I'm just back from Shetland where I was meeting up with folk to make the arrangements for June's "special day" on the island of Yell which will be part of our 21st anniversary Scottish Islands Expedition Cruise. It was a horribly quick visit - up on the boat (thanks NorthLink) on Monday night and back on Wednesday night's boat. The older folk in Shetland still refer to it as "the steamer"; at one time it was "The Blue Canoe" but, as far as I know, it still isn't referred to by its correct title of "ship". The voyages were both a bit bumpy but nothing too serious. I do love overnights on boats.
My first "meeting" was breakfast with Jonathan who runs the fantastic Noss boat trips. So it was off one ferry and on to another for the 5 minute crossing to Bressay where Jonathan was waiting on the pier. We spent a most enjoyable couple of hours catching up, and Jonathan has agreed to join the ship in Yell and do a bit of guiding as we pass Noss on our way to Mousa (where we'll be watching the Storm Petrels "changing nest shift" at twilight (and you don't get much darker than twilight in Shetland in June - it's known as "The Land of the Simmer Dim", the "Simmer Dim" being the description of the amount of daylight at that time of year.
My next ferry took me to the island of Yell where I met up with Mary-Ellen (sister of the late Bobby Tulloch, founding partner of Island Holidays) and Mike McDonnell who was the island's doctor and, since retirement, has put a huge amount of work into the local museums of Shetland, including Yell's Old Haa' where they are planning an exhibition about Bobby to coincide with our visit. We hatched a few other plans for what should be a very special day.
I'm getting so excited about this cruise. It will be quite a celebration - 21 years of Island Holidays, my 60th (3 weeks later) and it would have been Bobby's 80th last January. What's more there are so many really good friends coming along that it's guaranteed to be a terrific party. The only downside is that we still have some cabins to sell but there's plenty of time yet.
I don't know what it is about Shetland, but it really is incredibly beautiful. It has an indefinable light and, with nowhere on the islands being more than 3 miles from the sea, the interaction of that light with water never fails to surprise and delight. Having spent so much time there over the past nearly 30 years, there's always a lot of nostalgia in visits for me - it really feels like going home.
Anyway, enough of this. There's much to be done to fine-tune the plans for the cruise - right down to what to put in the goody bags which will be in each cabin! Plus, having been away for 3 days, there's a bit of catch up in the office. And there's the perennial job of "the brochure" which never seems to go away. Onwards and upwards!
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