Date: Thursday 30^th August, 2007

Anchorage: Isleornsay, Isle of Skye

Position: 57° 09’.000N 005° 47’.600W

Distance Travelled: 40 NM

A leisurely start to the day, with lots of conversations about where to sail, due to the possibly inclement weather. Amanda was at the helm. We thought she might take a short cut to Fraserburgh, but she was very good at her job. It was lumpy bumpy going down towards Rum. We changed course up towards the Point of Sleat and had sightings of some Harbour Porpoises and more than one Common Seal. There was a wonderful, large flock of Manx Shearwaters, which were truly lovely. We had another good soup, yum. And then, Sarah scooted skilfully up the mast into the crows nest, where she remained till we anchored. She did good. Gen kindly allowed her to come down at that point. We then had a choice between haggis in the boat or supper at the pub in Isleornsay, on the Isle of Skye. We decided to postpone the haggis for the next day and proceeded over the water to Skye, as Andy hummed a wistful tune as he imagined himself as Bonny Prince Charlie or perchance Flora MacDonald. We had difficulty finding a table which eased considerably after Sharron appeared to chase out two poor little defenceless pensioners. We had a fantastic meal, yum, yum, yum, with some fantastic drinks, and a nice little walk afterwards. Then Gen picked us up in her “Tender Behind”. And then we cracked open another bottle of Ed’s red wine to go with our stilton. It’s a tough life. Ed wants to be a ship’s steward and has even offered to cook for us, but somehow we might have a little concern as he said “Good job it’ll be on the last night”. Overall, it was another quiet day at the office.

Date: Wednesday 29^th August, 2007

Anchorage: Loch Scresort, Isle of Rum

Position: 57° 00’.700N 006° 15’.900W

Distance Travelled: 43 NM

Today a marvellous truth was revealed to us: that some days in Scotland it rains. It was beautiful this morning, and we set out from Canna heading south west into the middle of nowhere. As we started surveying we were treated to a few porpoises, although generally the day was quite quiet until we hit an exciting patch with a flurry of basking sharks and a minke whale. During this time, Amanda decided to go up the crow’s nest (was this an extreme action to escape Andy’s jokes? If so, she underestimated how loud he can shout...you can climb, Amanda, but you can’t hide…). Conditions were a bit rolly, and her ascent and descent were heroic. It had also start to rain just a wee bit, which our robust crew put up with without a murmur, fortified by Sharron’s totally delicious soup. We carried on surveying up to Rum, when the sun came out through the rain, and a lovely big rainbow appeared. Sarah and Andy cooked a great supper (but with no vegetable jokes…Andy…what’s wrong?), then the team went ashore for a posh bath. Fluffy towels and all (although skipper was disappointed at the lack of dusky maidens to provide them...).

Date: Monday 27^th and Tuesday 28^th August, 2007

Anchorage: Canna Harbour (28^th)

Position: 57° 03’.200N 006° 29’.400W

Distance Travelled: 30 NM (27^th) 52 NM (28^th)

You are not going to believe what we saw today! Yesterday was porpoise day, but today was everything else day. So, yesterday, we got to know each other a little (and that was enough); and we are all right, we gel, and things are cool. We set off from Tobermory after midday and after some lively briefings from the skipper (who did all the shopping). We scooted up the Sound of Mull and schooooosed around Ardnamurchan, which was slightly choppy. After a rousing bout of vomiting, we really got into the swing of things and realised we were getting our sea legs. Despite the lumpy conditions, due to the skill and prowess of the volunteers, we spotted several porpoises, but detected many more on the hydrophone. The lunchtime rolls were fab, especially as Sarah was about to draw her last breath from starvation – rescued by a bacon sarnie in the nick of time. We later landed on Rum; we were quite happy to make landfall, spotted a rather posh Kinloch Castle and some pretty dun coloured ponies with foals. We were distressingly late for our next lecture on sea birds, but somehow promised we would be able to tell the difference between various shades of grey. And so to bed.

Today, well what can I say. Our science officer lied to us. We were misled and misinformed, that we were unlikely to see a certain species. But, then, as we headed out from Loch Scresort, in glassy, sunny, calm conditions, we again saw a couple of porpoises. Followed by a seal; then Prateek worked himself into a lather of anticipation for his bird exam ordeal. He managed to identify a fulmar, closely followed by another fulmar, then another, then, he realised it had gone around the boat. They became good friends. Sarah sighted some common dolphins splashing and leaping before they saw the boat. They then headed straight towards the boat, all 20 of them, and they were very cool. Amanda’s day was already made, and she smugly texted her mother. Andy suddenly shouted “****, sighting”, in a high pitched squeal. He had seen a blow, followed by a BIG fin, attached to an even bigger Killer Whale, which was swimming towards us, with his missus, who was also pretty BIG too. Never had we been happier to have proved the science officer wrong, and she had never been happier to prove herself wrong. After that we were all stunned and on a high and then we saw some sharks. Basking sharks. Lots of them. Just to complete the Royal Flush, up pops a Minke - in the midst of the Baskers. And then … to round off the day we were escorted into Canna by another group of common dolphins. They had been going nuts along with an excitement of speed diving gannets, before spotting us and heading straight towards the boat. Bow riding and jumping and generally showing off for quite some time. We anchored at the picturesque harbour that is Canna. We went to see a very small church with a large Celtic Cross gravestone. Sharron expressed regret that not more people were buried in the beautiful graveyard. Her companions agreed but continued to walk a bit more quickly than before. Our relaxing walk along the track led to a bridge over to Sanday, some said “a bridge too far”, but then, back to a tea shop for a cool refreshment. This was gained by a fresh £20 note, wrapped in plastic bag, in Sarah’s back pooch (nice one girl).