Orkney: When the Boat Comes In

Hello and good morning, this is BBC Radio Orkney,

40 years and a day old,

coming to you live from Kirkwall on this Wednesday 10th May.

I'm David Delday and I'll be here with you for the next half an hour.

You know what? I think we could almost say that it's just aboot summer.

The sun is shining,

the chairs and tables are on display in front of the cafes,

and the cruise liners are going in and oot faster

than Jimmy Shand's accordion.

This season looks set to be the busiest yet,

with 140 cruise ships due in the county's harbours.

Orkney is now officially the cruise ship capital of the UK.

HORN BLASTS

Excursion. Excursion.

Another day in paradise, another lovely amazing cruise ship arrives,

another day of misty, dreich weather,

but look at the positive sides of this.

The rain's great for your complexion, allegedly!

And it makes great whisky in Orkney as well.

This is the largest ship ever to come into Kirkwall.

The maximum capacity on this for passengers is 4,345 people.

Adriano, what do you do on the ship normally?

I am the entertainment, I entertain all the persons inside the ship.

I do some fun games

and some things in the theatre.

Is this your first time in Kirkwall?

-Yeah.

-Do you like it?

I need to drink one Scotland whisky.

You'll love it. Don't get too drunk, though.

-No.

-You have to entertain tonight, right?

-Yeah!

The town today's going to be busy and I think we'll probably have

around 2,000 to 2,500 people in the town between now and lunchtime.

-All right, Michael.

-Now, that guy is Jimmy Poke,

and Jimmy provides the shuttle service for the whole season

that takes the people from the pier through to the travel centre.

And he and his wife Vega run a local company called J&V Coaches.

They provide the shuttle buses, these long bendies and then they

provide the majority of the tour coaches as well for the season.

DJ: The largest cruise ship to have berthed in Orkney has just arrived at Hatston.

MSC Preziosa has a total of over 4,000 folk on board.

The Panamanian-registered ship boasts no less than eight restaurants,

seven bars and nine shops, as well as a 1,600-seater theatre.

She's expected to leave again around five o'clock.

-I'm just looking to shop.

-For a man.

-No, I don't want a man. She does.

-I want the man.

I want to find coasters with the family name on them.

Looking for a man, yes. She's been looking...

I've been looking since I got on ship.

We bought the drink package.

It's only a few drinks to break even.

So, for us, for me...

-It's well worth it.

-You got it for free.

-We do.

We had to pay for it.

-No, we didn't have to pay for it.

-No, you didn't.

-But if you had...

-There's cows, Mary.

-Those are horses.

She started drinking early!

Right, today we've got the Preziosa in, which is one of the

largest liners we've had in,

with 4,345 plus crew.

So we're expecting it to be busy.

This is Fiona. Fiona is a friend of mine that's just come in to help

today, because normally we rely on the students to come home from uni

to work for the summer, but most of them aren't home yet.

So, bless her.

She's not working at the moment and she's come in for two days to help

me prep.

This is quite an eye-opener for me, really.

I didn't really...

When I passed this morning driving in here to come and help Lorraine,

it's like it blocks out the sunshine.

This enormous liner.

You know, it's almost bigger than Kirkwall when you see it in the

distance. I think it's quite cool, really.

I think it's really, really quite good for the island as a whole.

It's nice to see so many people visiting.

I've never been on a cruise ship before and...

I know, I had a look on the internet last night to see exactly how big

this ship really was. There's, like, six swimming pools on it,

for goodness' sake. I mean, this ship was in today.

The restaurants on there - I was looking last night on the internet, it's absolutely incredible.

24 hours a day they can eat whatever they like.

From pizza to bloomin' five-course meals.

-Yeah, exactly.

-So they're not really needing a scone.

-Although it would be better.

-If I was on that ship,

I would need to take all my three wardrobes, the three sizes!

-So would I.

-Small...

Medium-ish, large, large, large...

We could do a swap.

Aye, exactly. I would never manage to be on that for, like, five weeks.

-I would be sinking the ship, I think.

-Exactly.

The cruise ships coming in here, for us it's a very positive thing.

When we started, we started with one bus and now we've 23.

So, I mean,

it's not the only thing that keeps us going in business, obviously,

but it's a huge factor in the summertime.

The population of Kirkwall is something like 8,000.

But you can nearly double that in a day.

There is a lot of negativity

on the island. Some examples you hear, you know,

some of the shopkeepers in Kirkwall say that they get shoplifting quite

a lot, just because of the shop

being so full and they can't manage them properly.

So if that is happening, then you can understand that.

People speaking about the roads being so busy with buses and things like that.

But I still think if I wasn't involved in this

industry, I think I would still be happy to see the people here because

I like the hustle and bustle of it all.

I don't really know what Michael does.

-Nobody knows what Michael does!

-He's never in the country,

he's always going abroad to do something, allegedly work.

But I'm sure he's helping bring the cruise liners in,

which is great, and look at all the people it's employing.

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

Thank you so much, Susanne.

-Oh, that's OK.

-Never in the country.

-Wow.

-Always at the airport.

Is he touting for business? Is that what it is?

Well, he says that,

but he comes back with a sun tan and lots of gift bags and stuff.

I used to work at the airport, so I saw what went on.

I have inside information.

We've had four shuttle-loads full of people, so there's about,

I don't know, 460 people already in the town this morning before

ten o'clock. Once the throng of passengers have gone,

the crew will come off as well,

those who want to go into town on the complimentary shuttle.

And it's ironic that the crew love to go into the charity shops

in town, and they make an absolute fortune from crew spend.

They seem to buy a lot of bedding and handbags, especially the crew.

So if the crew are allowed off the ship,

they tend to buy a lot of bedding.

-Yeah.

-And they then go on to buy a suitcase and fill it.

So we're just,

from previous years, sort of preparing ourselves

with that knowledge.

The different ships text each other and say, if they're in Kirkwall,

they go down Victoria Street and there's charity shops down there.

If they're in Invergordon, they go there, if they're in Lerwick,

they go there. So the information from ship to ship is passed,

which is fantastic for us.

-Yeah.

-Yep.

-We gain from it.

-Definitely.

-And that supports our services that we offer

in our cancer support centre.

I'm a teacher, I don't think I could wear it to school.

Would I be a large?

I've been here on this street since I was 18.

Opened the shop when I was very young and I've seen lots of changes

throughout the years, particularly with the liners with the increase

in the liner traffic.

And I think it's just, you know,

it's just given us such a boost in the summertime,

to have all these people coming here.

There's no way our town centre would look as good as it does if we didn't

have those cruise ships,

because that is extra income coming in all year round, including us.

Because, really, in January, February, March,

it's absolutely dead.

There is no tourists here, it's just quiet as anything.

So in order to survive the wintertime, we do need these cruise ships.

This is quite unusual. We grow a lot of rhubarb in Orkney.

I do, too. I live in Elko, Nevada.

Yeah. And they grow rhubarb there, too?

Rhubarb will grow anywhere, it's a weed.

-It's a weed?

-Yes.

Well, we eat loads of it here, we love it in Orkney.

Yeah, so do we.

You meet so many different kinds of people.

I met a security guard from Alcatraz, believe it or not, once, on this.

Said they were

Al Capone's guard on his door.

I mean, anybody could tell you, but I believed him.

We get asked questions from,

"What's the population of Orkney?" to what kind of grass that is.

To be quite honest, I don't know if there's different types or grass

or not, but it's grass to me.

You just give them an answer, even if you don't know.

So what kind of grass did you tell them it was?

Long grass.

I'm a local person.

I'll tell people what I know, and what I don't know I'll just make up anyway.

So it's all good, most people are happy.

I actually got a book from...

..a girl once and she told me to read it when she went into Skara Brae.

I said, "Why?" She says, "Cos you obviously know nothing about Orkney."

So!

Straight up there, you come to there.

-This is Broad St, right?

-You just walk across and up here.

This is only the walking area?

-There is cars...

-How often is this bus, shuttle bus?

We just go round all day.

-All day?

-Until I'm dizzy.

-Hello.

-Hard Rock Cafe, please.

Hard Rock Cafe, no problem.

Have you had enough, guys?

You going back for lunch?

We have lunch in the town.

Sometimes this is what people get annoyed at.

All the food that's all inclusive on the ship, they go back at lunchtime.

Some of the cafes and restaurants, they don't make a lot.

You've got to understand that,

but I'm sure they make an extra pound somewhere along the line.

Hello, come on, guys.

I won't bite.

It's about half past one now and everybody is having teas and coffees,

nobody's eating any food.

We get people coming in, having a cup of coffee, sitting on the Wi-Fi.

They can stay hours on end.

You can't exactly ask them to move on.

But there is a win-win for some people,

but it's certainly not the food industry, I feel.

Some friends of mine that used to come up here quite a bit,

they feel now that when they come to Orkney with these cruise liners,

it's changing everything and it's spoiling it.

And, you know...

Because when you've got that many people walking about...

-OVEN BEEPS

-..you just can't help...

..to think that, where are they all going to go?

There's a lot of positives,

I just think that you have to think about them a little bit more.

And perhaps you need to get your non-Orcadian head off.

The biggest positive, I would say...

-What was that?

-What did you say?

-Getting to work with me.

-She's such a trollop.

Stop eating the chips!

She's fired, cos she's eating the chips.

Hello!

Could you open the doors, please?

Yes, I might consider that for you.

He's in a good mood today.

Some days he comes in and his hair's all over the shop.

-Hair?!

-Got his jammies on still.

Yeah. Know your place, Mr Bus Driver.

-Are you coming for a run?

-No, I have to stay here and look after...

-Hello.

-Morning.

It's good. I think that's just about everybody that we've got.

Hello, are you guys off one of the cruise liners?

-Yes.

-How long are you on the ship for?

-This shop?

-On the ship when you work on the liner.

-How long do you spend, is it months?

-Months, yeah.

-Ten months.

-Ten months?

Wow. Ten months, OK.

Most of the crew are from south-east Asia, Philippines.

We've had a few from Sri Lanka and they do a lot of shopping

to take back to their families.

Obviously they've been away for such a long period of time,

when they're home they've not seen their wives, children, partners,

families. So today they were explaining that the reason they come

into charity shops is because it's just a lot cheaper.

They're not tourists, they're not here to buy souvenirs as such.

It's more essentials.

Surprised for the price.

And it's really nice.

Today, they were buying body warmers,

because they're obviously finding it cold!

£10. Is this your first time in Orkney?

-Yeah, yeah.

-First time, yeah.

And will you be back?

Does the boat come back here?

-Next month.

-OK.

-Yeah, so we'll see you then.

-Yeah, we'll see you again.

We'll have new stock by then.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, bye. I know that people have their views and there's

negatives to it, but certainly for ourselves, you know,

we're trying to... Constantly striving to raise as much money

and awareness as possible that we're here,

and if the crew off the cruise ships are telling each other about us,

that's the best, you know,

PR we can get, really.

Orkney welcomed the largest cruise liner ever

to come into the county yesterday. The weather wasn't ideal,

but the operating company said that despite the rain,

the visit had been a great success.

Sadly, today's weather forecast predicts more of the same and you

can expect cloud cover to roll in this morning.

This morning in port, we have a return call from the Car-ibbean Princess,

as they call it in the States, or the Caribb-ean Princess,

as we call it in Orkney. As you can see around us,

we have got Caribbean weather.

We've got beautiful grey skies and a nice chill to the wind.

Just what you get in the Caribbean, and that's why they come here -

for the weather!

Hello, folks. Where are you from?

-California.

-Oh, my God!

We've come a long way.

You've come a long way.

Yeah, but my folks are from Oban.

-Oh, you've got Scottish ancestry.

-Yes, I do.

-Have you been to Oban?

-Yes, I have.

-Do you love it?

-I love it.

-I love California.

Would you believe that a woman's just come up to me and said,

-"I want to go to Edinburgh."

-What, from here?

-From here.

So she obviously thinks that she's in Scotland, so she's worked that out.

She's got that bit right, then, that's fine, yeah.

And hasn't got a Scooby-Doo...

-Yeah.

-This is their first port call in Scotland, to be fair.

-Yeah, OK.

-However, a map would be handy.

-Yeah, she wanted to go...

-She wanted to go to Edinburgh.

Well, I just told her she'd have to fly, and she was astounded.

Yeah, you get some crackers.

Well, a lady said to me one day...

OK. I said, "Where do you want to go on, on the bus tour or into town?"

She goes, "No, we're in Dublin, aren't we, right?"

And I'm like, "No."

I don't know where they'd been or where they were going,

but she obviously thought they were in Dublin.

They get disorientated, I think.

Yeah. But that's pretty disorientated.

-Yeah.

-However.

Today, for the first time this season,

we're closing the streets from ten o'clock in the morning through till

four o'clock in the afternoon for health and safety reasons,

for traffic management and so on.

So all our great retail supporters, a few of the shops,

such as Judith Glue, Steven at Aurora,

all of the main shops in the main drag,

Sheila Fleet, etc, will make hopefully a really good trade today.

Folks, Aurora Jewellery in town, 10% discount.

Woohoo!

There you go!

I'll be here till six o'clock.

CHEERING

Cufflinks.

The jewellery side...

can be really good, you know,

if you get people coming and they want to buy a gold ring.

I've had people coming in buying a gold ring,

a diamond for £1,000, no problem.

But it tends to be more silver that you would sell,

because they're generally buying it as gifts.

But I've had...

Actually, last year, I had a...

passenger off a cruise ship who came in and bought a gold bangle

for £2,500, and they were just quite happy to do that.

It's great when they do.

Jewellery's ideally suited for cruise ship passengers because

it's a small item and it's not taking space up in their luggage.

Over and above that, they really like textiles, you know,

tartan products, etc, and that's quite a big part of the business.

We've got the Caribbean Princess,

which I believe from the radio this morning,

there's 3,100 passengers on it.

Mostly American, I think, by what we've seen so far this morning.

It should give us a good day,

cos the Americans are very good at spending money.

See, it looks good.

He's a good model.

No, it looks very nice.

We're eating too much.

You eat too much - every two hours.

And you think it's normal,

cos you only had one dessert and the person beside you had two.

So you think, "Oh, I was really good,"

and I don't know how I'm going to fit in anything.

I was doing really good weight-wise before I started this, not good now.

But I love some of your stuff.

Gosh, that's gorgeous.

If we were to rely on local trade,

I don't think we would have the High Street in Kirkwall that we do,

which I think, long-term, is good for locals as well,

because they have a good selection of goods to choose from

and a lot of nice shops, a good-looking High Street.

For us, we've just entered into this whole city centre and we feel it's

vibrant, it's inclusive, and there's a real sense of community.

A few years ago, folk started speaking about the fact we should

have a shop in town, and we never really felt that was viable.

Then, the one thing that struck us was when the cruise ships started

coming, we realised there was quite a big international market,

and for a while we travelled to London, to shows, to retail shows,

to try and increase our market.

And then we started to realise there was actually a visiting market right

-on our doorsteps.

-You know, these people in this town are so nice.

Lol, she gave me her recipe for scones.

So I might open a store over here and sell scones, they were so wonderful.

These are so lovely.

-These are a good choice.

-The people are so nice in this town.

-Thank you, ladies.

-Thank you.

-Enjoy your stay.

-Bye!

Got to say bye to my public here.

So here we are, half past four on a Thursday afternoon,

and these are the last of the passengers coming back now.

The last shuttle bus is away and the last tour bus has returned.

We've had about 3,500 folk ashore today

and about 800 or 900 crew as well.

I think the majority of retailers in the street are really, really happy.

So, fantastic day all round.

Orkney welcomes the Norwegian Jade cruise ship for the first time this morning.

With around 2,400 passengers and 1,000 crew on-board,

businesses and historic sites are preparing for another busy day.

The Kirkwall City Pipe Band has been rehearsing in preparation of the

ship's departure this evening,

they'll be at the pier later on to play out the liner.

I have a tour booked today from a couple from America.

Significant for me because this is where I'm going to make my income

through the summer.

It's...

There's a lot of people come off these ships that come in here,

so it's a very important business for me, personally.

About two years ago, I had a heart condition called Long QT syndrome,

so I was retired from the Fire Service and decided I'd go for

tour guiding. Quite enjoy history, love Orkney so I thought, why not?

That's them just coming down there with the red fleece on.

How you doing? Nice to meet you.

Hello, Robert, pleased to meet you. I'm David. I'm going to take you

-on tour today, so if you'd like to follow me.

-Sure.

We're going to the Italian chapel.

I just know that it was made by Italian prisoners of war during

the Second World War.

And it's kind of ornate, really colourful.

So it's to do with the story of the U-boat that got into Scapa Flow.

Winston Churchill came to Orkney six weeks into the Second World War and

he said that the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow must be blocked

now and forever. So he sanctioned the building of the Churchill Barriers.

But labour was short, it was difficult work.

And when the Italians capitulated in the Second World War,

some of the prisoners were brought to Orkney to help with the building

of the barriers.

They were given permission to get two Nissen huts or Quonset huts

to use, one for a school and one for a place of worship.

They decided to use both of them as a place of worship.

There was three main people involved with building the Italian chapel,

and the main one of them was Domenico Ciocchetti,

who was an artist to trade anyway.

He got a lot of the inspiration for a lot of the things in here from a

prayer card that his mother had given him before he went to war.

So you can see how they've constructed it,

it's just your Quonset hut or your Nissen hut, and it's lined with plaster board,

so you can actually see where they've got a join.

What they had to hand was concrete, they had a good supply of concrete,

they had a good supply of steel,

but they didn't have an awful lot else.

We've got the two... They're not stained-glass windows,

they're just glass windows and they're painted from behind

to look like stained-glass windows.

So the amount of work and the artistry that's gone into that

-is pretty incredible.

-It's breathtaking.

I can see how you say you feel proud that it's yours.

Unbelievable.

I think that, with very limited resources, people who are creative

can do almost anything. It is quite beautiful.

-Where the

-BLEEP

-have you been?!

LAUGHTER

She's fired! She's fired!

-I cry every time.

-What, for the pipe band?

Yeah, every time the pipe band starts, and the boat's moving,

-I don't know what it is.

-Flicked a switch.

-I've seen you cry, Michael.

-I have never cried.

-You have.

-I haven't.

PIPE BAND PLAYS

One of the greatest challenges we have in marine business in Orkney is

perception, and I think because we're a small island group located

off the north of Scotland, that perhaps we don't have the facilities,

the skill set or the supply chain to deliver.

That is so totally wrong.

And what we constantly do up here is, because of that misperception,

we all tend to punch above our weight.

And because of that, we do well right across the board.

And to be called the cruise capital of something that's a global industry,

it makes us all really, really proud.