Location: Cragaig, Ulva
Position: 56’ 28.1 N 006’ 13.07 W
Distance surveyed: 48nm

A busy and productive day on the water and quite long. We left Ulva at around 8.30am under overcast skies, and headed for Lunga, and puffins.
As we sailed towards the island we could see more and more seabirds, and increasing numbers of these little birds. We landed on a rocky shore and headed for the cliff tops, where we came across our first puffins just a few, but they were so charming, with their clown faces and sociable manners.
At the top of the island was a ‘hot rock’ a towering mound covered by thousands and thousands of puffins, all shouting their heads off. It was an incredible sight just a mountain of birds. We had also come across little colonies of razorbills, fulmars and shags.
Of interest to the botanist among us were the clumps of white bladder campions growing on the rocks among the bird families. They seem to thrive on guano. We also found healthy patches of spotted orchids, plus birds’ foot trefoil, tormentil, stonecrop and bluebells. The resident black rabbits had left their droppings.

The afternoon’s survey brought the main excitement of the day. Sailing around the Treshnish Isles, we spotted a large patch of birds, mainly shearwaters, landing on a tide line, and we slowed to check out this promising sign of fishy presences. Then we spotted a minke whale arching out of the water followed closely by three or four basking sharks.

It was a feeding frenzy. Obviously all these creatures, whale, sharks and birds, had found something lovely to eat and invited themselves to a dinner party. Particularly hungry was the basking shark, its huge mouth wide open, hoovering up tasty plankton.

A quiet sail brought us to the Ross of Mull and a peaceful anchorage in Loch na Keel. Haggis, bashed neeps and tatties for dinner.