Dutch beachcomber travels to Helmsdale to return fisherman's lost buoy after it drifted 800km across the north sea to wash up on island
A HELMSDALE fisherman was flabbergasted to have one of his lost buoys returned to him in person by a Dutch hotelier who found it washed up on a beach 800km away.
Billy Cowie was presented with the buoy on August 2 by Maarten Brugge who had tracked him down to Helmsdale from a number painted on the float which linked it to Mr Cowie’s boat.
Mr Cowie said: “Lost buoys are not unusual. A few years ago we got a phone call letting us know that one of our buoys had made it to Norway. But not many people return them! – they usually take them home and put them in their garden.”
A fisherman all his life, apart from a six-year stint working with Highland Council, Mr Cowie is presently fishing at night, mainly for langoustines, helping his son Dean on his £250,000, multi-purpose boat, the Ocean Provider, bought last year with the help of a £100,000 "new entrant to fishing" grant from Marine Scotland.
However for 11 years previously he laid creels for lobsters and crabs out of a smaller boat, the Reliant, going up to 10 miles offshore. The missing buoy had the Reliant’s registration number CY799 on it.
The tide took it all the way across the north sea to Texel, an island 3km north of the Dutch mainland and a popular weekend and holiday spot for both Dutch and German people.
Mr Brugge and his wife Belinda run the Hotel de Waal on Texel. A keen beachcomber, he found the buoy on October 1, 2022, and set about googling CY799 to find where it had come from.
“I hadn’t changed the registration on the boat when I bought it - CY is Castlebay,” said Mr Cowie. “That threw him to start off with but he soon worked it out.
"He decided to travel to Scotland to give the buoy back to me in person. He said he had always wanted to visit Scotland and this gave him a good excuse.”
Mr Brugge, his wife, son and daughter, booked into a camp site at Brora earlier this month and he travelled from there to Helmsdale.
At Helmsdale harbour Mr Brugge spotted Mr Cowie’s "C Food and Eat” van which had a picture of the Reliant on it, so he knew he was on the right track.
Continued Mr Cowie: “He spoke to a guy at the harbour who phoned me and put him onto the phone. We arranged to meet at the harbour the following day when he gave me the buoy. We gave him langoustines for his dinner so he went away delighted.”
Mr Brugge told Mr Cowie that he and his family “loved” Scotland and would be in the country for three weeks. They intended to head for Orkney next.
“The buoy is now in the back of my van,” said Mr Cowie. “I think I am going to get a swing made of it for the bairns to play with in the garden.”
The "C Food and Eat" van was set up by Mr Cowie and his family in 2019, serving cooked seafood at the quayside. But it has not operated this season as family members are busy with other commitments.
However Mr Cowie has been in touch with environmental health about launching door deliveries of cooked shellfish in Helmsdale between September and October .
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He paid tribute to Marine Scotland for the loan which enabled his son Dean to purchase the new boat.
“It is the first trawler that there has been in Helmsdale for years,” he said, adding that he had had to give up fishing for a spell following hip replacement operations, but had been able to return because the new boat had more stability.
Mr Cowie, who is now working with his son Dean on a multi-purpose boat the Ocean Provider, bought last year with the help of a £100,000 grant from Marine Scotland.
But for 11 years previously he worked out of the Reliant
The number on the buoy - CY799 - linked it to the Reliant, a boat which Mr Cowie had for 11 year and used to work creels some 10 miles of shore
It was found by Mr Maarten o