What fun what fun. We flew to Aberdeen and then onto Lerwick and joined the boat there. Having been up since 4.30am Fi and I needed some rest after a fine luncheon in the main restaurant. That night was our first gig. Well it was a little strange to say the least. One lovely thing was that Martin Simpson was still on board and came to the concert to give his support. That was fab. According to him and some passengers that had befreinded him, we did really well as the audience was a reasonable size, hardly anybody left and nobody vsisbly fell asleep. That may sound uncharitable but this was what other people told us. From our point of view the experience was very strange as I played a grand piano squashed into a corner 20 feet behind my sister with some very strange reverb on the P.A. I can't say it was our best performance as we were very nervous and the circumstances were odd. I suggested to our entertainments manager Neil that instead of doing a concert the following night we should do a Ceilidh to which we got a very enthusiastic response. When we announced it at the concert we also got a favorable response from the audience.
So, the following day in Orkney the boat had the Wriggley Sisters on for a lovely concert in the afternoon. Due to their wonderful humour Fi renamed them the Giggly Sisters. That evening Bella Hardy and Lori Watson joined the boat so for the Ceilidh we had a 3 fiddle line up with me doing most of the calling, a bit of sax and a bit of piano and great fun was had by all. We left the next day from Stornaway and Bella and Lori were to do a concert the following night. It was a treat for us to have them play along and made the music great and obviously much fuller than it would have been with just two of us - so thanks to them. One lady said to me the following day that she had felt ten years younger the previous evening and another couple of ladies who couldn't dance said they hadn't laughed so much for years. Neil the manage turned out specially for the occassion in a quilt, sorry I mean Kilt and that helped the humour along. So, all in all a very interesting experience. Would I do it again yes.
I got up one of the mornings on the boat at 6am to go Whale spotting. I didn't see any but it was still lovely looking at porpoises and sea birds etc