Thursday 25^th May, 2006

Anchorage: Tobermory

Position: 56°50’.931N 005°46’.829W

Distance covered: 29 nm

As instructed by the skipper we got up early to run through a quick breakfast as we geared up to sail back towards our base since we did not want to go thru any hiccups (specially the weather) reaching back on time.

Thankfully we had a beautiful weather which helped us to do our monitoring and surely an eventful ending with lots of sighting of porpoises both by the crew and the volunteers.

The winter being an extended one, this year has been really tough though for all the research boats with no exception to ours. But it was surely a paid off effort to still do the survey on tough conditions and still having a hearty smile on everyone’s face at the end of the trip.

We anchored at the base with all of us gearing up with no signs of lethargy to clean up the boat and it was a job well done by everyone to see Silurian shining bright in its glory after living like a small family for the last 10 days.

We did manage to do the same at a good speed to give the two lady volunteers time to bid farewell since they had to catch their flight early tomorrow while the others stayed on board for the night before they also bid farewell towards their respective destinations.

Surely some magical moments, lots of fun and undoubtedly an experience of a lifetime.!!

Percy, volunteer, India

Total distance covered: 287 nm

Wednesday 24^th May, 2006

Anchorage: Loch Ailort (Goat Island)

Position: 56°51’.931 N 005° 46’.829W

Distance covered: 29 nm

The threat of bad weather did disappoint the skipper, the crew and the volunteers as they woke up to a beautiful morning at Lock Nevis with no hurry to run through the morning routines and breakfast waiting for the weather forecast to be given by the coastguard.

As expected we had a disappointing weather report which forced us to cancel our adventurous plans of going northwards but re-route ourselves towards south so that we could reach our base easily.

We did make a bold effort to sail out of Lock Nevis but it was short lived since it was too windy and we had to anchor again till the winds calmed down surely doing some good since we had time for a nice lunch (hot soup n bread) and lots of chats, cards and of course a bit of surfing.

At 3 o’clock we started off heading towards south admiring the beautiful coastlines of Scotland. Unexpectedly the weather was good and though we did not do much of our data collection for the science expert but it did give amateur like me to have a go being the helm’s man. It was smooth sailing I presume since I found most of my mates having a good nap while the crew got some time to plan up for the projects ahead.

After around six hours of sailing we decided to anchor ourselves amidst the beautiful mountains of Goat Islands (skipper obviously choosing it to refresh some of his nostalgic sailing days) surely one of the countless creative excellence of our creator.

We had a great end to the day with a great meal as usual and some wine (specially prepared by skipper himself). Cheers!! Goodnight!

Joseph (Percy) George, Team Mate, India.