Thursday 12/10/06

Very late start today. The wellboat Froyhav is hauled up on the Goat Island slipway for cleaning. This vessel transports smolts (young salmon) to the island, for growing in fishfarms. Afterwards, the boat needs a deepclean to prevent the transmission of disease. Bad news for the fragile community in Uig, where 4 jobs were lost on a fishfarm at Miavaig. Marine Harvest are transplanting its halibut hatchery to Norway. Weather today is bright and very windy. Long streaks of foam lie across the Basin. Very little shopping is required today, except for the Thursday papers. Head up to Bayhead, where the playpark was closed because of a pollution incident in the soil. A local councillor has been threatened over his support for the proposed 190 turbine windfarm in North Lewis. This threat was written on a poster from the organisation which is opposed to the windfarm, but Moorland Without Turbines has distanced itself from the threat, saying it will conduct the debate through proper channels, not through personal attacks. Head back up Keith Street, where a cat sits sunning itself in a window. Return to Newton via Somerfields. Heavy showers punctuate the early afternoon, but it's dry later on. A cold wind blows. Autumnwatch on BBC2 closes for this year, with a rundown on the red deer rutting on Rum. There was no nice sunset tonight.