A Wet Sunday

For all the 10+ years I’ve been coming to Orkney I can’t ever remember a day so wet and windy as today. It has been raining from the time I opened my beady little eyes, sometimes a depressing drizzle but mostly rain that makes the window overlooking the sea look like the old fishmongers window with a moving blind of water. While not exactly a hoolie, the wind is pretty fierce too.

I ventured out in the morning for a coffee and was surprised to see a motley selection of damp tourists wandering about the Street until I rounded the corner to the harbour and found 8 tourist buses parked. It seems the Viking Mars cruise ship with 1000 passengers is docked in Kirkwall. On Tuesday the Mein Schiff cruise ship with over 2000 passengers will dock for the day there. It’s almost as if I have just  escaped the frying pan to fall into the fire.
I did wonder what these tourists today thought they would see between 9 and 10 am on a wet Sunday in Stromness.

At the stroke of 3pm this afternoon a Stromness Majestic Mermaid appeared through the rain to go swimming with me.  Yes we are that mad. We bounced in the waves as the rain became increasingly determined. But we were also determined and continued bouncing until every bit of us was soaked. We scuttled home to dry out- which might take some time but, you know what? We are going to do it all again early tomorrow morning. Rain will not deter us which is just as well as it appears to be here for the week.

As I was about to leave for swimming, these horses in the blip appeared outside the flat pulling a cart of tourists down the narrow street that runs through Stromness. It’s the RNLI gala day here today which seems appropriate in this weather.