Wednesday 27^th September, 2006

Anchorage: Arisaig

Position: 56° 54’.100 N 005°52’.000W

Distance surveyed: 28 nm

We were to awake to the sight of a calm Sound of Sleat and a yelp from one of the volunteers with a sighting, and all this before breakfast was even mentioned. The sighting was originally thought to be that of a harbour porpoise, but much to the excitement and somewhat bewilderment of happy shippers it was a pod of bottlenose dolphins - five in total one of which was a juvenile. Some still in nightwear cobbled together their essentials – camera, waterproofs etc. - and went closer to investigate in the tender. It proved to be a successful sighting, with some good photo identification shots taken.

We moved out of the Sound of Sleat and the seas greeted us with a warm welcome of high winds, big waves causing an occasional green face. Skipper thought it essential to be leashed to the boat, which to the volunteers was a sigh of relief. Winds reached to approximately 35 knots, volunteers were excited by the thought of the Silurian racing through the crashing waves in an event to make us all that little bit more wind swept and interesting. The crew took it all in their stride, crew and volunteers worked well as a team to lower the main sail and pull in the jib. To say it was a thrilling experience would be an understatement. All sails were down and we motored our way through the rough waters to Arisaig.

We all stayed on the boat in the slightly rocky but comfortable anchoring, Skipper introduced us to his 'magic' trick and then delivered a meal fit for any hearty sailor. The first mate gave a rendition of some slipped jigs and reels on his Mandolin. Crew were awake on shifts throughout the night on anchor watch whilst volunteers were out for the count. A day to remember, different...... but memorable.

The sea rough,

It was never enough,

The volunteers were keen,

But sometimes green,

The boat felt similar to 20 pints of ember

A day to remember.

Graham, volunteer

# posted by HWDT @ 3:21 AM