Today dawned sunny, but chilly with a cold northerly wind. The visibility was the best we had experienced all week, and from the beautiful island of Oronsay we had clear views over to Jura and Isla. We let the volunteers loose on the island while we tried to fix the computer that had died magnificently the night before while trying to analyse some porpoise sounds. Unfortunately after much head-scratching and delving into the bowels of the computer, we gave the computer up as lost and decided to head for Tobermory to find some rescue discs to fix it with. It was a rather bumpy, breezy but spectacular route up between Mull & Iona, past Staffa & the Treshnish Islands and into Tobs. The volunteers were divided into sea-happy ones - who were happy to search for wee marine beasties all hours with a little gleeful glint in their eye as the waves broke over the bow and splattered them with sea water. The remainder were rather sea-sick and took to their beds, but amazingly when they arose from their beds at the end of trip had big grins plastered on their faces (resilient bunch!). Sadly, despite coming within minutes of a minke whale sighted by one of the whale-watching boats, and a few reports of minkes around Staffa and the Treshnish Islands, the sum total of our sightings was 4 jellyfish and a seal (which was admittedly a rather gorgeous common seal pup basking on the rocks). For any readers of this log who haven’t been on the boat – I would just like to say that it is VERY unusual to have so few sightings over 5 days!!! So all I can think of is that we are going to have a whale and dolphin party at the end of this trip!!!
Anyway, back in Tobs, even the reboot disks haven’t worked in rescuing the computer, but we have managed to find the drivers to run the porpoise equipment from another computer – so hopefully tomorrow will be the start of a marine beastie party in the sea that we can enjoy!

;o) Clare, Science PI
p.s. due to technical difficulties (ahem) no photos for now… photo service will resume shortly

We started the day departing at 10am after some long showers in Ardfern. Today was a cloudy and windy day. Actually, we work hard but didn’t have good luck, the result of the day was just two sightings of porpoises. At the end of the day we had Clare’s presentation about ‘marine sounds’. It was great to learn more about how thee animals can communicate. Well, we hope that tomorrow we will be more lucky!
Ale, Earthwatch volunteer

…however with the acoustic equipment working we were now able to hear a more porpoises than we saw, with nice clear porpoise tracks appearing on both computer screens (we’re testing the old and new hydrophones in parallel). For the first time we have actual data on the frequency of our porpoises – nice narrowband (i.e. the clicks only cover a narrow band of frequencies) centred around 137 kHz. Now, it would be nice to see a few more porpoises to confirm some of our theories!
;o) Clare, Science PI

The day was just perfect for the sighting, bright sunny and clear skies, quite contrary to the previous day. Though the sighting was not satisfactory in terms of the cetaceans, it leaves us with a satisfied feeling of a very good day in waters (especially the amateurs who suffered seasickness the previous day). We are currently anchored in the beautiful village of ARDFERN-typical Scottish village with warm and friendly people just as good as the place.
Today’s sightings include few seals, jellyfish –however Marcus and Marjolene made-up for the day by spotting porpoises.
So day 3 comes to end as we look forward for even better day on day 4
Prashant, Earthwatch volunteer


Shelduck family -ahhhhhh

p.s. the hydrophone is finally fixed and working (thanks Roy & Doug for your quick delivery of equipment and phone help)... so hopefully we will detect lots of porpoises from their clicks tomorrow so that Marjolaine can have enough data for her masters project.
;o) Clare, science PI

Another glorious day in sunny Scotland, just what’s needed to get the team up to good spirits, ready to record all the Minkes, porpoises, dolphins and seals from Lock Spelve to Lock Tarbert, Jura. It wasn’t long before we hoisted up our sails and started riding the waves in style. A couple of seals came out to check us up, and a few jellyfish waved us good bye as we were heading for the open sea, and then…it was all shags, terns, shearwater, razorbills, seagulls, a few gannets and even a puffin and an early morning peregrine falcon on skipper’s count. Riding the waves made a couple of us sea happy but one by one the rest of our international team of volunteers became sea sick and soon the Silurian looked like an Antarctic cruise ship on a bad day on the Drake. I dozed off in the saloon for half an hour and lost my right to belong to the selected group of the day’s survivors. Our research day came to a close as we anchored in Lock Tarbert’s sheltered waters, with other yachts as neighbours for the night. Most of us went on shore for a walk to one of Jura’s raised beaches, a strip of differently sized pebbles, which changes tune as one walks from one size to the other. We admired the lovely and rare Hebridean orchid and other wild flowers. A native toad leaped splashed on my boot and speedily went to hide in the brambles. A common seal spotted us walking on the ridge and followed us all the way along its territory. A short dinghy ride and we were back to the best restaurant in the islands. Chef extraordinaire Marcus and researcher Marjoline have so far kept the cuisine standards so high they will be a very hard act to follow. We all go to bed hoping for a higher cetacean count tomorrow, but whatever the day will bring, I know I will love it, and if the sun keeps up the good work, skipper’s wife will get back the man with the most fantastically suntanned legs in the realm!
Carla - Eartwatch volunteer


Ale, Prash & skipper Graham - 6 June 05


Lions mane jellyfish & moon jellyfish

Good evening from the Silurian, currently anchored in the lovely Loch Spelve (Mull)… and gosh we couldn’t have been luckier for the first day of the trip – blue skies, calm mirror seas (ideal for spotting our elusive porpoises), and glorious sunshine. We have 5 new Earthwatch volunteers – Robert (British), Shea (Sri Lankan), Ale (Brazilian), Carla (Italian) and Prash (Indian), not to mention my assistant Marjolaine (French), Graham-the-skipper (Scottish), Marcus-first-mate (Isle of Muck) and me-the-science-persony-thingy (British). We set off down the Sound of Mull to plenty of jellyfish… and calm seas… perfect spotting weather – but where were the whales? Eventually Marj & Carla spotted a few porpoises, but alas apart from a group of feeding terns (beautiful delicate birds picking small fishes from the surface of the sea), and a couple of seals watching us pass with their beady little eyes… no more animals. However, with the fantastic weather, we had fabulous views of the mountainous landscape. Tonight we anchored in this sheltered suntrap of a bay, and a few brave souls had a bracing (I can speak from first hand knowledge here…. BRRRRRRR) swim in the jellyfish-infested waters. Meanwhile, a few others went exploring the local wildlife, Ale returning with trainers full of bogwater and ferns…. Presumably to add to her garden on returning to Brazil (probably too hot there for the fern!!). That’s all from here, currently looking forward to our balti… mmmmmmmm.

;o) Clare (with artistic guidance from Robert)