Tuesday 01/08/06

Fairly bright start to the day, but clouds increase gradually to the point shown above. August starts with 4 tropical cyclones. The East Pacific ones Fabio and Gilma are not much to speak about, but Prapiroon off the Phillippines promises to get nasty with China and Chris is going to dump lots of rain on the Antilles. Mrs B is buried in paperwork, whilst her granddaughter, aged 11, has pimple problems. Mrs B's nephew is also in, for giving lifts &c. Several people are reported as getting into trouble on the water. On Sunday, a yacht got into trouble in Loch Shell, 15 miles south of here, but managed to extricate itself before the lifeboat got there. Not an hour later, another yacht ran aground 2 miles south of Arnish Light. Over on the mainland a man drowned after taking a canoe out to sea at midnight. He turned over and could not reach the shore. Sounds like a lot of inexperienced watermen about. Mrs B has got no guests in tonight and it's nice and quiet. Sunset at 9.45pm, and with the dreich weather it does get dark noticeably earlier.