Most weeks April through October she is either monitoring
the waters of the west coast of Scotland for whales, dolphins, and
porpoises, or serving as a floating classroom for one of the many Argyll
island primary and secondary schools.
Read the
log below to find out what Silurian and her crew have been up to each
week and all about the whales, dolphins and porpoises they spot!
To find out about the latest marine life sightings spotted elsewhere,
click here.
Date: Saturday 7th April 2007
Anchorage: Canna Harbour
Position: 57° 03’.300N 006° 29’.600W
Distance Travelled: 60 NM
Bright sun woke us up; coffee and tea on the deck in sunlight. After breakfast, the anchor was hauled up and we set off for the southern end of the Isle of Skye with everyone at their stations, ready for cetacean spotting. Cameras clicked profusely when the Cuillins came into view, sharp craggy peaks, Munroes, with no cloud cover hiding them. We changed course and motored past Soay to make numerous transects west of Skye. The acoustics were very busy with harbour porpoises and we listened on the headphones to mainly snapping shrimp. While under sail, the cetacean spot of the day took place with a harbour porpoise which swam just under the surface of the water from our portside, under the bowsprit and off past our starboard side. We also took count of the various birds and had a brilliant view of a sea eagle soaring off the cliffs of Canna. Great excitement for all the crew occurred as we motored into Canna Harbour; while watching grey seals sunbathe on rocks, we spotted another sea eagle. It looked massive as it sat on the rocks just above the seals. Binoculars were glued to faces for 20 minutes as the eagle calmly sat and surveyed his kingdom. After anchoring and a quick boat tidy up, we piled into the dingy and went ashore to stretch our legs. Two local men chatted with us about local news on the island and then Hot Legs [Cormac] went off for a run and the rest of us lads and lassies climbed great heights and explored the Celtic church. Mat, First Mate, had an excellent sausage and mash dinner upon our return to Silurian, which was washed down with a glass of wine. An excellent day was rounded off listening to Duncan’s Dixie Chicks.
Diane, volunteer
Date: Friday 6th April 2007
Anchorage: Loch Scresort, Isle of Rum
Position: 57° 00’.730N 006° 16’.117W
Distance Travelled: 45 NM
Evening all from the Isle of Rum! “Hundreds” of porpoises on the hydrophone, but only three deigned to make an appearance to us! Fortunately two puffins and an empty crisp packet were a little more forthcoming and have left us with a wee smile on our faces – nothing to do with the wine and huge amounts of food we have just polished off. Having passed our seabird identification exam we have been granted permission to use the toilet facilities for ten minutes each. We’ll get another ten tomorrow if we successfully identify all the juvenile stages of gannet plumage! On a more serious note, we are currently moored in a stunning sea loch on Rum. Scenery and weather has been fantastic throughout, and the porpoise sightings were witnessed by all. Quietly optimistic for the rest of the week so long as I don’t get sunburnt too badly!
Take care
Anouska and friends
# posted by HWDT @ 8:59 AM
