Thursday 21^st September, 2006

Anchorage Tobermory

Position: 56°37.200 N 006°03.700 W

Distance surveyed 20 nm

For today’s last leg back to Tobermory we awoke this morning to the sound of ….. No wind!! A most pleasant change to the past few days of gales. Normal service was resumed however within half an hour of pulling up the anchor. 30-40 knots of wind and driving rain, oh well at least a decent nights sleep was had.

Unfortunately weather conditions contributed to us drawing a blank on sightings although the little beasties were out there according to the acoustics. The highlight of the day however was Ali emerging from below with a Tupperware full of bagels to be soaked by a wave. Once drained the bagels were lovely!

Arriving back in Tobermory the wind eased, the rain stopped and feverish boat cleaning ensued (interrupted only by Tobermory’s fine fish and chips for lunch!). Next stop shower then a well deserved pint or two in Macgochan’s.

Thank you and well done to the hardy Earthwatch volunteers: Janet, Martin, H, Ali, Alex and Phil.

As a footnote I have been working since March as 1^st mate aboard Silurian and this was my last trip of a fantastic season. I have had a great summer. Been to some beautiful places, seen some awesome sights and met some of the most interesting people I could hope to meet.

A big thanks you to all HWDT staff and volunteers who have made this such an excellent time. Most of all thanks go to Duncan, Suzie, Dave, Laura and of course Silurian herself. It’s been a pleasure to sail with you all. Well done Guys!

Rob 1^st Mate

Wednesday 20^th September, 2006

Anchorage Ulva

Position 56°29.700 N 006°13.900 W

Distance surveyed 12 nm

Awoke to find Chinese water torture dripping on my forehead – perhaps we didn't batten down the hatches properly ?

Rain, strong winds and rolling sea - will we get out today ?? After bacon sandwiches, baked beans and potato cakes the wind dropped and we headed for another safe anchorage to spend the night, before making the last break for Tobermory. No sightings as sea too rough. Very sensibly marine animals have gone into hiding leaving the mad English and Swiss to go out in the midday rain!! Still we had 4 days of sun prior to the change of weather, and the scenery looks fantastic in all conditions.

Time for a beer and a glass or two of wine before another fantastic dinner !

Martin, volunteer, UK

Tuesday 19^th September, 2006

Anchorage Loch Na Keal

Position 56°28.500 N 006°00.800 W

Distance surveyed 0 nm

The clear blue skies aforementioned seemed a million miles away as we woke this morning to nasty Scottish weather. With gales predicted and non-existent potential for whale or dolphin spotting we bedded ourselves in for a day of overeating, many cups of tea, lectures and the possibility of a little exploration of the local landscape.

Susie began with an awe-inspiring marine acoustics presentation on how cetaceans can 'see' underneath the water using a series of clicks, whistles and other sounds to help distinguish obstacles, search out prey and communicate. Fortunately I also have a highly-evolved way to do this. It has been well-established by our crew and volunteers that I am in need of extra calories as I'm 'growing', and I regularly let out a short bunch of clicks to search out the toast, biscuits or anything else remotely resembling food. This is usually followed by a bunch of whistles to alert everyone to the fact there is food here!

With the opportunity to catch up on correspondence, read and generally do that Sunday morning thing, Martin, Janet, Ali, Phil, and Rob could not be lured by the charms of the loch landscape. The rest of us went off to conquer the foothills of Ben More. H and I followed Susie and Duncan as we reached the top and had beautiful views of the local scenery around our anchorage. After a short rest we began our descent, which we found a little challenging in our wellies, but as H pointed out our 40 minute walk up was more like a 10mile effort and our blisters reflected this.

Once back Phil was practising our mayday plans using smoke signals from his french apple pie to help alert the locals and give us that smoked musky smell – who needs old spice! After much discussion Ali and I were 'elected' to produce some scones. 20mins on everyone was satisfied and we began discussing Ali's green blotchy bottom. A little wine, haggis and a wonderful desert later, ended an unfortunate day turned good by excellent company.

Alex, volunteer, UK

Monday 18^th September, 2006

Anchorage Loch Na Keal

Position 56°28.500 N 006°00.800 W

Distance surveyed 32 nm

Sleep enhanced by double dose of Cragganmore. Forecasts fresh to strong SE veering W gales Tuesday /Wednesday. Visit to town for essential supplies ( wine ran out ). Silurian heads out towards Treshnish Isles with first ever Swiss helmsman ( Phil ) in command, loosely speaking . We clip along in a brisk SE, Susie reporting good porp acoustics but views obscured by lumps of dark grey water. Still good but banks of black cloud to SW. Sea and wind frisky on a Northerly tack veering boisterous on a SW tack towards Iona. Observation pairs lashed to the mast refreshed by spray and horizontal rain. Wind now gusting upto 35knots, Silurian bowling along at 6-7 knots. Another northerly tack past Staffa and Fingal's cave in increasingly interesting conditions. Finally heading ENE towards Loch Na Kael in conditions now described , by Rob, as officially nasty! Rob experimenting with angle of heel volunteers queueing up for data duty (except me). Duncan calls out 'Basking Shark' ( another shag ) and Alex emerges on deck with coffee jug which he helpfully tips out on the windward side. Rob and Allie at the stern immensely grateful for exfoliating coffee spray. Dramatic entrance to Loch in driving rain with squalls funnelling down off Ben More. Rob determined to keep starboard side of hull as dry as possible. By 4.30pm at anchor in the lee of Ben Fharda. A couple of hours steaming quietly in the cabin intellects sharpened by Martin's impromptu presentation on VAT. By 6.30pm cloud is broken and light streams in from the West – brilliant rainbow. Great days sail – sensational coast. Then Susie does great risotto. A good day.

H, volunteer, UK

Sunday 17^th September, 2006

Anchorage Bunessan

Position 56°19.300 N 006°15.100 W

Distance surveyed 47 nm

Today was another beautiful day with clear skies. As there was not enough wind to raise sails we had to keep Silurian's engine running throughout. This helped us cover the area that we needed to survey.

Life on board now revolves around a well established routine: Observation, data recording, feeding Alex. Although we saw a few seals, lots of birds and some beautiful landscapes, whales and dolphins are still eluding us. Hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow.

As we arrived in Bunessan, a grey seal was waiting for us and had a great time winding me up. It would come near the boat for extended periods of time and disappear as soon as I brought a camera on deck. It would of course reappear 30 seconds after the camera was put away. The game lasted for a good 90min.

During the “seal episode”, Duncan, Ali and Alex took the RIB and went ashore to see a ruined croft.

Later that evening Rob took a group of us to the pub where Ali became most excited by the concept of toilets requiring no heavy pumping. Whilst the rest of us shared her excitement, we also managed to enjoy a few drinks. We hadn't really drunk much, but Rob mysteriously disappeared on the way back to the RIB. I was walking next to him along the road when a fairly large and extremely luminous truck arrived at full speed. To the untrained eye it would have looked like Rob had fallen through a fairly small yet extremely deep hole. This is what the truck driver must have thought as his laughter was marginally louder than the sound of his 500bhp engine. However, the speed at which it happened clearly demonstrated some serious SAS training skills and I can only assume that Rob ran for cover.

Phil, Volunteer, Switzerland

Saturday 16^th September, 2006

Anchorage Calas Mor, Oronsay

Position 56°00.600 N 006°13.800W

Distance surveyed 44 nm

... In fact we did not get to bed for quite some time as the still glassy waters of Loch Spelve acted as a mirror for the star filled night. With no light pollution we had amazing views of the milky way and the entire night sky was full of stars. I have never seen so many.

We woke up to a freezing cold morning and piled on the layers to start our day of observation. As soon as we started we spotted seals, and tried desperately to remember the names of the birds we were taught last night for observation. Quickly into the trip we started to see harbour porpoises and got some great visuals.

Unfortunately as the wind picked up and we lashed ourselves to the mast our sightings decreased. A great day for sailing with sunshine and clear skies and the wind allowed us to put up the sails and get some proper sailing.

Naturally the day was broken up with countless mugs of hot tea and goodies – despite four meals a day Alex feels starved and almost lynched Suzy whilst she handed out chocolate bars.

Having seen nothing other than birds for several hours we put out the anchor and to the dingy out to explore Oronsay.

Whilst most of us strolled along the island cost, H had a close encounter with a highland bull!A well timed return was greeted with fish pie waiting to be served followed by chocolate pud and custard.

An early night tonight I think, the fresh air and blustering winds have left us all tired and with red burnt faces.

Ali, volunteer, UK

Friday 15^th September, 2006

Anchorage Loch Spelve, Isle of Mull

Position 56°21.900 N 005°47.300 W

Distance surveyed 27 nm

A great first day with fabulous clear blue skies. We started off with the first of many mugs of tea, followed by breakfast and our technical briefings of how to record sightings, tie ourselves to the mast and abandon ship ( not necessarily in that order !). Once the fruit and veg had been delivered for our week at sea, we set sail down the Sound of Mull. Visibility, weather and sea conditions were perfect, but sightings were few. However the scenery was fantastic and we ended the day in beautiful Loch Spelve with a great chicken curry and bottles of wine...everyone will sleep well tonight, ready for tomorrow and another great day !

Janet, volunteer, UK

Thursday 14^th September, 2006

Anchorage Tobermory

Position: 56°37.200 N 006°03.700 W

The last Earthwatch trip of the season started with lovely calm weather, as our volunteers joined Silurian in the evening. We spent the evening chatting, getting to know each other, eating good food and sitting in the pub. Our volunteers for this week are Janet, Martin, Ali, Alex and H from the UK and Phil from Switzerland. All looking forward to a week's monitoring in the Hebrides.

Susie, Science Officer, UK