Location: Tobermory Harbour
Distance travelled: 34 miles
Weather: WINDY! Rain and force six then overcast then fair then overcast then rain (awaiting gales!)

Last night, the picturesque surroundings at our Ulva mooring and another beautiful sunset gave me the idea that another swim would be pleasant. This time I threw myself into the chilly Scottish waters without my wetsuit, to prove that I could do it properly. Immediately I knew there was no chance of me being able to attempt a Silurian swimming record and focussed on staying sufficiently relaxed to breathe and stay above water. The length of the Silurian seemed very long with all my muscles ceasing up. My whole body was numb and tingling when I pulled myself out of the water after only one lap. My fellow volunteers and crew were probably shocked to encounter me so quiet!

This morning, I woke up to the sound of the rain lashing against the window and opened my eyes to an ominously dark sky. The rocking of the boat in the relative shelter of our mooring hinted at the weather ahead. Our trusty dinghy was tied up on deck for fear of it being swept away. Then we set off into force six winds with our life jackets on and clipped ourselves onto the boat. The safety of the volunteers was too highly valued to risk attempting visual surveys this morning. We braved the elements at the back of the boat and enjoyed the rollercoaster ride. The shearwaters and kittiwakes were out in force, apparently revelling in the windy weather. We were lucky enough to glimpse one particularly skilled kittiwake wrestling with a very wriggly fish.

While gazing through the spray at the numerous white caps our eagerness was rewarded when a group of several harbour porpoises leapt through the swell. Moments later a seal optimistically popped up mistaking us for fishermen in our delightful yellow oilskins!

The weather calmed down and on effort observations commenced. Despite the promise of a pint for the first person to spot a basking shark, there were no further sightings of the animal variety (we also log litter and boat activity). We kept ourselves entertained (while also dedicatedly scanning the sea for wildlife) by composing a new version of Yellow Submarine (soon to be released on the HWDT web site).

I overheard the coast guard reporting of approaching force nine or ten gales and unable to find the definition of such weather in our notes for filling out environmental data on the computer I made the mistake of looking it up in a book. Not what you want to discover while you’re still out at sea. The skipper took us to the refuge of Tobermory Harbour during this afternoon’s calm before the storm. This gave me the opportunity to nip into the supermarket for the ingredients to make my soon legendary chocolate cheesecake. Well fed on Fi’s delicious macaroni cheese followed by copious desert, we await the worsening weather.

Log by Abi