Back on the Shetland mainland for a few days holiday, swapping the outdoor life for the computer desk again. The fine weather spell seems to have come to an end and I'm reminded by a local correspondent that some of Shetland's worst fishing disasters happened in the month of July. I made the best use of the remaining fine weather to erect a wind-break around the new tent. A good thing too, because that night the weather broke and gale-force winds were the norm for the next couple of days. Without that protection the tent would have been very vulnerable. It's amazing what a difference a bit of flimsy plastic mesh can make. Meanwhile the original 2-man tent was gamely struggling to stay up - I would not have liked to be inside at the time.

Previous pictures of the boat have ben taken in uncharacteristically calm conditions - now you can see a more typical picture taken at high tide, when the motion is least. (This was at 4am, so not the best quality). I didn't take any at low tide, being more concerned with making sure everything was safe as the breakers rolled in. Fortunately the off-lying rocks take a lot of the energy out of the waves before they get to the mooring place, but the big swells still find their way in. I was pleased with the way the boat was able to ride out the storm, but hold no illusions that this would be the worst the winter had to offer. The old Yamaha 4hp engine has finally given up the ghost and I was on tenterhooks coming over to the mainland in a gale-force wind with just the 5hp Honda - fortunately no problems and the boat handled the conditions well. I'm now waiting for delivery of a new 10hp outboard, which will give a big safety margin.

On the last calm day I photographed the water flow in what I hope will be the main harbour. It faces East, the side of the island facing the outgoing tidal current (top right in the picture). The current hits the end of the island and sluices out through the gaps in the rocks. I intend to block those holes, but it will be a big task. I estimate the first hole alone will take about 100 tons of material to fill it. I'm intending to use 1-ton bags of smallish rocks, bound together with used commercial fishing nets and put in place by a work-boat with a crane - not a cheap job. If anyone can offer any suggestions I would appreciate it.

The first job on the house was to level the site. This required some material to fill in the unevenness of the rough-cut turf. Sand would have been ideal, but the nearest Forvik could offer was a fine gravel. Carrying two buckets at a time from the beach, up the 15ft small cliff at the back of the beach and then up the slope to the site was probably the most strenuous thing I have done so far. I made myself a yoke, but even with that it was a hard job to negotiate the long overgrown grass. I already have the building materials stacked mostly just above the landing place, but most of the timber is now up on the site. I'm getting fitter by the day!