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30th August

Pity that Shetland Youth Theatre's run of Midsummer Night's Dream is over. John Haswell's promenade treatment of the play, set in the garden of Voe House in Walls was a treat for all the senses, putting many a professional performance to shame. Congrats to the whole team, Tony Peaker's excellent lighting and sound, Phillip Taylor's interpretive live music and the wealth of Thespian talent displayed. You can see some stills from the performance on the album page , meanwhile I've put together a little Flash animated tribute - Phillip will be putting together a musical mix for the final version which will be available for download here - watch this space....

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9th August

Getting on quite well with cataloging and making a rough cut of the final piece. I've more or less decided to present the piece as "Performance Art" and make a film short with the network market in mind.

For the performance I would propose to have a series of projectors and shaped screens in a hall type environment, allowing the audience to walk through the show. I am commissioning a new musical piece which we could perform live at the venue and would also serve some suitable food, which we would prepare as a cookery demonstration at the venue - seafood chowder springs to mind or bisque.

This kind of approach makes much more sense to me and would really involve people and get them talking, interacting and thinking about the theme of the piece. It will be a fun event with a serious backnote and also keeps us away from that mire of despond, which is pitching to the network television commissioning editors. We've got a live show which can travel around the country - let's do it!

Oh, and I did a little cut of the dolphin footage, set to my friend, Andy (Dolphin Boy) Levy from Edinburgh's haunting disco mix.

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3rd August Skeld

About to depart on a wee trip to Hillswick in the North of the Shetland mainland, but just wanted to post up that I've started putting the film together. There is some great stuff, very entertaining and interesting, passionate - informative. I'll put some clips up here as work progresses. First up will be some footage of close-ups of dolphins which accompanied us from Stornoway to Shetland. Young Willem Cluness (14), who is really interested in film and animation is working on an animated voyage sequence which I hope to use in the final cut, meanwhile I've updated the position page with the itinerary so far.

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28th July, Skeld Shetland

Made it back to our berth in Skeld at 2100 on Tueday evening after a day and a half at sea. Very light winds, calm seas most of the way but huge lightning storms to the North which was really scary. Fog banks approaching Shetland made it a tense landfall, passing very close to a large tanker at one point. We had the radar on all the way so there was no danger and in fact, we were able to contact the bridge watch and establish their "Closest Point of Approach", which was less than one mile. Not a lot in seafaring terms, but heartening to note that large tankers will take the trouble to communicate with their miniscule brethren!

I'll blog this more fully as soon as we've had a chance to take stock of things up here and I plan to finish the filming locally with some salient interviews and background work.

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23rd July Stornoway

We did get an interview in South Harris, but not with Dina from the Rodel Hotel - thoroughly recommended by the way, for total hospitality and friendliness - the food's pretty damn good to boot. Anyway Dina was just too camera shy to talk on film, but she put me in touch with Chris Lawson, who, along with husband Bill, run a genealogy and nature centre called Seallam, in the nearby village of Northtown. Chris is a native of South Uist and is passionate about her environment. She had much to say on the subject of climate change and the subtle effects she has witnessed on the fragile and unique landscape of South Harris. Great to get another female to appear on the film - the girls seem to want to hide their lights behind bushels - strange, because at all other times they seem to have plenty to say on whatever subject arises...................

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21st July, Rodel, South Harris

Zealander in Rodel

We left KB bound for Castlebay in Barra on Monday 17th at 1130 which gave us a fair tide out of Donegal Bay.I had seen the doc in the morning and he gave me the all-clear, provided I could see a GP at th next port of Call. Conal and Brita came to wave us off and it was with mixed emotions that we departed. One one hand it was great to get to sea again, but the decision had been taken to proceed back to Shetland. It is the right decision, I am in no doubt, but it was a hard one, meaning that that I cannot do the full project this year.

Lamplight

Medical Tip: If you happen to get thrown around and graze your shin when on a boat, make sure you clean the wound immediately, using any anti-septic to hand, even a saline solution is better than nothing. Use copious quantities, Detol, Iodine, even whisky. Dress the wound and keep it covered, dry and protected. Look at it twice a day and if in any doubt, get to a GP immediately. Problem with that area, is that there is very little flesh covering th shin bone so that it gets very easily infected, especially if you're older and there is a real risk of Osteo Myelitis setting in - a disease of the bone which can have serious consequences.

Anyway it took us a day and a half to reach Castlebay, with light winds, pretty steep swell off the Irish coast, but splendid through the Sea of the Hebrides. Got some stunning footage of white sided dolphins, who were with us for over an hour. They were as curious about us, as we were of them and you can see them looking quizically, straight at the camera, which I had placed perilously close to the bow wave.

We scouted around Castlebay for a day or so, there is no Moby signal there, hence lack of blogging. It's a beautiful spot though and no mistake. Lots of yachts moored at trhe visitors moorings, mostly well heeled English. They seem to moor up stay overnight and off again, after stocking up at the local coop. While we were there there were at least 2 complete changes of yachts at the moorings. I suppose they have tight schedules and need to see as many islands as possible in the alloted time, sort of an American "Do Europe in 10 days" syndrome. The reformation, like Vodaphone, never got to Barra so it's a catholic island, full of MacNeils, a race of fervent bagpipers, as evidenced by the skirl of the pipes emanating from the austere, but romantic and sea bound Castle Kisimul, which although it sounds like an invitation to bestiality, housed the chiefs of the clan MacNeil since the 10th century. I believe they now reside in the town, which would augur well for their rheumatism, I'll be bound, it being a tad damp in the castle. You can tell, because they have live ferns for wallpaper.

And so, a hop up the hebridean coast of the Uists, we left CB at 1930 on the evening tide, for a night sail through totally calm seas. Beautiful sunset leaving Barra soon to be replaced by mist, so it was down to keeping a good radar watch. We passed loads of fishing buoys at VERY close quarters through the night - that was the worst thing. You just couldn't see them until it was too late, but luckily we didn't get wound up - had the engine on most of the way in light winds. When the wind piped up we could sail with the Aries steering for the first time since I fixed it in KillyB, so I was pretty pleased to see that it was working.

St Clements, Rodel, South Harris

Medieval Reliefs, St. Clements

We were in Rodel last year on a car trip from Stornaway. Rodel chapel is here, which according to Historic Scotland includes "the finest ensemble of late medieval sculpture to survive anywhere in Scotland ". There's also the fantastic lady who runs the hotel - I'm sure she'll have something interesting to tell us about climate change - do I feel an interview coming on?...................................

It's hard to follow dreams

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15th July, Town Key KillyB,

The wondrous Conal "Seagull" Breslan, of whom more later, managed to get us a berth right in the middle of town. It was the form sea angling berth with steps for all states of the tide. The harbour board are renoveating at the minute so we could tie up alongside the harbour workboat, ideal for access to the key and the town. I've still got to be a weee bit careful while the leg heals and also my hand swelled up after they removed the IV catheter. It was just to awkward trying to deal with the dinghy at anchor.

Berthed in the heart of town

The weather here has taken a turn for the better with an Azores high taking a grip of the climate. My original plan of heading to the South of Ireland and then an Atlantic crossing to Spain, Portugal or even a 6 day hop to the Azores, looks increasingly unlikely.I've lost 10 days which is fairly crucial for my passagemaking itinerary, there's the health problem and the news from Shetland that our former company, The Shetland Smokehouse, has been put into liquidation. Not that we could do anything about that, but we both feel that it would be better if we were home, rather that be seen to be running away from anything. It was a heartbreaking piece of news. There is also, of course, the irritating fact that I'm short of crew. To make the film with any degree of professionalism I need 3 people, preferably who can sail.

I think I'll be strong enough to set sail tomorrow (Sunday), or Monday latest, and make some mileage either North or South.

Conal "Seagull" Breslan

Conal Breslan knows a bit about fishing, he should do, having been at sea for 40 odd years. Conal is a family man, I know that because he has " A football team and two substitutes", 13 kids including two sets of twins.

When Shetland skippers need help with setting up their gear, getting their boats fishing correctly and getting back into profit, it's the "Seagull" they contact. Conal knows his stuff, for sure, but he's a quiet unassuming man. And a thoughtful one. He's the kind of guy who dosen't volunteer opinions on things but will readily discuss observations, facts, stuff that you can measure - he's a pragmatist.

Unfortunately he's rather averse to the camera so it's going to be difficult to get him to speak to us on film, but I'm working on it. The reason for this is that Conal has some really interesting stuff to say about Climate Change. Like how and why it is happening, the influence of human activity in measured, plain sentences. I'll keep you posted.

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13th July, Back on board Zealander

What did I say about the oral antibiotics? Well I was pure dead wrong. Monday morning came round and I was still concerned about the leg. It didn't look that much better - so doctor again. Couldn't see me till the afternoon - GP's around here see an average of a patient every 7 minutes. I was relatively certain he was going to tell me to take it easy, that it was getting better, so I took the hire car back to Dunkineely - a 20 minute taxi ride.

But oh no, it was not to be. Doc thought that it was dangerously close to Osteomyelitis setting in, which is serious, so it was back to Letterkenny, re-hire the car - and full speed. After 3 hours in casualty, which is the only way to see an Orthopaedic surgeon, I was admitted and fitted with an IV for a massive dose of aggresive anti-biotics. I must admit I was shitting myself at this point, remembering stories of Tristan Jones and his seeming disregard for shedding parts of his body, an attitude which although I may be semi intrepid, I do not share.

The next day I was given a ward to myself which increased my paranoia (I have a pretty fertile imagination, but Deb was re-assuring and sensible and the Letterkenny cavalry under the captaincy of Greenpeace-disdaining consultant Thomas, brought things under control and managed to keep the shin bone free of infection. If ever I've had a critical thought about health services, Irish or otherwise, I take it all back and humbly (oh stop being so fucking cloying - it's their job) - shut-up pragamatic self - humbly thank them for their effort - I'm sure there were more deserving cases.

Anyway 3 days later and I'm released, with a full compliment of pinions, definitely sure of that because I counted them before I came out. Anyway I need to take a little time to get things settled and then make a decision as to how to continue. Things have changed for us back in Shetland and it may be right to think about finishing this part of the project where it began. Keep you posted, thanks for reading.

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9th July

The antibiotics seem to be doing the trick I'm very relieved to say and my leg feels a lot better today. Yesterday was Zealander's first full gale ( 35 knots) at anchor, we managed to get ashore in the morning and get the prescription. I got a second anchor ready to deploy in case we dragged, but she sat it out fine. Good thing was LOADS OF LOVELY AMPS fron the wind generator, so we could light up the boat without my usual miserly attitude. The rain was a deluge and although the wind had eased considerably this morning, the dinghy was half full of rainwater. One of the other visiting yachts has started to drag and had moved in the night, Didn't envy them one little bit, but we would have had to do the same if she had started to drag.

The day after the night before - moonrise over Zealander in Killybegs

Today we took a trip to the North, to Gweedore, where my grandafther was born and raised. Magnificent countryside, with huge vistas. I remember as a small boy being taken there. Distant memories of curraghs and horses, My Grandnad used to fish for Cod and Salmon in the waters of Carrickfin, where the family croftlands were situated. Today it's all changed, loads of new houses, holiday homes, and airport on the strands where we played. Mobile homes and caravans. Canny blame them it's really quite a paradise when the sun shines. But it can get very stormy - remember going to my old great aunt Mary-Anne when I was around 18 and seeing a donkey get killed by lightning. She used a whole bottle of holy water to keep us safe, my cousin Gertie and I (She's still living in the area, we called in, but unfortunately she was away), and it seemed to work. Or maybe it was the bottle of sherry, carefully stashed away for just such an emergency, which emboldened our spirits - who can say?

The Church at Carrickfin -------- Salmon Boats at the Harbour

Great experience though, and long lost memories returned.

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7th July Friday

Deb arrived yesterday. Took boat from Shetland to Aberdeen, but no berths. The boat was full of folk going to "T in the Park" in Scotland and Oxygen in Ireland. So it was a long night - plenty of others in the same boat though (OK OK already, what's with the puns). I managed to hire a car locally, thanks to info from my new friend, known locally as "Seagull" aka Conal, who has spent many a night in Shetland and shares many friends and acquaintances, as it turn out. Conal is going to join us, at least to Galway, all things being equal, we hope to sail on Tuesday morning, although gales are forecast for the weekend.

Anyway Deb took a bus from Dublin to Donegal Town which is about 20 miles from here, so it was easy to pick her up there, now that I had the car. Transport is difficult, very few inter town buses so it was really good that I had the car. It was great to see Deb again, I hadn't clapped eyes on her for 2 months. My leg was hurting cos I'd bashed it on the cockpit (decks oil no good for teak - makes it slippy)> I'd dismissed it as a graze and covered it with Savlon, Deb took one look at the now rapidly swelling mess and said the leg was infected and it was the doctor for me today, which is easier than it sounds in the Republic. In the event I had to wait in a rather decrepit "Doc-Now" clinic, equivalent of our NHS24 service and wait till every other person had been seen to, British yachtsmen not being a priority - not that I blame them.

The youngish female doctor, Polish and cheerful told me how stupid I was for letting it get to this stage and that I would have to travel 50 miles to Letterkenny to see a "surgeon". She shot me up with anti-tet and sent me on my way with a covering letter. Not even directions how to get there. Thank God I had the car. Shit, I thought, surgeon, they're going to amputate me leg. Didn't think it was that bad. Anyway, we get to Letterkenny and find the casualty ward, which is a real anti-deluvian rabble populated with african interns, and a couple of totally overworked Irish registrars.

One of the interns had a bash at "cleaning" the wound which was, by now, looking distinctly dangerous and excruciatingly painful. To cut a long story short, I am now on a course of very strong antibiotics with the instruction to keep an eye on things for the next couple of days and get back to them on Monday if it is not improving. They'll admit me then -- great eh?

Well, one good thing - Pete Matthiesen from Aries had a look at the pix I sent him and emailed to say the he thinks the Self Steering should be back together. Thank heavens we have a well stocked toolkit on board and every boat should carry a mini blowtorch for loosening recalcitrant grub screws. Should have used the bloody thing on me leg.

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5th July, KB

Stop Press - 2100 - Ootboard is running again...yee hah

Still here. Och well, I'm tucked in at anchor out of harms way so I'll just stay for a while. Debbie is taking the boat to Aberdeen tonight, then to Dublin, so hoping to pick her up tomorrow. I'll hire a van from the nearest rental place which is about 6 miles from here. Peter Walsh, Bob's father has been in touch and would be up for a trip to Galway aboard Zealander, he and his friend, both experienced sailors.

Bob Walsh

We sustained some damage to the Aries windvane on the way down from Orkney, but managed to get hold of Peter Mattiesen in Denmark, who actually builds the gear. He recognised the problem immediately and talked me through the procedure for fixing it, which I have done. Just emailed him the photos so he should be able to see if I've done it right. An excellent and personal service, which I can't recommend highly enough.

Aries Windvane Gear Repair

I've set up the edit suite on board and am hoping to get the teaser made for the film. Keren Emslie in Shetland is going to pitch it around for me, mzaybe with a view to getting a 3 minute short slot on Channel 4, which would get the ball rolling.I'll try and do a web version so you can all get an idea of what this is about.

So just about back to square 1, got the Taylors cooker working again after we had a near blaze and working on the outboard motor which seems to have given up the ghost.

And jut before I sign out today, I met a fisherman on the slip here, who turns out to be Micky Duggan, has a brother who works in Shetland. He actually works on an Irish Marine Research ship out of Galway and has invited me to come aboard when we get there next week, should be really interesting. But need to speak to more WOMEN!!!!

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03/07/06 KB

I'm alone, that's it, both Clive and Pete left this morning. Clive and I had had words last night and he didn't think he could continue. I'm really gutted. Clive is a great guy and was doing pretty well despite everything. Clive is a grandad for the second time and I suspect that part of him really wants to see the new baby.. So I'm keeping this short today. Clive if you read this, there is always a place for you aboard Zealander, mate. God bless and good luck.

Deb'll be coming maybe towards the end of the week and Bob Walsh, who does navigation training here in KB has given me his father, Peter's details. He's a keen and experienced sailor and may just like to come sail with us to Galway or Cork...

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02/07/06 Killybegs,

Happy B'day to me, not telling you what age I am, forget it. Me mum phoned, Debbie called too, I'm missing her a lot. And Pete got a bottle of fizzy stuff so we'll have a fizzy breakfast when he gets back. We need to get a hire car, so I can run him to Larne and then do the family thing in Gweedore.

This just in from Reeaz in Inverness, a memory of our "Blowtorch Spagbol". Been having terrible problems with the Taylors cooker which I hope will be cured by new burners when Debbie gets her in a week's time.

Blowtorch SpagBol courtesy of Reeaz Mohammed

Special thanks to the following folk for taking the trouble to talk to us at the Irish Fishing Expo 2006

Richard McCormick, Marine Services Manager, BIM

Maurice Clarke, Biologist, Irish Marine Institute

Eugene Willims, Biologist, Irish Marine Institute,

And to Bob Walsh of BIM for help, cheerful encouragement and a couple of good recommendations. And sincere condolences to England for having a crap football team

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01/07/06 Killybegs

Evening

Pete and Clive have gone ashore to film the carnival and fireworks, I'm too knackered, so I'm sitting out on the aft deck writing this. We did a lot of schlepping around today. A bit of a nightmare getting all the gear ashore in the little dinghy, but hey, it's all part of the fun. I'm going to take a pic of the carnival parade, which is supposed to start at nine but haven't seen any sign of it yet. Loads of folk lining the streets and the screams of kids at the fun fair floats along the harbour.

The fisheries exhibition was quite small compared to the size of the industry here, but was well attnded and afforded us a great opportunity to meet some of the industry leaders in Ireland. They were very interested in our project and we recorded some extrememly interesting material from the research side of the Irish fisheries management, which is taken extremely seriously here. We learned some very interesting things which add balance to the piece and the evidence all points to warming of the oceans.

Pete chats with a scientist from the Irish Marine Institute

I also managed to interview 2 nuns, who belonged to the order of the sacred heart here in Ireland. Their work is with poor ad homeless children, of which, it seems, there are still many in Ireland, surprisingly. Their views on the subject were strong and interesting and formed a neat counterpoint to the more prosaic, but nevertheless informative views of the fisheries people.

Exotic Irish Flowers (Forgive me mother Matthew)

Phil Walsh, the fisherman from Hartlepool was really interesting.Their whole fishing has changed over the last few years and they are finding fish that have never before been seen in the North sea. Great stuff.

Ah I can hear a band approaching, the drums beating out a refrain - I thought this was the Republic and they did't do the marching thing, no but wait, I can hear whistles now - it's acircus band or something.... and here they come heaving into view, it's not a marching band at all but a procession of samba drummers, blue monsters, fire eaters, flag wavers, wonderful creatures made of gossamer - what a blast! And they're having real fun!. Been passing now for around 10 minutes and I think that's just the start. I'm telling you, close your eyes and you would swear you were in South America. Now here's a flaming blazing other worldly gondola, galleon pirate ship wending its way through the street. Cheering me up no end. I was abit down today, Pete's leaving on Tuesday, he has to earn some cash. He's going to be a big miss for sure. But now a band has started to play in the town square and they're bloody brilliant

Fiery Gondola at the carnival in Killybegs

- wow, what a night,and then came the fireworks... not your common or garden variety, no, this was one of the best displays I have ever had the privilege of seeing. And I had a complete ringside seat. The barge where they set off the display was right in front of Zealander - i had no idea - the screams of delight from the thousands of kids lined 10 deep on the shore. And then there were two local fishing boatscrossoing the harbour ablaze with fireworks - it was pure brilliant - never have got aweay with that in nanny state UK - made the Dores fat Boy Slim display look like a tea party.. heh heh

Unique firework display in the harbour

They say a week is a long time in politics, but it's a long time on Zealander too, especially when you're in big seas. Well, the infamous Bloody Foreland, that North West corner of Donegal was fairly kind to us and as we sailed South, past the land of my mothers folk, Gweedore peninsula, the wind picked up to F6 and passing Aran Island we got into a fairly nasty steep sea with 2 metre swell at the back of it. We decided to make for the harbour of Teelin for the night, rather than negotiate Killybegs harbour in the dark. Got a much needed sleep before turning to and heading for KB in the morning.

Turned out to be a nice safe wee anchorage and we got to KB early afternoon. Killybegs is a fairly large pelagic fishing port with no facilities for yachties, but the harbournmaster let us tie up for the afternoon at the purser pier, where we were dwarfed by the huge Irish pelagic fleet. We loaded up with fresh stores and got some local info about where to anchor in the centre of town.

At anchor in KB

Clive has been speaking to Steve Wickham of the Waterboys about getting us some interviews. He's been speaking to friends and colleagues and is genuinely intereested in our project. We've invited Steve and his good lady Heidi aboard for dinner.

The Fishing Expo and carnival are on at the moment so the town is full of fishermen out on jollies, so the bars are heaving. We bumped into a few of the Shetland contingent, Mackie Polson and Davie Hutchieson from Whalsay. Also arranged a film interview with Phil Walsh who runs a fishing boat out of Hartlepool in NE england and has some interesting stuff to say.

Right, we now have to fery our euipment ashore for the day's filmin. Speak later