Storm and Aftermath

People living in towns may go out to a cinema, restaurant or night club for their excitement.  For some of us here, a good evening out is a trip down to the CalMac pier when there's a 70mph gale blowing.

These pictures are from Westernshores, who spent some time with a camera recording the waves as they exploded across the pier.

By this time the gale was blowing from the west.  The pier is in the relatively protected waters of the Sound of Mull, and it's in the lee of a small peninsula, Rubha Aird an Iasgaich, so the conditions in exposed locations like the Ardnamurchan Point lighthouse must have been horrendous.

The CalMac sign suggested that the ferry might not be running - but if this was an 'amber' alert, it would be interesting to experience a 'red' alert.

 

By eight this morning the sky had cleared and a waning moon was setting over Druim na Gearr Leacainn.  With some sunshine promised for the day, we decided to take a walk along the sands at Sanna.

Shortly after we left the car we saw a lone lapwing beside one of the flooded areas.  Lapwings aren't common here in the summer, so we were surprised to see one in the winter.  The RSPB site, here, suggests that some lapwings are visitors from northern Europe, but the wind hasn't been blowing from the NE for some time.

The tide was falling, leaving Sanna's beaches swept clean by last night's gale-force winds and a high spring tide.  Flashes of sunlight moved across the sands and the dunes behind them.  The walking was best described as 'invigorating'....

....because the storm hadn't entirely abated.  The wind remained in the west, and was gusting up to force 6, smashing breakers across the offshore islands.  Not that all the chaos around them perturbed the large flocks of local seagulls....

 ....and one or two of them seemed to be enjoying themselves dodging in and out of the waves as they rolled in to the beaches.

Many thanks to Westernshores for the pictures.