Isle of Lewis

   Jonina, Jon's wife, gifted Michael one of her home made sweaters. Last year she gave me one too. Here we are, in full royal panoply. 

   We left Iceland & promptly got stopped off Papey Island by the Iceland Coast Guard who wanted to know every which way from Sunday all about my passport lapse & related issues. Eventually they let us go, and we raced off south into the growing darkness.

   Many lost songbirds on the way south. Most flew on from us, but one stayed on board and died in the cabin at the base of the main mast. Fin whales. Pilot whales. Dolphins. Skuas. Stormy petrels. Manx shearwaters. Great shearwater. Gannets. Puffins. The occasional freighter making its way to the New World, or from. Thunderheads, overcasts, blues. The Aurora Borealis and the North Star. The pelagic world. 

   Not far from St Kilda the winds headed us, a friend sent me by satellite text an adverse weather report, and we bore off east for the Isle of Lewis.
 
   Darkness overtook us nearing the land. I chose the harbour of the village of Carnoway for its simplicity of approach and entry. The lighthouse, supposed to flash every 6 seconds, never flashed. Which was a cause of much distraction. Which is a spectacular failure, gross negligence. I have never seen a failed lighthouse. Obliged to do without, I used other means, mutually confirmatory, to get in. 

    We lie at the quay, the only sailboat here, alongside a few fishing boats mostly small. 6 sailboats a year come here.

    The fishermen here CROWD us with offers of lobster, crab claws, mackerel. Such kindness. 

    The Broch of Carroway is 2 miles walk. An extraordinary circular stone structure, double shelled with steps spiraling between the shells, built by the Picts around or before the time of Caesar. The remains of hundreds of broches are scattered across northern Scotland. This is one of the best preserved. 

    The standing stones of Callanish are nearby & we visited twice.

    


  

                                         No one home.


   It is now 6 September and the gales are picking up. We are windbound, waiting for a big low to pass. I'm now in the position of looking out for weather windows for progressing south. There are quite a few possible stops: North Uist, South Uist, Tory Island, Inishkea North. The length of the window probably will dictate how far we will jump.