The first makeral

Sunday already and my bananas are rapidly  disappearing at work The late run last night meant that I came straight home and went to bed being far too tired to plonk away on here. Although it’s a late start on the ferry today the sun is blazing through the kitchen window and I’ve things to do so I’ll fill you in later, though I’ll upload a few pics to save time tonight!

Sea Ranger

A fine trawler built by a father and son team in Elgol on Skye a few years ago.

All quiet for the weekend

Not a great picture but the pier is getting much longer and with a bit of luck I’ll have some better pics tonight.

The first makeral

Ok it was not me that caught it

wrap in ONE QUARTER only

A fitting use for the daily Star

Yum Yum!

Stick in microwave for 1 and 1/2 mins, unwrap and eat

Anyway that’s it for now, I must go and check our water supply and feed the pigs before heading down the road to work.

Sorry

Monday morning already, I never got chance to post last night as I yet again had an early night so I’m really sorry that I’ve not added much since Friday for all you chaps that ‘tune in’ to LATEOTR first thing Monday morning on the works computer Don’t deny it, every Monday morning my ’stats’ go through the roof

Anyway the water supply was looking a bit grim yesterday morning and it looks like our tiny spring has at last dried up

Going down!

This is one of two 1000lt insulated plastic tanks that hold our water and it’s down to about 500 per tank. They are fed by a tiny spring around 600m from the house and despite a few heavy overnight down pours it’s dried up.

The day at work was yet again very busy with a full load on the 10:00 am, as soon as we’d tied up after that we all set about glossing the starboard side casing on the saloon.

A brainstorm

When I had a ‘brainstorm’, painting on a boat presents several hazzards not encountered by your average painter and decorator, firstlty it keeps moving about and secondly it’s allways windy. This can lead to paint blowing over the deck whilst pouring from tin to roller tray and roller trays blowing away with their contents in them Well on Sunday morning I had one of those ideas that’s blindingly obvious when you think about it and that was to drop the tray into the tin of paint so you can load and squeeze the roller without removing it from the tin! OK, I know it’s not rocket science but it really made my day

Roller on a stick

Another trick is to put the paint roller on a stick so you can do the high up places without having to climb more than a couple of steps up a ladder.

Looking good

I have to say that we were all well ‘chuffed’ ( chuffed being a Yorkshire word meaning pleased ) with the result.

The harbour

After a spot of lunch we did a boat drill, which is ‘boatspeak’ for launch the FRC (fast rescue craft) and go for a jolly Choosing to go and have a look at the progess on our new harbour.

It's getting longer!

Which despite ‘Atlas Marine’ the marine contractor going ‘tits up’ ( a Lancashire expression for bankrupt ) and leaving a trail of debt on and around the island is progressing.

Inside of pier and the slip

The wall on the inside being the end of what will be our new 15m wide slip the present one we use at Suisnish being only 8m wide which is far too narrow.

Golden Emblem

The ‘Golden Emblem’ was looking a little sad in front of the burnt out shell of Raasay house

That was about it on the ferry front, we returned to the Loch Striven did the last sailing and then I headed home to repair my water bowser. I say water bowser what I mean is old fish cage float that holds about 700lts of water

Improvising

I fitted the outlet from a domestic oil tank to the base of the float with ‘Sikaflex’ and stainless screws, this brass fitting that is bonded into the green plastic of the oil tank means I can fit a proper tap on the base. This will make emptying it much easier, anyway it’s now 6:30 and I must head down the road!