100 years on :-)

  

 

Another early night last night for yours truly, so no posting, not anything in fact, not even a bath, nope, just a small baked potato and then bed 😦

It had been a busy on the ferry right enough but hardly taxing, even by my standards but it had left me plain whacked, so I missed the ceilidh. In all honesty I’d probably not have made the ‘grand finale’ to the days street party last night anyway but I would have liked to have gone, for it had been such a great day by all accounts.

Raasay’s largest settlement is surprisingly only 100 years old, steeped as it is in history stretching back millennia you’d expect the largest township to be the oldest. Not here, for the two rows of terraced cottages were only built relatively recently to house workers for the newly opened Baird’s iron ore mine nearby. 

 

 

I couldn’t find any pictures from the 100 year mark so here’s one from almost half way back, any ideas who the two are on the left 🙂 Many more pictures here http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/69917/details/raasay+inverarish+miners+housing/

and miners were not the only people housed here, for in WW1 German prisoners of war were also billeted in them, also to work the mines. Something that was in direct breach article 6 of the ‘Hague convention’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Conventions_%281899_and_1907%29

Article 6

The State may utilize the labor of prisoners of war according to their rank and aptitude. Their tasks shall not be excessive, and shall have nothing to do with the military operations.

Prisoners may be authorized to work for the Public Service, for private persons, or on their own account.

Work done for the State shall be paid for according to the tariffs in force for soldiers of the national army employed on similar tasks.

When the work is for other branches of the Public Service or for private persons, the conditions shall be settled in agreement with the military authorities.

The wages of the prisoners shall go towards improving their position, and the balance shall be paid them at the time of their release, after deducting the cost of their maintenance.

Not that much has changed really, Italian prisoners built sea defences in Orkney and British prisoners a railway in Burma but that’s war for you 🙂

Anyway the weather was lovely, unlike the rest of the kingdom and everyone enjoyed what looked like good food, drink and some happy memories.

The nearest I got to it was seeing all the smiling faces going to and fro on the ferry and the excellent photographs which George Rankine sent me, for it certainly generated some traffic, even the http://www.whfp.com/ were there 🙂

 

Sorry if it’s a little disjointed but I actually started writing this ‘last night’ which was not the same last night as referred to above, if that makes any sense. Last night was actually Saturday, the day after the event and this is 4:30am on Sunday, well it was when I switched on the computer, now it’s 5:00am, I’m bathed, full of caffeine and as awake as I’ll ever be 🙂

Too much going on on my head these days to be very coherent on the blogging front, what with a house to build, the ‘department’ dragging their feet in paying me £8 or £9K they owe me on account of they’re short staffed 😦 A whole heap of training courses on the horizon for the new ferry, some of which may be over 350 miles away. With the first one just sprung on me for my next week off, a whole seven days of lifeboat training in Montrose or Aberdeen 😦

Plonking away on the blog has slipped down the priority list I’m afraid,  not through any lack of things to write about, or even enthusiasm for it, just that my head is full of ‘mince’ at the moment and keeps ‘wandering off’ 🙂 So you’ll just have to bear with me whilst I try and get back on track, where was I 🙂

Repairing a Warn winch

 

Not only busy on the boat but busy during my lunch breaks of late repairing my ‘Warn 9.5XP winch’ that sits on the front bumper of the Land Rover. I’ve been at this now for around three days and I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with it. This is supposed to be the ‘Rolls Royce’ of electric winches, you can get cheaper ones for half the price and Chinese copies for buttons. Me however chose to buy this one at around £1000 with the heavy duty bumper required to carry it and the ‘rip off’ delivery charge. OK, perhaps not quite a grand but certainly a big hole in it.

No doubt about it, it is powerful and has certainly pulled me out of a few holes and raised or lowered my wind turbine a few times. However it’s burnt out one motor, required a new set of solenoids and let me down once more on Brochel beach about a month ago when the brushes stuck.

The problem is it’s just not waterproof enough, despite sealing it the last time I rebuilt it, moisture creeps inside it, lies in the bottom, makes the insides go rusty and the brushes stick. The motor then works but under load gets very hot as the brushes arc and softens the springs that push the brushes onto the commutator making things worse 😦

So on Wednesday I removed it and over the next few lunch breaks stripped it down,

freed off the brushes

and rebuilt it. You can see on the bottom picture that only two of the brushes are moving, what you cannot see is that two of the springs have absolutely no ‘spring’ in them having been softened by the heat generated.

Stripping down is pretty simple, just two long screws through the motor and three on the brush holder. A good cleaning was all that was needed and some new springs would have been ideal but I managed to get more tension on them by giving them an extra twist. A bit rough but it will do for now, I found a set of springs on eBay for £19 but I’m sure I can find some in an old starter motor somewhere 🙂

I think it was Thursday that the Portree fishing boat ‘Golden Rule’ called in,

possibly Friday when Ewan M Bowman’s skip lorry arrived.

 

Though it was definitely Wednesday when the council came over and did some proper patching on the Arnish road, I was most impressed 🙂 It may not look the neatest of repairs but it’s the best they’ve done in a long while, though I wish they’d have filled in the ‘bomb crater’ by the ‘Calum’s road’ sign 😦

 

 

 

 

I can’t complain too much as they made a fine job of the one at Tarbert that had been almost impossible to miss when towing a trailer, lets just hope they finish them off.

A fantastic summer

With little rain since April and the news constantly telling me how bad the weather is, I’ve noticed of late that the weatherman has actually been mentioning that it’s dry in the north west 🙂 Perhaps this could explain the extra traffic of late, over 100 cars on Thursday 🙂

Think that picture of North Arnish was what greeted me when I arrived home on Thursday,

this being Brochel early on Friday morning

and this a dried out lochan near the youth hostel.

 

Glamaig, which yesterday during the annual ‘Glamaig hill race’ had it’s record time of 44min 13sec broken. Not sure what it was but I heard 43 something mentioned, quite a feat, though the record set by Ghurka Harkbir in 1899 of less than an hour stood for many years.

The Glamaig Hill Race

The Clan Macpherson first came to the Isle of Skye in the 16th Century landing in the South of the Island from the more Southerly Island of Islay. My family have been on Skye since this date and on my many sojourns over to the homeland from Mallaig I was always fascinated by the Glamaig hill race and have always vowed to do it.

The history of the hill race is unique and remarkable-

In the summer of 1899 General Bruce brought Gurkha Harkbir on leave with him from the Himalayas and explored the Alps. They climbed Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. They then went to Skye, where Harkbir hauled them up many climbs in the Cuillins. It was also the first time that Harkbir ran the hill we now call Glamaig.

The estate owner, McLeod of McLeod, heard of an extraordinary run that Gurkha Harkbir had done from the Sligachan to the summit of Glamaig and back in one and a quarter hours. He refused to believe it and had a heated argument with some local gillies (who presumably had witnessed the ascent). Bruce offered to resolve the dispute and asked Harkbir to do it again. He did, and knocked twenty minutes off the alleged one and a quarter hours. It is recorded that he did it in bare feet, which seems implausible. Surely a sensible Gurkha who had already explored the local hills would have worn sandals.

Almost simultaneously in 1987 the Campbell Family, owners of the Sligachan Hotel, with the loss of the Hotel visitors’ book & records, and David Shepherd (a member of Carnethy Hill Running Club) had the inspired idea to commemorate Gurkha Harkbir’s run with the race as it is now. David was tragically killed in an accident on the family farm near Fochaber, Morayshire, before his idea was known. The race is also a fitting commemoration of David. The Shepherd family have maintained a link with the race through David’s brother Andrew competing almost every year.

In 1995 a Gurkha team took the winning place in the race and were the fastest team and the record is now a staggering 44mins 41secs by Mark Rigby set in 1997

from http://www.tynebridgeharriers.com/2011/07/11/the-glamaig-hill-race-report/

 

Early morning pigs, though how six of them fit in that ark is beyond me, they must be roasting as it’s insulated 🙂