Sunday 30/10/05

Clocks went back last night so the sun shone at 8 in the morning. Nice bright morning but hazy. Banks of cloud move up from the south, looking threatening, but dissipating all the while. Met Office has issued a severe weather warning with severe gales in the offing. After midday, the rain starts and it gets quite gloomy. Find a report on the Coastguard website that a Spanish fisherman was lost overboard 145 miles NW of the Butt of Lewis. Stornoway Coastguard were alerted by Falmouth CG, who in turn had been alerted by an Irish coastguard at Malin Head. He spoke Spanish, and happened to be monitoring traffic on 2182 kHz. Communications were going via Madrid because "none of the fishermen spoke Spanish". What? Stornoway Coastguard is very concerned, because the man washed overboard in full oiskins in southeasterly gales, with no lifejacket. Search is called off after 6 hours. Sun is back after 2pm, but the wind picks up through the afternoon. Learn that the planet Mars can be seen above the eastern horizon in the evening. At sunset, now at 4.45, a small yacht can be seen sailing into the harbour. Its progress is only slow, and it vanishes into the darkness once past Arnish. Sheets of water slam over the causeway. At 5.30, it's fully dark. Dinner tonight is sweet and sour chiecken with rice, a glass of wine and sticky-toffee-pudding from a tin. The latter is OK, but not like the real article. Finally manage to put the Mod music on the net, and it's available on http://modmusic.bravehost.com.