Today Was The Day We Did The Unthinkable!


But it was well worth it........



We shut the pub!!!

The county show was on in Kirkwall and as most of the island folk were going to it  we took the opportunity and had a day off.

A walk with a picnic was suggested so off we went.

Passing the seal colony at one local beach, this smaller faster creature jumped out of the water.

An Otter, an Otter, look there's an Otter says D. 

Two quick snaps later and he was away, but at least I got him/her/It.

Onward!

The South East coast on Stronsay has an awful lot to offer by way of dramatic scenery. 

I'm not going to waffle on to much here and just let the pictures do the talking for me,
you can almost feel the peace and calm oozing from this picture.

That horizon is so far away it's curved.

What could you say anyway?

Baby Fulmars are a big furry blob with a beak.

Later though, they will grace the sky with their aerial acrobatics. 

Wow!

Pinch, pinch, do we really live here?

At last........gotcha!

B52 on final approach.

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Now this is what you call a picnic spot!!

Six hours we were up there, it was worth every second!







Until next time..................

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The Suns Been Out Again...




And we find a bit of a design fault!

What is it with bovines?

The sun comes out and they all start acting like cats.

Mind you on days like these who can blame them?



Our monthly trip to Kirkwall was due again so away we went on the morning ferry to load our van to the hilt with all things ciderish..... and of course the odd tin of beans here and there. 

The return journey had a bit of a problematical start though. 

Now, this is a picture of a piece of farm machinery sat at the stern of the ferry. The green bit with the yellow painted  border is the ramp that lowers down to allow access onto or off of the ferry. 

Note the width of that ramp.

This is a RORO (Roll on one end... roll off the other) type of ship.

Here's the clincher........

The ramp at the bow end is slightly smaller than the width of that piece of machinery!!!

Sooo... it rolled on but there was no way in the world it was going to roll off.

Solution required.

Much turbo charged black smoke from the port engine......

Much whipping of the sea into a white foam........

and much frenzied activity from the crew......

The ship was soon turned on a sixpence, re-docked and the tractor could reverse off.

(I've just noticed the dog sitting in there).

The throttle was pressed hard as we were ten minutes behind by now,

and we soon left Kirkwall in the distance.

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The wake could almost have been a surfers paradise.







Until next time......................







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We Need More Power Scotty.......

The Engines can't take it Jim!
Oh, Wait a minute, here's a useful box of tricks.

This lorry back houses a huge generator that fed the whole island with electricity for a couple of days.
All the isles here are fed by an interconnected under sea power cable which failed at 4am one morning, incredibly, by 9pm we were all powered up again.
The emergency response team had the task of getting four of these from the top of Scotland and out to the islands, that's a long road trip and two separate ferry journeys but they did it!

Hats off to them......

The fault was first thought to have been caused by a cruise liner snagging the cable with it's anchor, but luckily, this was not the case. It turned out to be a land based fault that was quickly fixed and we are all back on the mains again. 

That cable's out there somewhere.

The tourism committee have put together a weekend of events on the island.

The "Stronsay Fest" the programme says it all!  Should be a good weekend.



Until next time.....................







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