Ali’s body was identified much more quickly than we’d expected; we had been warned that it would take several weeks take to do this using DNA. However it was suggested that dental records might be used instead, and since Ali had visited the dentist now and again his records were detailed enough to make this straightforward. By Monday evening the fiscal’s office had phoned to say that ID and post mortem were complete and his death certificate could be issued. Alison went to Inverness on Friday to register his death. The cause of death is recorded as “drowned while creel fishing”, although we believe he had finished with the creels for the day and was on his way back to the mooring when he went overboard. All the prawns had been tubed and were in the vivier tank. We were told that the Varuna was travelling at around 5 knots when she grounded on Saint Island, which is much faster than she would have been going if Ali had been shooting creels. The Marine Accident Investigation Board is investigating what happened and will issue a report. This is done with the aim of producing recommendations based on what has been learned with a view to safety being improved for others as a result. Sad to see that there were two more fatalities on British fishing boats this November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marine-accident-investigation-branch-current-investigations/marine-accident-investigation-branch-current-investigations . The MAIB guys who visited Applecross to investigate Ali’s accident spoke of their frustration that there have been four fatal incidents on UK based fishing boats this year, particularly as there had been none in the previous year and they had believed that this demonstrated that progress was being made.
Ewen took the Varuna round to his yard at Kishorn last weekend, so we don’t need to worry about her on the mooring during winter gales. He has some work to do on her before she goes up for sale and the yard is busy as always.
We had already decided that we would organise a celebration of Ali’s life in Applecross, before a private cremation in Inverness the following day, and that we would eventually scatter his ashes in the Inner Sound. We had planned to go ahead with the celebration early in the New Year, whether his body had been found or not, but when the identification went ahead so quickly we briefly hoped that we might be able to move this to before Christmas. However there is too much to organise for this to be realistic and Applecross is so busy with visitors during New Year week that finding accommodation for family and friends would have been impossible. So the plan is to hold the celebration on 4th January at the Clachan Church, time as yet to be decided. Judith and her staff at the Applecross Inn will do their best to feed those who attend at the Inn. We’re yet to work out the details of who is doing what at the celebration, but plan to get that sorted out soon.
This film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79qtGuS0ygU was made as an advert for Volt E- Bikes but is also the story of Ali’s way of life. He mentioned the filming of this at the end of a blog post describing three hectic days; https://applecrosslifeblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/three-days/
