Anchorage: Duntulm Bay
Position: 57° 41’.400N 006° 20’.00W
Distance travelled: 42 NM

On Friday evening, our new volunteers joined us for another cetacean survey. They are Liz, Natalie, Laurel, Mario, Ted (whom we welcome aboard for the third time) and Marcus (our first mate from two years ago who is on to take photo identification for the Aberdeen University Bottlenose Dolphin Project). Moored next to Madonna’s million pound yacht we started our adventure from Kyle of lochalsh and got to see the start of a yacht race then headed out under the Skye bridge. Initially our plan was to zig zag northwards and end our day in loch Torridon under the magnificent sandstone peaks of Ben Eigh but it was not to be. A rush of scientific blood to the crews head and blue sky to the north suddenly prompted a change of plan, instead we were to head through the Caol of Rona (via The Deepest Spot in the Hebrides (as far as we know) – a massive 316m) and saw lots of shags, seals and numerous harbour porpoises. We then re-fuelled with bacon sandwiches and continued along the eastern coast of Skye past the old man of Storr, Quiraing and Eilean Flodigarry (where according to local tradition the owner once had his corn harvested for him in two nights by 150 fairies). Rounding off our day with a sighting of a Stinky minke whale (although thankfully the aroma was lacking) at Rubha Hunish and dropped anchor in Tulm Bay where we went ashore and climbed Duntulm castle ruining a couple’s cosy evening as they got to see a romantic sunset with 8 new friends!