A Blustery Day

Yesterday's weather very much followed the forecast on that excellent site magicseaweed, with the heaviest rain coming through during the morning followed by increasing wind speeds until, by six in the evening, we were experiencing gusts up to Force 7 from the southwest. As magicseaweed clearly predicted, the worst of the weather passed to the northwest of us, with severe gales in the Outer Hebrides which disrupted ferry sailings.

What we hadn't expected were the frequent but sudden breaks in the cloud which gave us a fine, blustery afternoon with spells of brilliant sunshine....

....which moved quickly across the hills. Here, the sun catches the houses in Pier Road. The Coastguard hut is to their right, and Ben Hiant behind.

Looking across the Sound to the Glengorm telecommunications masts, the water took on wonderful shades of blue and green.

This is the fish farm boat the Ronja Pioneer steaming up the Sound on her way to Mallaig shortly after seven pm, by which time the sun had left the water and the wind was at its fiercest.

She was followed by the Minerva, a cruise ship of some 12,000 gross tonnes built in Russia in 1989 as a research ship before being sold to Swan Hellenic. She had spent the day in Tobermory Bay, presumably to steady her passengers before they re-embarked for a bouncy ride to Kirkwall.