Friday 11/08/06

The lady archeologist quietly leaves at 5.30. The Italians get up later, to spend a day around town. I get up even later, on a decidedly dreich morning. The Japanese lady, who is quite petite, nonetheless wolfs down a full cooked breakfast. Afterwards, she departed for a bustrip round the West Side, to stay overnight at Tarbert, Harris. Asako will return on Saturday. The news continues to be dominated by the bomb plot. Locally, the NHS plot thickens, if not curdles, by the revelation that the Chief Executive in the Western Isles Health Board is a university chum of the Health Minister to the Scottish Executive. Over at Arnish, MV Nina has taken away unfinished turbines to Denmark, and another vessel is due on Saturday to take unfinished turbines to Holland. This all comes amidst a financial crisis surrounding operator Camcal. Today is a day with extremely high and low tides; at 4pm, I can almost walk across the mouth of Newton Basin, near Somerfields. At 9pm, the water is barely 2 feet below the pier at Goat Island. As I reported earlier this week, a tidal difference of 5.1 m is expected overnight. Just as well there is no wind at all. When I set out on my afternoon foray, I come across a friendly old cat, who allows me to take a handful of pictures. A two-masted sailing ship comes into port. By 9pm, a fine drizzle falls when I make my way over to Goat Island. The rain clears east, leaving me with some nice, reflecting images.