It was a day of two halves today; a strong northerly breeze this morning and boiling hot again by this afternoon.
Morning boat duty is always nice as you're welcoming visitors to the island. The majority are first time visitors but we also have people who come regularly - from once a year to once every few months.
Whilst waiting for the first boat this morning I saw seven seals, two chough, two ravens and a cormorant/Shag (it was too far away to be precise).
Two of the seals were on the rocks where the boat comes in, which makes it even more difficult to get people up the steps as they get excited, but thankfully they'd gone by the time the visitor boats arrived.
Island patrol this afternoon was very hot again, and the best part of the day is taking off my walking boots and putting my flip flops on when I'm done. The first cuppa after a long, hot day is also very satisfying.
Tonight we had a barbecue with some of the island staff as one of the long term volunteers (LTVs) is leaving after being on the island since March. The boatmen also gave one of the LTVs a bag of freshly caught mackerel earlier (probably in exchange for all the cake we've given them this week!) and it was bloomin' gorgeous done on the barbecue. You can't beat fish straight out of the water and cooked within hours of being caught.
There's still some un certainty about whether we'll get off the island tomorrow. It's all calm out there now but that could change overnight. For now we're assuming we're going and are packing or stuff up. Thankfully the food boxes are much lighter than they were when we came over!
I've had another amazing week on this island, helped massively by the fact that I know almost everyone I'm here with. It's not an easy week by far and we've all worked bloody hard, not just with visitors but on the non-visitor days too. But it's worth it to get to see and experience the island as no one else does (at least not unless they've paid quite a bit of money!)
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