Big wave coming

We had a very early start this morning - when the hotel fire alarm sounded at 5:25am! My experience of fire alarms on campus came in handy when I instructed Mr hazelh that we had to take coats and our key with us as we headed out the bedroom door. Too many times have I shivered in the cold with the students when I have been forced to go directly to the assembly point. Similarly, on a couple of occasions I have been locked out of my office after a drill because I forgot to take my key with me. I felt sorry for our fellow guests who had rushed out without donning warm clothing and - in a couple of cases - no footwear! Several also needed to wait to be let back into their rooms by a member of staff with a master key.

We were outside for about ten minutes before being escorted indoors again. The cause of the alarm (discovered at breakfast three hours later) was a power cut.

We split our day between the beaches of Vatersay (with two trips to the wee community tea room there) and our hotel beach. At the former, there was a small amount of paddling. At the latter, Mr hazelh braved some enormous waves for about 20 minutes (blipped), then after dinner this evening we took a sunset walk along the shore (selfie extra).

We played Scrabble again before dinner. Mr hazelh was much luckier than I with the letters, and now leads the series 6-5.

Tomorrow we leave Barra for a night on South Uist.

Exercise today: cycling (13 miles); walking (10,765 steps).