge of the group, is however another one of those artistic people who demand that I use watercolours.
I ended up producing a very childlike painting that a 6 year old may or may not be pleased with.
I shall have to use the excuse that it was the first time that I have ever used watercolours and shall have to practice a bit more.
Returning home as I was coming through Kirkwall there was another scenic
masterpiece. One of the tall ships, the "Statsraad Lehmkuhl" was moored
up at the pier.
She is one of the ships that was here for the tall ships race last year
and although she is not the biggest, she is definitely the most
spectacular.
Next day a really swish, expensive looking cruise ship was in at Hatston pier, so the summer must have started.
Saturday night there was a concert by Eric Clapton in "The Picky Centre". Well not actually The Eric Clapton, but a very good tribute band. The lead had been doing Clapton tributes for 27 years and was excellent, and a lot cheaper than the real thing, so a good time was had by all.
