Epilogue: The Little Boat That Could

Kennebunkport Sailboat found “shipwrecked” on the beach in Balivanich, Benbecula.

Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction. In an earlier blog about our trip to the Outer Hebrides we mentioned the little boat that Angelika and I found washed up on the shore of the beach near the Balivanich airport.

We were puzzled, intrigued, curious… and determined to understand its origins. After reporting the find to the local police, we emailed the teacher who had initiated the project back in Maine. Four or five days later Ed Sharood responded,

“We want to thank you both for alerting the local police and subsequently the local coast guard and a primary school teacher.  The word has spread fast that the Little Boat that Could actually HAS made it across the big pond.  The boat was picked up and taken to the local coast guard office where it is being held until Mary Morrison (Primary school teacher) picks it up to bring it to her school tomorrow. We would love to hear more about your trip and how you came to be walking along the beach…you are now an important part of it’s story!”

Ed also supplied us with some links to the story behind the little boat on the beach:

Kennebunkport Conservation Trust (The project’s partner),

Kennebunk High School Alternative Education Program  (The school program involved in the launching of the boat.)

The Landing Boat School (Participated in the building of the boat)

Portland Press Herald ( News story from Portland Maine about the collaborative project)

News 13 (Even a television news story)

A week later this email arrived from a local teacher in North Uist:

“My name is Mary Morrison and we have been working as a team of  volunteers on the drifter project. If you are still on the island we are doing an Assembly tomorrow morning at which we hope the new drifter can be displayed alongside the one the children have helped to refurbish.”

Unfortunately we were already two islands and one ferry away…sigh.

We figured that was all we would hear about it until the boat was relaunched and we could follow its progress. However, another week later we were contacted by John Paul Breslin of the Glasgow Sunday Post to do an interview. We agreed to the interview and the resulting story came out in the July 9th edition. Attached is the Sunday Post Article Online

The boats navigator. He first took the boat to Spain in search of some Spanish gold.

We joked with Ed Sharood after he contacted us, that we wanted cameos in the documentary about The Little Boat That Could. After all this hoopla, it might just happen! After all, truth is stranger than fiction.

What Lies Between

Just north of Barra lies the little chain of islands called The Uists, all connected by causeway. These beautiful islands lie between Barra and the larger island of Harris and Lewis.

a wee Eriskay pony

On our way to our next home, we drove through Eriskay, the smallest island in the Hebrides. It’s known for a few things, some more famous than others. This is the land where Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot in Scotland landing on a beach now called the Prince’s Strand. Eriskay has its own ponies, much like Shetland ponies only perhaps more potbellied. It’s also known for the sinking of the S.S. Politician, a ship that was loaded with 250,000 bottles of whiskey, which the inhabitants of the island valiantly saved – and drank. (The tale is commemorated in the book Whisky Galore, by Colum MacKenzie and a movie of the same name, which we are going to see this week.)

the altar at St. Michael’s

And finally, Eriskay is known for St. Michael’s Church. This church has a unique altar: it’s made up of the prow of a rescue boat, it’s a beautiful tribute to a place that’s tied to the sea. We had a fantastic chat with Father Ross, who speaks fluent Gaelic, English and French (and apparently several other languages.)

Our that-roofed cottage in Benbecula

We learned that when you travel between these islands, you go “down north” and “up south”.  We don’t know why but that’s what we were told, so that’s what we did: we left Eriskay and headed down north to Benbecula. This was described to us as “no man’s land” – what lies between South and North Uist. It marks the space between the Catholic south and the Protestant north. Our home was a traditional thatch-roofed cottage, owned by Niall (Neil) Campbell who works for Gallic Media. The cottage was his family home growing up, later became dilapidated, and has been restored to be used as a vacation rental. It’s fantastic. It’s also well situated as a home base while exploring the area.

Benbecula is a lovely little island that has the benefit (or curse, depending on who you ask) of supporting a military base, which means it has a great grocery store, a petrol station and an airport. It also has an amazing beach – where we found the shipwreck that John mentioned in our last post.

Our Lady of the Isles

In South Uist, we visited the elegant statue of Our Lady of the Isles. She’s beautiful, holding her baby Jesus up high so that he can bless all that’s around them. She’s also a huge reminder that you’re in Catholic country.

Grey Heron, fishing.

We went looking for Loch Druidibagh to see if we could find the Red Necked Phalarope or the Red Throated Diver. We thought we were going to find an RSPB hut with a person in it who would tell us more but there was no such thing so, without meaning to, we drove right past it to Loch Sgioport. Since we were there, we chose to hike the hills and had lunch at the ruin of a cottage overlooking the secluded loch. The sun shone and it was wonderfully quiet. On our way back, we found Loch Druidibagh and walked for a long way on its well-built board walk but alas, by then it was so windy, no birds were out and about. On our way home, we stopped for well-earned tea and cake at the café in the Hebridean Jewellery shop. Leaving here, we experienced what we so often do when traveling Scotland: we found what we didn’t even know we were looking for. The café is situated at the sea and John spotted a Grey Heron on a beach between two grassy knolls. We stopped the car to take his picture, then went for a walk and saw so many birds: ringed plovers, oyster catchers and black-capped gulls. It was a great end to a beautiful day.

this panorama shows you just some of the surrounding lakes

North Uist is described as “half-drowned in lochs” and it’s true. There’s more water than there is land. We visited the excellent museum in Lochmaddy with its focus on life by the sea and which also had an excellent exhibit of artwork from the North Uist Fine Arts School. We then headed out to the RSPB Reserve at Balranald. What a fantastic place! We walked along a well-marked trail along the “machair”: grassland along the sea that is abloom with wildflowers like poppies, bog cotton, buttercup, and more. We saw all kinds of sea and shore birds, and were happily taking photos when the rain began.

these are poppies on the machair, there’s no photo of gale force winds or us soaking wet because we were protecting the camera!

Oh. My. Gosh. I don’t even know if it was raining all that hard but the WIND. Unreal. It blew the rain right through most of our clothes. By the time we got back to our car we were dripping but grateful for a warm car, a warm home to go to and, as John said, grateful even for the ability to be able to do what we are doing. I think what we re-learn each time we do a trip like this is that the destination isn’t as important as the journey itself. What is truly important is what lies between where you start and where you’re going.