Date: Friday 27^th and Saturday 28^th April 2007

Anchorage: Tobermory

Position: 56°37’.200 N 006°03’.700 W

Distance Travelled: 42 NM

The final survey, Friday, day saw us leave Tiree and motor up the west coast of Coll, then to Tobermory and home. Gorgeous weather again, king of the crow’s nest, Ian, back in position, the crack-team of volunteers working hard, and some nice porpoise and seabird sightings. Back in Tobermory, gave the boat a big clean down, then out for a curry. It’s the Mull music festival this weekend, so Tobermory is full of music and alcohol, which lent a certain extra flavour to the evening.

Saturday morning, and the volunteers have just left – many thanks for all their hard work and enthusiasm – it’s been great working with them. Safe journey home!

Susie (Science Officer)

Date: Thursday 26^th April 2007

Anchorage: Clach Chuirr, Tiree

Position: 56° 32’.700N 006° 44’.100W

Distance Travelled: 74 NM

The volunteers onboard Silurian continue to serve their apprenticeship in the vicissitudes of the Scottish climate. Having experienced vertical rain, horizontal rain, diagonal rain and every combination of blustery stuff, today it was the turn of glorious sunshine.

We woke up as bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, eager-beavers. Having listened to the forecast the night before, we were quite confident of some fine, settled weather. Things started well, as we made an early start for Tiree under clear blue skies. Over the summer months, the area is brilliant for basking sharks. There have been a couple of sightings reported this year, and we were interested to see if they had arrived in any numbers yet.

Ian, king of the crow’s nest, needed no encouragement to climb up to his perch, where he stayed for the next few hours, diligently observing, even as the swells began to build as we headed down the coast of Tiree towards Skerryvore lighthouse.

As we rounded the lighthouse, the swells got quite frisky. This was clearly the perfect moment for skipper Dave to start demanding tea. First mate Mat duly descended into the galley. Sadly a perfectly-timed lurch of the boat distributed the fresh brew evenly across the galley walls and floor, and the skipper had to stay thirsty for a while longer…

The sea settled as we surveyed up the west coast of Tiree. In fact, things were feeling pretty tropical onboard, what with Tiree’s white sands and turquoise seas, and the continuing sunshine. Porpoises were clicking away merrily on the hydrophone (although not showing their faces), and there was something of an outbreak of high spirits. We had a look at anchoring in Balephetrish Bay but it wasn’t quite what we were seeking, so carried on to Gunna, where we anchored for a while. The volunteers went for a walk on the beach, seeing barnacle geese, diving gannets and grey seals.

After a big old tea of haggis, neaps and tatties, and an epic sunset, we moved the boat to the more sheltered anchorage of Clach Chuirr off Tiree. As I write, Ian, Lisa and Mat have just come back from a visit to the island where they saw TWO CARS! Terrifying, apparently…

No basking sharks for us today…maybe still a little early in the year. But not too early for an impressive dose of sunburn for all onboard Silurian.

Susie (Science Officer)