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: Wednesday 16th May 2007
Anchorage: Loch na Droma Buidhe
Position: 56° 39’.320N 005° 55’.470W
Distance Travelled: 49 NM
Today brought two terrible tragedies to the lives of the volunteers of Silurian. All-day rain and no pudding. It was already raining when we woke up, and didn’t really stop all day. So no shorts-wearing by the skipper and science officer today. Well every cloud has a silver lining and all that…
Christian was also feeling totally rubbish with a pokey virus, and was ordered by the skipper to return to his bed as soon as he’d got up.
We set out from Gunna Sound and immediately spotted the first basking shark of the day, cruising lazily through the eddies and tidal races. Shark sightings continued up the west coast of Coll, so much so that when the next in a line of ‘SIGHTING!’ shouts came half way up the coast, Susie’s reflex reaction was to enter ‘basking shark’ in the database. But no, it was everybody’s favourite cabaret cetacean, a group of nine common dolphins, leaping and bowriding the boat. Absolutely marvellous!
We continued up to the Cairns of Coll, where excited hurries of manx shearwaters, fish jumping out of the water and rapid porpoise detections on the hydrophone made clear there was some serious foraging action going on. But it wasn’t till we reached the Cairns that we got a swift glimpse of a speedy minke on the move.
This was the moment chosen by the skipper to offload half the world’s supply of hash browns, onion rings, baked beans and bacon directly into the crews’ arteries, which fortified us again the cold.
Carrying on down the east side of Coll, then across towards the Sound of Mull, and into Loch Sunart seals and porpoise sightings continued. Once anchored safety in Loch na Droma Buidhe, we relaxed and ate supper, the pleasure of which was only marred by the microwave not working, and the consequent lack of chocolate pudding. So we must all go to our beds without the wafting aroma of pudding, hoping the microwave works in the morning, and we can have chocolate pud with our weetabix. If this plan fails, we may have to use the anchor windlass battery to power the microwave and haul the anchor by hand. Failing this, the engine start batteries will be pressed into service, and we will row back to Tobermory. But it will be worth it. Nothing must stand in the way of steamed pudding.
Due to the indisposal of our esteemed Swedish correspondent, lessons have been temporarily suspended, but will recommence tomorrow.
# posted by HWDT @ 1:46 AM
