Anchorage: Loch Na Druma Buidhe
Position: 56° 39.2N 005° 55.5 West
Distance surveyed: 47 nautical miles (nmi)

This morning after a some what early start! we headed out to sea for surveying. The weather had somewhat calmed the night before however, it was again heavily overcast with a steady sheet of rain. As we left Tobermory with our sails up, half way down the channel towards sea the wind really began to blow like crazy and it was really rough going; we hadn’t even reached open water yet! We were again hanging on very tightly as the yacht was at a steep tilt to the left with the gales hitting us from starboard!

So Duncan our skipper decided that this wasn’t a ideal day to go into open water as the passing storm with these heavy gales hadn’t passed through this part of the isles yet. We took a a right turn and went up a new route a channel called Loch Sunart. It turned out to be an excellent decision as very surprisingly the storm cleared and the wind died considerably and it was a turned out to be the start of a fabulous day for both sailing and surveying!

Half way up this Loch, nearly all on deck were lucky to see 3 - 4 Harbour Porpoises…..totally amazing!!! And it drizzled now and then but we got a lot of sunshine too! And that’s not all we all got to see several seals in the water either relaxing on their backs enjoying a nibble, swimming or just taking a cautious peek at us pass by… The lot of us even came across a small Isle on our way back down the Loch with a small colony of 7 – 8 Common Seals basking in the sunshine and numerous variety of birds nesting there too.

Later towards evening we came into anchorage at Loch Na Druma Buidhe which if I may say for everyone is one of the most scenic and tranquil of our anchorages yet amongst the various Isles of Scotland…Hats of to our Skipper!

Here taking advantage of the lovely surprisingly warm and clear weather, we volunteers put on out Earth Watch t-shirts and took a group picture; which no doubt will be a very memorable one. Can I also add that all of us on the boat came on deck and enjoyed an awesome sunset too.

Later Stephanie, Teresa, Gayal and myself prepared the evening meal and dessert which was enjoyed by all.

On days like these, one would wish to be amongst these Isles and abundant wildlife always.

Jonathan – Karachi, Pakistan.