:58:05
The yacht in the Voe heeled over
:58:07
until her keel showed
through the flurry.
:58:09
Alastair got to her
with a rescue party,
:58:11
who made fast a cable
:58:13
with a braking strain
of a ton and a half round her mast.
:58:17
It snapped in two minutes.
:58:20
The wireless mast was blown down,
:58:22
the stone dyke behind
the schoolhouse was blown over.
:58:26
Frankie, venturing out with me
:58:28
to see Mill Loch water spout,
stepped beyond the house
:58:30
and was picked up by a flann,
hurled 40 feet
:58:34
and rolled head over heels
down the hill.
:58:37
I had to go after her
on my hands and knees
:58:39
and crawl back to safety with her
bumping and laughing behind me.
:58:43
By the fourth day,
there were no fresh vegetables.
:58:47
By the fifth day,
:58:48
no fresh meat except caddie mutton,
which means one joint per person
:58:52
to make a square meal.
:58:54
By the sixth day,
no cigarettes left but Woodbines.
:58:57
On the seventh, not even Woodbines.
:59:00
On the eighth, we had to beg from
the island's winter store of peat.
:59:05
On the ninth,
:59:06
a famine of all that makes life
worth living stared us in the face.
:59:10
On the tenth, we began to consider
seriously a plan of rationing,
:59:15
and Ernie, discovering a packet
of 20 Players in his oilskin,
:59:19
was nearly lynched.
:59:21
The concert, long planned by Finlay,
:59:23
to show the islanders
what they missed at Walls
:59:25
had to be cancelled.
:59:27
It was impossible to hear
anybody speak in the mess hut.
:59:30
The racket was appalling.
:59:31
Tongues of flame, three feet long,
:59:33
shooting out of the stove,
limited our space.
:59:36
It was a bitter blow.
:59:39
Maud was to have sung You Are
My Honeysuckle, I Am The Bee,
:59:43
and Syd, by request, Trees.
:59:47
On the 11th day,
the gale began to drop.
:59:52
Our spirits rose accordingly.
:59:54
We sallied out
with Belle and the pony.
:59:56
We had to keep in the brae
or in the lee of a croft:
:59:59
The wind was still strong enough
to hold a small reflector