Introduction

I have always been drawn to the islands. Ever since we went on family picnics over the causeway to Cramond Island in the Firth of Forth when my children were small, I was hooked. The walk over the mile-long stone causeway beside the anti-boat pylons constructed in the Second World War was always timed precisely - well, as precisely as possible with three small children - as access is restricted by tidal flow. There is some six to seven hours between low tide and high tide, and so we would allow for having no more than four hours over on the island. Many are the tales of people being stranded and having to be rescued by RNFI. We have stood on the shore trying not to look smug, having read the Tides Notices and Warnings, as shamefaced day-trippers disembarked from the lifeboats called out to rescue them as the high tide engulfed the causeway.