Now don’t laugh all you regular travellers on the good ship Loch Striven but I’ve actually broke out in a sweat today 🙂 It’s just been one of those days where you want to do things, probably the moon, planets or lay lines were all joined together, whatever it was it started early, very early in fact, 4:15 am to be precise, for that’s when I got up 😦 I’d been awake for ages and could not sleep so I arose and plonked away on here for a couple of hours before eagerly heading for work. I say eagerly because it promised to be a pure ‘peach’ ( there’s that word again ) of a day and as I’d spent a good deal of the week down below I wanted to make the most of it.
And yes I know the horizon is squint but so was the picnic table that I rested my camera on to take it and I don’t have a spirit level on my camera. I know I can flip it but it’s late and much easier to tilt my head 🙂 Anyway that’s the Applecross peninsula and the Crowlin islands across the water.
Taken from ‘Calum’s cairn’ just north of Brochel at the start of his amazing road http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calum_MacLeod_%28of_Raasay%29 that leads to Arnish.
As I was early for work I stopped and took some photos from the roof of the Land Rover of the back of Raasay house, that fine 18th century mansion that was tragically destroyed by fire in January 2009. It was good to see some roof trusses on the east wing at last.
This is what it looked like at 2:00am on that fateful night and I know the picture is cr4p but I was rushing to go and start up the ferry to fetch reinforcements for Raasay’s overwhelmed fire crew, who despite intense heat had managed to prevent the fire spreading to the west wing.
As you can see in this picture taken a week later the west wing is virtually unscathed.
Anyway, as it was such a nice and calm day I decided to spend most of it adjusting the ‘finger flaps’ on the forward ramp that had drooped somewhat recently. These six steel flaps on each ramp are held on by large 36mm high tensile bolts.
These bolts require removing periodically, cleaning up and re threading with a ‘die nut’ so the flaps can be adjusted to the correct height.
It requires very large spanners a safety harness and lots of effort
but on a day like today it was a pure joy to be up there
and see some of the sights 🙂
Like the Raasay house sgoth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgoth_Niseach and this crane leaving.
My old friend ‘The Storr’ 10 miles or so to the north,
and Raasay’s very own volcanic plug Dun Caan illuminated in the dying sun 🙂
All the hard work had made the day fly by and before I knew it the last sailing was done and it was time to secure ourselves to Scotland and head home.
And it was a pure joy to see a working fishing boat tied up alongside a Raasay pier for the night, I don’t think that has happened since I traded in my life on board the Conqueror some eight or nine years ago.
It’s not often I miss my fishing days but today really was a perfect day for clam diving 🙂