Sorry to hear it, Andy. I’ve QSP’d the sad news on the WAB reflector.
All understood Andy.
Haven’t been looking at the forecast, didn’t want to get depressed! I hope another suitable window opens up for you to rearrange your trip, I think it will be a great adventure when the weather sorts itself out.
My plans are continuing for a visit to Coll sometime this summer, sadly the highest point is at 106m, so no qualifying SOTA summits 
73 Colin
Sorry to hear about the cancellation Andy. Presumably you are still in the area, but that’s little consolation when you have planned such a rarity. Maybe time to contact Paul and arrange to meet up to compare notes. The same thing happened to him last year in North-west Scotland.
73, Gerald G4OIG
I wasn’t leaving for the ferry from Uig to Harris till Monday early morning. But there have been texts from the guys organising this and the swell and wind is wrong so it’s not on. The big ferries need really serious WX to stop them sailing but they are 5500 ton boats. A small boat (Ails Craig boat size) needs suitable tides/WX and if you don’t have it you don’t go. I know when a work colleague wanted to visit St Kilda he spent 2 weeks bagging summits on Harris and Lewis and had arranged with the boatman to text him when the WX was right. So he went on millpond smooth water with blue skies that look like the Med or Caribbean and got stunning photos. But he was there a few days before the WX was good.
It cost me £10 handling charge on cancelling the Uig ferry (£72.20 for car and driver return) and I’ve spent some time planning summits and fall back summits on Harris and Skye etc.
In the end you are in the hands of the gods and there’s nothing you can do. Luckily, Laphraoig Quarter Cask was on offer in the local supermarket (£25/70cl instead of £36) so I have made a big hole in that in commiseration. Also had 2 spoons of sticky toffee pudding and 2 spoons of ice cream. So I wont be doing a blood sugar check in the morning!
There’s always tomorrow. However, there is something magic about island SOTA. I’ve done Raasay, Kerrera, Ailsa Craig now and it gets to you wanting to visit another and another. So maybe I’ll look at planning a small group hit on some Hebrides islands for a dedicated few.
Yeah that sounds like something Jimmy and I would be interested in. Bear us in mind if you start to formulate any plans.
Sorry the trip is off Andy and I hope you get another chance in the fullness of time. When I read your notice last night I commiserated also with a good drink from the bottle I was presented with last week:
73 Phil
I picked up one of those when I visited Bushmills last year on the way back from a few days of GI/SM activations. Lovely stuff!
Paul and I enjoyed Orkney and Islay and agree with the island aspect - it is great seeing the sea on more than one side. Something you don’t often get with coastal summits. Must get my backside into gear and get something planned as the XYL keeps mentioning Skye and there are a few summits up there which would tie in with a more general visit, especially as she managed Mendick Hill last time out. 
73, Gerald G4OIG
Skye doesn’t really count as an island logistically as you can drive to it now. 
I haven’t had any Bushmills for possibly 20 years. The majority of Malts on sale in the cheap hooch shops (supermarkets) are Scottish Malts which isn’t surprising. They do stock the odd Irish Malt Whiskey, the Welsh one Penderyn (nice but not cheap) and plenty of Bourbons.
I did have quite a lot of Redbreast Malt Whiskey when I was in Dublin last year, and all ages were very pleasant. I’ve not seen it here on sale or I’d have bought a bottle. But I can recommend it.
Very good Andy, you know a lot more about whiskey than I do. I have an unopened wooden boxed bottle of 10 years old Bladnoch (Wigtownshire) Lowland Malt from when I went round the distillery around 2001. It is a single malt. Shall I drink it, sell it or continue to look at it from time to time as I have done over the years? Quite a rare whiskey I would think…
Bladnoch distillery has had a chequered history of opening, closing and changing hands and some of the information on wikipedia is not accurate.
73 Phil
Being relatively new to SOTA, I can not comment much on summits etc but on whisky if feel I can. Whisky is meant to be enjoyed in the glass, not in the bottle. There used to be a tradition of opening the bottle and throwing the cork in the fire. I think that tells it all.
73 John MM0VEG
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Since when did logistics come into it? Regard the bridge as a very long ro-ro ferry docked between the island and mainland. Perhaps you fancy changing all those SI refs to WS ones…
Hey, I’m just the messenger here, I don’t make the rules. Well actually I do but that’s beside the point!
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Sorry to hear of the disruption to your plans, I know first hand what goes into organising these expeditions. I think the words I chose in similar circumstances were somewhat choicer and obviously not repeatable here :-s
First time it happened - Noss back in 2007 - I was standing on the landing stage on Bressay with my permissions and paperwork in hand and the boat actually came across to tell me it was too rough to take me over to the island. Make sense of that if you can…
Hope you get the chance to make the trip before too long
73 de Paul G4MD - Fellow island activation lover 