We went on a trip round Scapa Flow from Stromness on the Graemsay ferry today. It was organised by The Scapa Flow Partnership. Tim Dean, one of Orkney's ornithological masters, gave a running commentry on the birds and the landmarks throughout the three hour trip.
As far as birds went, it was not a fantastic trip. There were only a few species around. On the plus side, there were a lot of individuals of these species.
It was interesting to see Orkney from the flow. Everything looks quite different when looking at it from the sea. We did the obligatory "You can see our house from here" bit, when we got round to Burray.
On the non-birdie side, we went past Lyness, the old wartime naval base which is now being redeveloped to service the marine renewable energy industry.
The Pelamis wave energy device was moored up there and we also went close to Flotta for a look at the scenic oil terminal.
There were several fish farms in the flow including this one which I think is the one that was built on the links in Burray a couple of months ago.
The highlight, at least for me, was the frigate HMS Montrose dashing backwards and forwards across the flow. She was up here on a navigation excercise although I haven't a clue what she was doing.
It looked like they were just playing, going at full tilt for a bit then stopping and waiting before dashing of in another direction.
Montrose actually looked like a proper warship with real old fashioned guns and other hardware unlike HMS Dauntless who was up here a while ago. She just looked like some sort of evil, brooding machine from a science fiction film. No doubt Dauntless is a much more effective fighting ship but I do like to see big guns on warships so that I know what they are.
It was definitely a bit on the chilly side out on the flow but well worth it.
Monday and Tuesday were not brilliant days so I decided that it may be more sensible to stay indoors (one of the benefits of being retired). I did manage to get the electricity connected to the shed. According to Pam I can always find time to do things in the shed etc but have trouble finding time for other jobs that she wants doing. I have offered to pay for her to go on a DIY course so that she does not have to rely on me but this idea has not gone down to well.
On Tuesday evening I took Molly to Kirkwall for her bronze obedience test. When we left home it was windy but otherwise OK but when I reached the barriers I had to slow down to 20mph as the gale force winds were driving a blizzard horizontally and I could not see a thing. It is always handy, especially on the barriers if you can actually see where the road is.
Anyway, back to Molly's test. She is a very clever dog and knows all the things that she should do, so you would think that she would sail through the test. WRONG!! She may know what she is supposed to do but the test is for obedience, not intelligence.
As part of the test she had to sit and stay for 1 minute and lie down for two minutes. She managed about 20 seconds for each one before she got bored and wandered off. All the rest of the test she did well but I was sure that she had failed and was really surprised when I saw the results and found that she had passed. She must have got through by the skin of her teeth. Araldite on her backside is possibly a good idea for her next class.
Henceforth I think that we may resume calling her "the thick mutt" or slightly less polite terms. She doesn't care though.
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