Date: Wednesday 25^th April 2007

Anchorage: Crag aig Bay, Ulva

Position: 56° 28’.000N 006° 13’.000W

Distance Travelled: 32 NM

I pick up the day from Wednesday because the other volunteers wrote to you already. I just want to mention that the first few days were nice and terrifying because I’ve been seasick before and I didn’t know what to expect. As it turned out, nothing happened so now I can feel pretty safe being on rough seas. What I’ve seen up until now is very comforting – Davy is a good skipper and the calm manner in which he operates the boat proves he’s always in control. Mat is also very knowledgeable in handling the boat and he’s a good cook also (especially tea!). But the way Susie explains everything patiently and truly makes everything a pleasure. Due to the fact that we haven’t seen too many mammals coming out of the sea so far we should sing a few songs as we’re going along so the dolphins and whales will come up to see where the pretty voice is coming from.

The highlight of the day was as we passed the Island of the Puffins (not the real name) – there were so many of them congregated around the island – I’ve never seen anything like that before. PS – I’m starting to understand most of the things that Susie explained at the beginning.

Add by Lisa – I’m adding a little bit about the island we stopped out (Ulva – an unfortunate name I realize) because Dad didn’t feet like walking very far but Ian, Ted, and I followed a path from the southside of the island to northside for several kilometres. When we first pulled up to the island, the sun actually poked its head out. We got in the skiff and motored over to the island, where we got mired in some major seaweed as we pulled ashore. On this side of the island are numerous uninhabitated stone houses that had their thatched roofs burned by a laird between 1846 to 1851 (luckily Ted is reading a wonderful book called The Scottish Islands, which gives a comprehensive history of every island in the Hebrides). Apparently the laird was a nice guy because he burned out the local people in order to steal their livestock. During our tramp we saw a standing stone, which we approached in proper 2001 fashion, a bunch of heather, some beautiful primroses clinging precariously to the hillside, and a lot of different birds including stone chats, whin chats, wrens, and meadow pipits. We also climbed about 81 metres to the top of a hill where we got a stunning view of the island. Altogether we walked about 7 kilometres roundtrip. Then, on the way back to the boat, we had to go past two rocks where about 30 seals (mainly common, which look like cats, and one grey, which looks like a dog) were sunning themselves. Being curious animals, they slid off the rocks and followed the skiff. Davy turned off the motor and we were treated to the sight of a bunch of seals circling us and staring curiously. Apparently they’re camera shy because every time we tried to take their picture they submerged (actually I think they were teasing us just like the ornery cats they resemble). Then back to the boat for some well earned dinner cooked by Mat and Susie. Another fun day on the Silurian.

Bela and Lisa