Position: Arisaig, 56º 53.932' N 005º 57.334' W
Weather: A dry day with sunny intervals in the afternoon, but strong winds.
Distance travelled: 58 nautical miles (new record for this trip).

Saturday 3rd September

Today with hopes high, we set off after most of the crew decided to go for a swim (it was a tad chilly!!! especially as we all jumped in from the top of the deck, seven in total, like diving gannets). This helped wake a certain young captain who spent the night under the stars and didn’t really sleep very well.

Then we were off, nuzzling Rona and Raasay and heading south towards the Skye bridge, which we fitted under – only just! Hoping to see lots of large cetaceans, we were surveying the horizon – was there anybody out there? Well yes, we did see several porpoise groups to start with, including about twenty in one hour (mostly spotted by Veronica. There were also loads of seals to be seen basking in the sunshine on the rocks.

Struggling through the rapids (ok the current) we continued down the Sound of Sleat. With lessons learnt from yesterday about the consequences of not wearing oilskins, Eilidh and Chris stepped up to the challenge of taking on the waves. Well at least they should have learnt the lesson, as they didn’t wear any oilskins. With spray literally reaching head height, they were soaked through in minutes. After a slight wardrobe changed, they were back to fight another day. Juliet didn’t have quite as much reckless enthusiasm, and dragged us back inside – no more spotting today chaps. As we retreated to the stern of the boat, Marcus was found to be a very good wave barrier.

With us all hiding from the spray, we were slightly distracted but sharp eyed Iris spotted something, it was a large grey fin, not a basking shark but something large and most definitely close. Our resident ranger also spotted the beast and thought it may be a bottlenose dolphin but she wasn’t convinced. Even with Martin in the crow’s nest and all other eyes straight out to sea, we still couldn’t follow the crafty cetacean – they really are as intelligent as the media makes out. After giving up the chase, it was back to our southward course through wind and waves, which were getting bigger all the while.

Finally we found our way through the multicoloured obstacle course of the Sound of Arisaig (some excellent manoeuvring by Veronica). Marcus our james bond in a motor boat then went to shore for some much needed supplies. Now to eat those supplies… it’s dinner time.

Quick log by Eilidh and Chris

Position: Loch Torridon, 57º 32.852' N 005º 42.786' W
Weather: Mostly dry and sunny, with a fresh breeze.
Distance travelled: 45 nautical miles.

Friday 2nd September

We left Lewis with dreams of bowriding bottlenoses. Wind filled our sails, cruising us eastwards towards the mainland. Again the sun streamed down on us, so the waterproofs were idle in the cabins. However, the ride soon became a little bumpier, with the Silurian riding up the swell and crashing into the waves. Veronica and I were on watch, and the water breaking over the bow was blown straight into us – it was that fine spray which soaks you through. Oh why didn’t we wear our oilskins? This was to be the start of a day at fourty-five degrees.

As the wind picked up, the boat became ever less perpendicular. A change of course southwards to Skye did little other than shift the tilt from left to right. Not to be put off, us pioneers ploughed on. Martin the skipper abandoned deck, and spent a good hour in the kitchen busying about. With legs braced in position, he achieved the near impossible. Having to literally hold the pans on the hob, he rustled up a superb homemade leek soup.

Full of energy and eager eyed, we scanned the waters as we sailed east from Skye to the mainland. Indeed, several harbour porpoise families were happened upon as we travelled. But as we tried to photograph a group of four or five, they disappeared beneath the waves – they must have been worried we’d get their bad side. And it was a poor day for cetacean spotting all round, with no other species for a second day running. Maybe I should stop tempting fate by predicting sightings in the log. Oh well I’ll continue the trend anyway – I’m certain we’ll see Minke Whales, Killer Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins tomorrow.

Still half way to being horizontal, Sarah and I couldn’t resist a nap. But we were the last to bed yesterday, with me log writing, and Sarah making birthday cards for Iris and Veronica. Yes, today it is the twins’ birthday. After arriving in Loch Torridon, Martin soon whisked the twenty year olds away for a spot of fishing. This gave a window of opportunity for the other girls to make a cake. With tonight’s dinner on the way, the fisher(wo)men have just returned with a mackerel – they left the rest for the dolphins. Coupled with a loaf of bread, we should have enough to feed five thousand.

As the day draws to a close, a three course meal lies ahead, with the prawns from yesterday being the starter. The meal being followed by birthday celebrations, the log has been written slightly earlier than usual – I hope you understand. Until tomorrow…

Log by Chris

Position: 58º 00.73' N 006º 26.2' W
Weather: A dry day, mostly sunny with some cloud this afternoon.
Distance travelled: 55 nautical miles – furthest yet on this current trip.

Thursday 1st September

Veronica and Martin started the day with an early morning swim. They were showered and dressed before others had even lifted an eyelid (well myself anyway). We departed Ardmore Bay with the sun beating down, and calm seas for cetacean spotting lay ahead. Due to limited wind, the sails had a quiet day, and we resorted to motor power instead. Iris started the day high in the heavens of the crow’s nest, with a seal spotting to her name. Then as Sarah took to the mast, the day looked even more promising, with four porpoise passings during that hour.

Our anchorage at Tob Lemreway in Lewis was now just a short stretch of water away. Yesterday the Risso’s Dolphins made a late appearance, but today it was not to be. So for today’s wildlife picture you will have to make do with one of the many local jellyfish. On the bright side, the skipper promises sightings of Minke Whales, Sunfish, and Bottlenose Dolphins tomorrow – who am I to argue?

The Silurian Ramblers Association took a stroll ashore on Lewis in search of gin and chocolate. Alas the high street hadn’t been built yet – but Martin did manage to get some prawns from the local fishermen. So we won’t be going hungry tomorrow you’ll be glad to hear. Tonight for dinner we had mango chicken. The tone of conversation lowered somewhat after this. Let’s just say that cheesecake should be enjoyed in moderation.

Later this evening something amazing happened. A startling number of cetaceans were spotted from the boat – amongst them were Killer Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins. And with the accompaniment of narration by David Attenborough, it was really quite marvellous – I give the Blue Planet DVD my highest recommendation.


Log by Chris (captain as declared by an elderly resident of the isles)

Position: 57º 32.885 N 006º 38.484 W
Weather: Wet and wild
Distance travelled: 37.5 nautical miles

Wednesday 31st August

Waking up to the sound of raindrops falling upon the deck, we set sail (under motor) westwards. Initial intentions were to head from Canna to the island of Barra. However, the weather man had other plans. As always, improvise, adapt and overcome – we changed plans and headed northwards, hugging the western shores of Skye… Martin (skipper) didn’t think we’d be fit enough for another rough crossing on rather unsheltered seas. The poor weather resulted in few sightings; the morning dragged on with just some jellyfish and some rubbish (those naughty litterbugs). But there were two porpoises in the distance at one point – hope on the horizon maybe.

The bad weather continued into the afternoon. Comments such as “es ist sehr windig”, and “es regnet – und wir sind völlig durchweicht” were quite apt (for all you german speakers) (well, Chris had just to show off with his language skills). Solace was only found in Juliet’s sausage and onion buns, and Martin’s splendid spicy soup.

Bad luck with spotting soon changed however when the sea calmed down, not long before we reached our anchorage for tonight, and high flying Marcus climbed up into the crows nest. Things turned to a kind of competition, who would spot things first, the 1st mate in the crows nest, or the volunteers on deck. Place your bets now! Well us volunteers were not too bad, but the spot of the day should be attributed to Marcus. Thanks to his good eyesight, we were lucky enough to come alongside five majestic Risso’s Dolphins, one accompanied by a little calf (how cute!! – Marcus shed many a tear, Martin put on a brave face). Gracefully they swam along, now and then breaking the surface and letting us hear their deep blows as they took a breath.

Simultaneously the porpoises were having a party – sadly we weren’t invited. From all directions porpies were passing by. Even after we let the Risso’s be, we still had a good hour of porpoise spotting. Sarah the data logger didn’t have a moment spare, having to record all the different sightings, along with the usual environmental surveys.

But all good things come to an end and we finally reached Ardmore Bay, our resting place for the evening. Tidying the boat was quickly followed by a rather fresh swim for Sarah and Iris – a little too fresh for the rest of us.

If you read yesterdays log you may think we’d be fasting today. You may be right, but in fact, we didn’t…. Haggis, cabbage and potatoes were enjoyed by all. At least it was only a one course meal tonight – stomachs were still aching from the night before. Never sleep on a full tummy boys and girls, which we learnt the hard way. All feeling tired from lack of sleep last night, it’s time to go to bed now.

Rumour has it that Minke Whales and Orcas will be surfacing tomorrow – read again soon to find out if they did…

Log by Iris, Veronica and Chris

Position: Canna….Can o’ what? Beans?
Weather: Fine as a fine thing, with no rain and lots of sunshine for the first few hours.
Distance travelled: 42 miles-pretty good, eh? Most of that under sail, too.


Another great day on the high seas, and thankfully we’ve all found our sea legs now. Once more food has dominated the day, and we’ve come to the conclusion this is a food marathon, not a marine monitoring trip! So much for ‘basic food’ as it says in the pamphlet…

The crew were joined by Matt for an early morning swim in the chilly waters of loch Moidart, which we sailed out of under blue skies and sunshine after a porridgey refuelling. As the water was fairly calm, Sarah did the first shift on the crow’s nest, from where she spotted the first seals and porpoises of the day.

As the wind was strong enough, the motor was soon turned off, and we were sailing though the blue seas at about 4.5 knots. Acoustic observation was started, and some of us were lucky enough to hear the (not very musical) conversation of some common dolphins, which could actually be seen, but weren’t interested in playing and headed straight on.

Shortly afterwards Juliet (1st officer) and Martin both spotted the blow of a Minke Whale in the distance, but heading to the place, where they had seen it, nothing disturbed the ups and downs of the blue waves, and so we took up our journey to the North again.

Nevertheless we were quite blessed with sightings (actually lost count of the numerous seals, porpoises, jellyfish, and loads of birds). Rotating from the steering wheel to the crows-nest and to duty on deck, we had quite a busy day, but the highlight of it was definitely the two huge basking sharks that we were lucky enough to come alongside. Like two little black sails, slicing trough the water, their two fins were all they showed us, the rest of the body just a murky shadow below the waves as they slowly manoeuvred through the water, doing their sharky thing…. Huh…

One such sighting was promptly followed by the aerial display of a great skua chasing a young gull.

For anchoring we went back to the Isle of Canna, where we had an absolutely marvellous dinner, with self-hunt mussels for starter, beef-pie with veggies and potatoes for main course, a walk around the island and a syrup-cake with custard for dessert.
After that, most of us decided to live on water and apples tomorrow, but we will see….

Log by Sarah and Iris

Position: The Lotus position-always a favourite; and on a sailing theme, we’re anchored in Loch Moidart.
Weather: Pretty jolly fabulous-blue skies, sunshine and cute white clouds. Some crazy wind and waves on the way. Currently calm as a millpond, flat as a pancake and all that jazz….
Distance travelled: On or off the boat?! Read on for more…


Righty, to the logging to the logging…. Day 2 has been exciting once again, with its fair share of thrills and spills… Not enough sea-sickness pills maybe, judging from the spills?!

We set off in a beautiful morning, with little wavy business but a lot of wind, which picked up once we headed out of the loch. Colour drained from peoples’ faces as we bounced up and down the waves, which were made all the worse by the crazy coming together of different tides and strong winds. Nine common seals on the rocks bode well for a good day of sighting…

Commanded to the stern of the boat, due to the rolling on the waves, everyone tried to hide the real sea sickness feelings, and hold down their breakfast…More or less successfully-50% of the volunteers won the fight against the food… Once we were out and round Ardnamurchan point (most Westerly point of the British mainland, don’t ya know?!) and on course for the Small Isles (Rhum, Eigg and Muck) in the North we were treated to the excitement of 7 common dolphin-a welcome distraction from the queasiness. Good spotting Skipper, but you were the only on deck still paying attention to the waves of the sea and not the waves of sea-sickness gripping us all… Matt (our resident photographing cattle vet) got stuck in with the camera, while Marcus tried to get some ID shots. While they looked all serious and professional, the rest of us squealed and got very excited. Hanging off the bowsprit we were inches away from the bow riding beauties, as they torpedoed through the waves, and around the boat, chasing each other and occasionally looking up to see us. They were Speedy Gonzales; out -racing us as we motored with the sails at a steady 6 knots, surfing down the waves. After 20 minutes of playful companionship they scooted off to join a nearby fishing boat, and the waves of sea sickness returned.

Bacon sandwiches were not quite as popular as the day before, and even those who had held up until now had to succumb after the munchies… And up it came….

We finally returned to ‘on effort’ observations, and were soon joined by another group of about 7 common dolphins-maybe the same crew. They put on another fantastic display for us, bowriding, circling the boat and jumping clear of the water, often in unison. Smiles replaced sea-sickness once more…

We headed on a North-eastward tack toward Moidart, where we entered a beautiful loch under clear blue skies. Thankfully the water was calmer, and everyone returned to a healthy colour…Good work Skip’.

After lunch volunteers circumnavigated the island on foot and clocked up about a thousand miles (exaggeration for effect!) as they ventured over hill and dale, through bog etc…. 3 hours later, after death defying pioneering adventurous ramblings and a little bit of lostness, we finally found the beauty that is the Silurian. Phew!

A quick change into the lycra and a few of the braver (or stupider?) ones went swimming-led by the adventurous (or crazy?!) Iris, who had made three circuits before we were even changed. Feeling safer that she hadn’t been munched by the Moidart monster we soon followed. Chris circled the boat nine times in just his swimmers-champeen of the swimming tonight, and actually had to be called out (kicking and screaming) for dinner. “I was thinking about doing ten..”

Finally, following a delicious cacophany of Asian flavours and a riveting conversation about the finer details of cow dung acoustics, courtesy of our resident bovine lover, most went off to hunt mussels , which they did with great success. ‘Catch them from behind’ seems to be the trick, approaching quietly from downwind…


Log by: Another international collaboration of logging activity brought to you by ‘ Skipper the Swede’ Martin, ‘Iris the Bikini Brave’, Chris the ‘I’m going to shower in the middle of the storm’, Eilidh

Position: Lat 56 º 39’. 541 N ; Long 05º 54’. 346 W
Weather: Fairly jolly atrocious, but all good fun.
Distance travelled: Not as far as far can be….I’d say about 22 nautical miles.

First day of fun and frolics successfully completed onboard.

Due to the Scottishly inclement weather we were unable to be quite as pioneering as we had hoped, and rather than heading out to unknown, unchartered completely new territories we hugged the coast and tucked into Loch Sunart. Apparently to practise porpoise detection and recognition in ‘calm’ waters…hmm, everything but calm waters was provided.

We were positively catapaulted Eastwards up the Sound of Mull, with the wind from astern. Very exciting for all the newbies and sailors-to-be. There were shrieks and squeals (of excitement-don’t worry Mum!) as we surfed down the swell, and the waves buffeted the boat. Sea spray a-flying, and horizontal rain made for poor sighting conditions. Nonetheless, the seas provided and we were treated to some avian acrobatics courtesy of the gannets, Manx shearwaters, eider ducks, shags, kittiwakes etc etc…

Tethered to the ‘tethery’ bits, we surveyed the high seas and learned the ins and outs of porpy detection and data collection. Once we tucked into Loch Sunart, things calmed down a little (remember this is all relative-it was still force 5, gusting 6, driving rain…Charging rhinoceros –ok, so that’s not entirely true…) An off-effort Martin (Skipper) spotted a group of six Harbour porpoises not far from the boat-mother and calf, and her second cousin twice removed (father’s side) and a few neighbours. Off out for the day apparently… We clocked another porpy; a few common seals here and there, and the highlight spot of the day was, without a doubt, the two plastic bags (courtesy of Sarah-determined to sight something. Good work Sarah-keep it up)

Having been blown to the end of the loch, we about turned and were steered (wonderfully, so masterfully) by Veronica back the other way in search of a sheltered wee cove for anchoring. Facing head-on wind and horizontal rain we splashed our way up the loch, in search of cetaceans all the while. As if that was not enough, Marcus (our 1st mate) trained us in distance estimation…Hmmm, more training needed we think by the various interpretations thrown up i.e. 20 m versus 350m, when the reality was 70m!

Coastguard warnings of gale force 11 (that’s pretty rough) meant we were ultra-careful in choosing our night-spot, and were treated to the sight of 5 common seals on the rocks, at our anchor-place. Lovely stuff.

All in all a cracking first day on ship, rounded off with great munchies, a bio-luminescence display (little things, little minds and all that!) and the feeling of being wrapped up in the bunk, with winds howling outside. Furthermore, no one saw their breakfast again-one nil to us! Encouraged by our new found sea legs, conversation centred on food and we rattled up cakes for the ‘morrow. NB the plural…*rubs tummy*

So from your international log committee, on board the Silurian, it’s Gute Nacht and sweet dreams for now.

Log by: An international collaboration by Iris and Veronica Jarsch (Germany), Sarah Outen (plain British)