Back on the night shift

Almost midnight and I was up at 4:30 this morning mind you I was back in my bed by midday and not out of it until 19:00 and our departure from Uig The news that I was to be night watchman couldn’t have come at a better time because it gave me the opportunity to have a kip whilst at sea. I just love sleeping whilst the boat is on passage, especially on a day like today with a slight sea from the east, just enough to bring back subliminal memories of the womb I guess. My only gripe being that it was actually not a bad day and I was quite enjoying continuing with priming the fo’cs’le when the news came.

   

You’d be forgiven for thinking she was a warship from that picture of the bow visor.

 

 

So that’s about it really peeps, I’ve been in bed all day so hardly much to write about, the day got off to a fine start at Tarbert

 

and the rain that was forecast never arrived. Well not that I’d have noticed in my bed but I was reliably informed that it didn’t.

 

Sleepy Tarbert had little traffic for us this morning and we had the car deck loaded early, we being a sort of generic term I use and not to be taken too literally My contribution to the smooth running of this vessel is minimal, though I’m feeling quite useful right now, which reminds me, it’s midnight and I need to do my rounds with the machine.

The cuckoo

Were was I ??? well the cuckoo arrived at last, not that I’ve heard it but the swineherd assures me that it’s busy making a racket, so pretty soon the poor little wheatear will be trying to keep it from its nest. Why such an odious creature as the cuckoo should be welcomed  never ceases to amaze me but I’m just as guilty as the next person. It could be that I’m just travelling less these days up and down the road but there do seem to be fewer wheatears than usual this year.

 

As you can see the cuckoo is considerably bigger and quite soon the young intruder is bigger than the foster parents.

Other good news from Arnish was the house roof,

 

which is now blue

 

So I’ll just leave you with the MV Hebrides at Lochmaddy

and the view from the fo’cs’le as I did my rounds.

Tonnage:
5,506

Length:
99m

Beam:
15.8m

Draught:
3.22m

Propulsion:

2 x MAK 8 M32, Gear Box: 2 – Ulstein 1500 AGSC

Bow Thruster: 2 x Electric Ulstein 90TV each 7.0 tonnes (69 kN) thrust

Speed:
16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) (service)

Capacity:
612 passengers, 90 cars

Crew:
34

Funny where life takes you, I remember enviously admiring this very bell from SS Hebrides I of 1898 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Hebrides when it resided in the observation lounge of MV Hebrides II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Hebrides_%281964%29

The original steamship had served with MacBraynes until 1955 having taken part in both the evacuation of St Kilda and Soay, after she was scrapped the bell found its way back to Harris and resided in the foyer of the Harris Hotel http://www.harrishotel.com/ for the next twenty years. In 1964 it was presented to the newly launched MV Hebrides II and I saw it some thirty years ago on one of my many trips to the area for scrap. The waters around here being littered with the wrecks from two world wars and the treacherous rocks, reefs and shallows that make the coastline so spectacular.

My living room, house and garden being once full of portholes, telegraphs, trinkets and even two large propellers but I never found a bell. I recall well enough admiring it back then in the eighties, thinking how nice it would look in place of the broken TV I’ve never really been into the ‘one eyed monster’ and managed without for years, having been given one as a Christmas present once I placed it in the living room and watched it occasionally. However one day it died but by then it seemed to fit in well with the rest of the junk about the house, being reluctant (or two lazy) to move it I covered the screen with stick on fish It was a great ‘conversation piece’  but not half as nice as that bell would have been Who’d have thought that all those years later I’d be ‘guarding’ it on another ship!!!!

Anyway, almost 3:00am and time for my rounds.