Joining

[vegaskip]

I have a connection with Loch Ewe, and the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum Project. They have several of my paintings. In 2016 my wife and I attended the celebrations marking the arrival of the first Convoy to Arkhangelsk. George Milne from the museum was also there . We also stayed with George on a visit to Loch Ewe. 'Small World'.!
Jim

[43rdRecceReg]

I have a connection with Loch Ewe, and the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum Project. They have several of my paintings. In 2016 my wife and I attended the celebrations marking the arrival of the first Convoy to Arkhangelsk. George Milne from the museum was also there . We also stayed with George on a visit to Loch Ewe. 'Small World'.!
Jim

Small world indeed! I know George too, as I was on the volunteer group he established to improve Aultbea harbour with some planters (not the peanuts). Since then, of course, he's focused his considerable dynamism
on the Convoy Project museum based in the old butcher's shop. The Museum is a wee treasure, and draws attention to the vital role played by the Loch Ewe convoys (and the poor frozen seamen) supplying the Russians with tanks and aircraft.
We now have another museum in Gairloch, but its main focus is on Highland life and history.
Here:
http://www.gairlochheritagemuseum.org
and the Arctic Convoy Museum here:
http://racmp.co.uk
Anyone visiting the West Highlands, with an interest in the Navy, or the fascinating story of the Arctic Convoys, shouldn't miss the opportunity to visit the Museum. Ships from Loch Ewe supplied the Russians with 1000s of Shermans, Cromwells, Hurricanes and more via Murmansk. Churchill described the route as the '...Worst journey in the world.'

I'll make a special effort to check your paintings out, the next time I visit there
Roy.

[vegaskip]

Thank you all for the welcome. I think it will be a while before I start taking things apart. It is 'Vega' Skip. Vega being my 14’ Voyager sailing dinghy, but Jim will do. I know a lot more about ships than I do tanks, although I have always had an interest in tanks, probably stemming from getting to drive 'a Bren Gun Carrier ' when I was about 12. A haulage company near us had two which the used on civil engineering sites.
Painting of Loch Ewe and AA Battery vied from near the site of the monument to those lost on the Arctic Convoys

[43rdRecceReg]

Lovely watercolour, Jim. Many of the gun emplacements still exist, and those down by Maclennan park are still in good condition. I live a little further round the coast from your vantage point, but my house also has a commanding view of the Isle of Ewe, you've depicted so well there.
Here's a pic I took of some dummy tanks stationed down at MacLennan Park.

Dummy tanks on Loch Ewe

Looks like the barrels need a blast of air, or some sort of enthusiam

[vegaskip]

8307F224-C15C-4364-B615-001BE6D25721.jpeg (26.92 KiB) Viewed 1014 times

Here’s the road to Cove and Murmansk with sheep.
Bathing Beauties off Poolewe.

[43rdRecceReg]

Not a lot has changed, Jim, except that the road to Cove is now no longer single track, and has no need of passing places as such, unlike the Ormiscaig side where I live. You've certainly captured the light well.
It's as unique here in the way it falls, as that which illuminates St Ives in Cornwall- a place also beloved of watercolourists.
Of course, the ships are now long gone, but NATO and the RN often use the Loch for exercises and the fueling depot still exists in Aultbea. An RAF Tornado crashed into the Loch a couple of years back, providing some postwar action here, and excited blether.
The crew ejected safely, ( ) but unfortunately, no one was around at the time with a smartphone or SLR. ...or a very fast sketching technique