On the 11th of July, I was due to go to a property on the island of Sanday to carry out a repair to an existing satellite dish, to install a further dish and to route some cabling to liven up previously unused tv sockets. A couple of days beforehand, the customer contacted me to say that due to personal circumstances, we would have to reschedule to a later date, and I now anticipate being out there next week. All this is to explain why I wasn't on Tresness beach the fateful day that 77 Long-finned Pilot Whales mass stranded, resulting in the deaths of the whole mixed-pod group. An appalling tragedy for the creatures themselves and the volunteers, both local and national, who tried to rescue the dozen whales who were still alive when the alarm was raised. The story was big enough and horrific enough to make the national media outlets, with this newspaper article being one of the more thoughtful examples. Mass strandings are comparatively rare although, worryingly becoming mor...