Sun., May 19th, 2019
This morning we decide to make a real Scottish breakfast–minus the haggis and black sausage–and we sit around with cups of coffee enjoying our good cooking and scanning the sky for weather signs. It’s a cloudy grey but it looks like it will be just fine for our afternoon cruise up the western coast of Mainland on the Hamnavoe ferry. This is Nature Week and we’re already ticketholders for this trip.
At noon we head to the pier and are soon in line to join all our fellow travelers. We’ve never been on this ferry; it is more elegant than I expected, with lounges and bars and dining facilities. Exhibits have been set up by various nature groups and there are speakers discussing various aspects of island life. I listen to one from a birding society–she talks about the precipitous decline in the seabird populations–kittiwakes, skuas, fulmars, razorbills, guillemots and puffins–all of them have lost between 60 and 80 percent of their number. Climate change, of course, is the principal cause–from the bottom of the food chain (cold water plankton replaced by inappropriate warm water plankton) to the loss of other food sources which either no longer exist or appear too early in the season to be available when needed. We watch the birds dip and then soar above the water. It makes me sad. Everywhere as Neil Young sang “nature is on the run” and that was in the 1970s.
We pass Yesnaby and see the sea stacks, sail past the Bay of Skaill–Scara Brae just out of sight–around Marwick Head and the monument to Kitchener, then recognize the lighthouse on the Brough of Birsay. The boat about-faces at Eynhallow and we can glimpse Rousay not far off. I pay more attention to the shoreline on the way back trying to picture some of our drives along this coast. Without a decent camera I feel stymied but take many shots anyway–they are all terrible, unsurprisingly! As we head back into Hoy Sound however it is a perfect time to photograph Stromness for sketching later. We’ve never had the chance before to see the town from the water.
Near Yesnaby 
Approaching Stromness 
And to starboard, Graemsay 
From the ferry
Back on land we buy Orkney ice creams, then head back to the cottage where we watch Four Weddings and a Funeral–still funny.