Islay Festival of the Sea 2011
On the 7th, 8th and 9th of July Islay’s first ever Festival of the Sea was held in Leodamus Bay, Port Ellen and was a massive success with a brilliant turnout, superb atmosphere and best of all, some incredible weather too.
The event kicked off with the launch of the ‘Secrets of the Deep’ exhibition on Thursday evening. This was very well attended with excellent talks from Dr Malcolm Ogilvie on Coastal Wildlife and James MacAulay on Maritime History and Stories. The exhibition remained on display throughout Friday and Saturday and featured some incredible artefacts and underwater photography from Gus Newman (including a 110 year old bottle of Worcester sauce from the paddle steamer ‘Islay III’), a great selection of photographs and material from Jim McFarlane, Harold Hastie, Islay Family History and the Museum of Islay Life. The exhibit was also joined by a hugely popular marine ‘touch tank’ kindly provided by Frazer and Ishbel Aitken. St Johns Church provided lunches on the Friday and Saturday during the day and deserve great praise for the amount of hard work put in and extremely tasty results put out!
On Friday morning Stramash Outdoor Experience began the day’s events with sailing lessons for young people in the bay. Two sessions were run with 11-16 year olds on the Friday and 8-10 year olds on the Saturday. After a full days sailing tuition a huddle of exhausted, bedraggled but undeniably beaming children emerged from the waves and I think it is safe to say that a good time was had by all involved. Many thanks to Stramash for coming over and doing such an excellent and professional job.
During the day on Friday Islay High School boat renovation project was on display. Six pupils from 4th, 5th and 6th year were loaned an elderly 16 ft. clinker-built boat by a Port Wemyss family. During the winter the students set about renovating it with support from various local businesses and individuals who assisted with advice, transport and materials. Bowmore Harbour Association offered free berthing at their pontoons. Expert help with gunwales etc. was given by Justin Ruthven-Tyers, Torrabus . The students also carried out basic hull cleaning, repairs, maintenance and painting on the small yacht “Ardbeg” and the sailing dinghy “Pearl”. The students involved were Brian MacMillan, Scott McGurn, Richard Martin, Fraser Stevenson, Scott Woodrow and Andrew Stevenson. The other two fibreglass boats displayed on the green and built by Stormcats were taken from a mould of the boat renovation project.
These boats were also joined by Jim McFarlane’s ‘Kathleen’, a replica boat made in Moville where the Foyle Rowing Club hail from. Jim did a fascinating talk on Gaelic Boat Terminology on the green involving some of the Irish rowers and providing a wealth of information on the boats undertaking the challenge. Shortly afterwards the main regatta in the bay began with a parade of boats led by the ‘Kathleen’, resplendent with a dragons head and piper Sandy MacLellan playing at the bow. All of the teams for the Colmcille Challenge took part and put their boats through their paces for the crowd.
In the evening a ceilidh was held in the marquee on the green featuring a fusion of local and Irish performers and at 11pm the community gathered on Leodamus green to watch a firework display and floating bonfire in the bay. It was a splendid sight to see young and old gathered together to share this experience and congratulations are owed to Gus and his team for doing such a good job of patching up the boat used for the bonfire that it was still afloat and smouldering at 4pm the following day!
Saturday morning saw the departure of the Colmcille Rowing Challenge in the very early hours. Please see the adjoining article for a full account by one our local rowers. The race was a huge success and an incredible achievement (particularly for those rowers still spotted ‘Stripping the Willow’ at 1am - you know who you are!).
Saturday was the main day of activities for the Festival of the Sea and fortune shone upon us quite literally with a spectacular dose of quite unexpected sunshine. Most activities began at noon when the marquee filled with stall holders and spectators for the cookery demonstrations. These proved very popular with fresh seafood provided by Jean’s Fresh Fish, Islay Crab Exports, Islay Oysters and the Seafood Shack. This seafood was then expertly cooked by Francois for Islay Crab Exports and Kevin Hanlon and Gavin Miller from the (soon to open) Islay Hotel for the other three producers. They all demonstrated exceptional skill and spectators were rewarded with a taste of the various dishes being prepared. A running commentary was provided by Calum Murray who as expected kept the chefs and spectators on their toes. The local chefs were also joined by a stall from the Old Smoke House based in Campbeltown whose produce was a major hit (especially the smoked mussels) causing a bit of a traffic jam on one side of the marquee.
The ‘Secrets of the Deep’ exhibition was joined on Saturday by a display of entries from the Photography of the Sea competition. The quantity of entries was overwhelming and the standard extremely high. Louisa Macdonell, a visiting professional photographer from the Picture House Studios in Edinburgh, had the unenviable task of selecting the winning entries for each category.
Outside events included tours of the lifeboat from the Port Ellen pontoons and a display from the Coastguard of the equipment they use during rescues. This was a great opportunity for people to see the kind of work and commitment given by these individuals and appreciate how important the job they do really is.
The Stramash Saturday session was joined in the bay by the Islay Canoe Club who were offering the opportunity to try your hand at kayaking and were inundated with enthusiastic participants. Lagavulin Fundraisers had a tent showing the route of the race to Ireland and a display of photos from pillages past. This was joined on the green by the Islay arts and crafts tent, Port Ellen Football Club hospitality tent and the Mactaggart Community Cybercafé tent along with a plethora of other stall holders. Morven Laurie and her team of helpers ran some fun activities on the beach including the creel toss (or yellow welly toss for the children), guess the weight of the lobster, buoy bowling and buried treasure hunt. All of which were very popular to the point of becoming slightly addictive. A hymn service took place in the community garden at 1pm and the crowds were entertained by Islay Pipe Band and Ella Edgar’s dancers.
In the evening the ‘Smugglers Reward’ whisky tasting took place in the marquee with great attendance from both visitors and locals. Iain Gibson made a very convincing and utterly hilarious excise man for the evening and all of the distilleries contributed generously to the occasion. Many thanks to all of the speakers and singers for a truly magical evening . ‘The smugglers reward’ was followed with an evening dance in the marquee.
Sunday was the official end of the Festival programme with a well-attended Service of the Sea in St Johns Church.
The Festival of the Sea was organised by South Islay Development with their parent organisation Islay and Jura CVS and it was funded by Argyll and the Islands LEADER and Awards for All. The Colmcille Challenge was organised by the Foyle Rowing Club from Moville, Co. Donegal with local organisation by the Lagavulin Fundraisers.
Colmcille Challenge 2011
At the most ungodly of hours on Saturday morning only the stragglers from the Marquee on the green gathered to see off the twenty souls who set out with great trepidation on a rather perilous voyage. It seemed a voyage of madness, one that had not been attempted since 1927 and with good reason. To row to Ireland was the challenge set down by the Moville Rowing Club to anyone who thought themselves fit. Naturally the Lagavulin fund raisers thought “it cant be that bad, its only 44 miles, we did more than that in the first pillage, do you think we will take up that challenge?”
So at 3 o’clock in the morning the Isis 1 and 2 slipped out port Ellen into the growing dawn. Down the bay then turn due south was the instructions to the first coxswain. The first hour and a half passed uneventfully, the crews got their first crew change out of the way and everyone started to settle into a rhythm. As the boats pulled out of the lea of the Oa, the swell started to build with the stiff North westerly breeze making the rowing sporadic and difficult. This carried on for 3 hours. Then just when people were starting to think of throwing in the towel (as some were feeling the effects of the weather, or the night before) the clouds parted, the sun came out and the wind dropped. Sprits rose we thought we will definitely make it now.
The rest of the day was more bearable and the Irish coast guard helicopter turned up. This caused a lot of questions about what they were doing here, and has some body said we are in trouble. No turned out they were there to take some photos. On we went with blisters starting to build, the Irish now in sight behind. This spurred on the effort but it was not enough to keep them behind.
Isis 1 and 2 powered into Greencastle harbour after just over 11 hours at sea. The sponsor’s tee-shirts were on and a huge crowd had assembled on the slipway to welcome us in twenty minutes after the Irish men’s team in their Celtic longboat. The Irish ladies team was a further hour behind as the tide had turned in the Foyle and they had to battle against it to get in.
‘Never again’ was a phrase being broadcast ‘well not till next year anyway, if only we had a boat like the Irish then it could be a race and a bit more fun.’
A grand total of £1700 pounds was raised for the Foyle hospice which provides care for people with debilitating illnesses. As with events of this type they would not be possible without considerable goodwill from many people; Jim, James and Ellen Brown for the support boats and food; Craig MacAffer and Frazer Aitken for the RIB’s; John Conner for the Mobil Coffee Shop; Bruichladdich Distillery for the pain killers and hospitality; Awards for All for assistance with costs; Moville Rowing Club for the challenge and making us feel most welcome in Ireland, and Kirsten Laurie with the festival of the sea for helping with arrangements.
