Monday 25^th September, 2006

Anchorage: Eriskay

Position: 57° 03’.900 N 007°17.600W

Distance surveyed: 40 nm

Monday morning on the Silurian began with overcast weather and moderate swell. Yet by midday the sun was beating down and the sea calmed as we headed away from Castlebay and southwards around Barra Head and ominously westwards (against all advice and reason). However all was good and well on the western front. Plenty of stunning scenery accompanied us on the journey northwards where there a couple more basking sharks were spotted. The highlight of the day was the presence of a dozen or so bottlenose dolphins bow riding Silurian through Barra Sound. Our fairly circular journey ended by mooring at a quiet bay of Eriskay, just north of Barra. While a couple of crew members had a healthy run across the island, the remaining volunteers had a couple of hours spent at the local pub playing pool and drinking whisky while the bartender regailed them with tales of Whiskey Galore. The return walk took longer than expected due to a detour via the darker regions of Eriskay. Luckily a light in the shape of Davie guided us safely home to a risotto supper and our beds.

Jenny, volunteer

Sunday 24^th September, 2006

Anchorage: Castlebay, Barra

Position: 56° 57’.200 N 007°29’.600W

Distance surveyed: 48 nm

Day two started a little later than advertised at 8am (the 5.30am mooted in the literature seemed to be a scare tactic!) and we set off from our mooring in Arisaig for what turned out to be a great day of sightings. The weather was drizzly, but that dampened no ones spirits as we set out west towards Barra and the Outer Hebrides. After some exciting detections on the hydrophone our first sighting of the day was just south of Eigg and Muck with a good spot of a pair of harbour porpoises from Davie off the stern. This set the scene for the afternoon with a short bow-ride from a pod of common dolphins before a frantic half an hour of porpoise sightings and a trio of feeding basking sharks. When we thought things couldn't get any better, some (but sadly not all) spotted a minke surfacing off the starboard side. A rapid (but ultimately unsuccessful) turnabout didn't yield any re sightings but generated enough interest for everybody to be up on deck and on the look out when we pulled into the harbour at Castlebay, Barra.

The evening produced an enlightening trip across to the local pub in Castlebay (past the curiously stranded castle) whereby, after being serenaded by a posse of locals (with electronic bagpipes and all) we decided to head back to the yacht for skipper Graham's second excellent evening meal. A great day's work and a great start to the week. We now head into the third day with the local warning of “don't go west of Barra” ringing in our ears!

Paul, Volunteer

Saturday 23^rd September, 2006

Anchorage: Arisaig

Position: 56° 54’.400 N 005°51’.400W

Distance surveyed: 25 nm

The last monitoring trip of the 2006 season has come around – our final chance this year to survey the waters of the Hebrides. This week we've chosen to head northwards from Mull – towards the Small Isles and the south coast of Skye. Our new volunteers joined us this morning – Paul, John, Graham, Jenny and Andy. The weather was fine and calm, quite a contrast to the beating we took at the hands of the elements last week. Long may it last! We headed up past Ardnamurchan, got the sails up and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine of a grand September day. It was porpoise soup as we travelled north, with stacks of detections on the hydrophone, although not so many animals were actually seen. We arrived into Arisaig in the early evening – an amazing sunset over the still waters, with common seals hauled out on the rocks and seabirds hanging out on the water. A delicious supper cooked up by skipper Graham, and a bit of star-gazing at the clear skies and spectacular northern lights ended a really good first day.

Susie, Marine Ranger