Anchorage: Loch Scresort, Isle of Rum
Position: 57° 00’.800N 006° 16’.000W
Distance Travelled: 50 NM

The day had a gloomy outlook, with the predominant conversation topic at breakfast being on John Lewis branches round the country , focussing particularly on those not actually called John Lewis. I think Cormac nearly cried into his cereal in despair. However, with the tales of John Lewis behind us we soon set to work, with the new task today of recording bird sightings too. After Susie’s bird identification training the night before, she seemed pleased that we actually remembered something and despite a few mistakes we all got the hang of it in the end. We were promptly treated with flocks of manx shearwaters in their hundreds, perhaps because a third of the world’s population lives on the island of Rum nearby. They were a delight to see with their graceful glides but not such a delight to count. Some of us (ahem) resorted to some quite shameful or perhaps necessary rounding!

On the cetacean front, there were quite a few porpoises around, including what we liked to think were two families, in an emotional, misty-eyed moment. Aww! There was also much excitement when a minke whale was spotted in the Sound of Rum. It treated us to a number flashes of its dorsal fin before diving and even a blow. The minke whale didn’t venture near enough for its apparently pungent and fishy smell to grace our nostrils however, which is probably a good thing. Each time it dived we had to guess where it would next surface and mostly got it wrong, often leaving it behind us. I think this was the fault of its unpredictable swimming path rather than any fault of the skipper’s though.

In the evening, Fiona demonstrated her admirable cooking skills with a yummy macaroni cheese dinner and chocolate chip cookies for after, which, needless to say, were swiftly devoured. Some of us went for a walk on Rum and saw the infamous castle and some very cute foals, one of which managed to stand, although there was wobbling involved.

Rachel.