Location: West Loch Tarbert, Jura
Position: 55 N 57.920 005 W 54.624
Distance traveled: 46nm

Today at least was a brighter day. Nigel took June and Cormac up the loch in the dingy as they had missed the trip the previous evening. We left our sheltered sun drenched anchorage in the stark beauty of West Loch Tarbert to find a modest swell and fairly big waves. Our transect lines took us offshore west of Colonsay. As we headed further out, we realised that the sea conditions were no longer good for surveying although the wind, gusting to 30mph provided exciting sailing with us reaching a speed of some 8.5 knots as we headed for deep water. Estimates showed if we had kept a straight course Nova Scotia was less than 2,000 miles ahead!
Sightings were rare but did include two basking sharks, a young one and the other about 5 metres. We had plenty of bird sightings including several storm petrels, dancing above the waves.
The intention was to spend the night moored in the small harbour at Colonsay however the winds and swell were such that it would have resulted in a sleepless night, so Skip made the decision to head back to West Loch Tarbet, another quick passage driven by the winds saw us anchor in the first quiet bay along with a yacht, fishing boat and another vessel which, as night fell, had us all guessing as to what it purpose was, first glance it looked to be fishing but who knows as to what it was really about.
Whilst Nigel took the girls ashore for a walk up to a raised beach, Alan caught a couple more mackerel. Whilst ashore, Laura demonstrated how not to approach a ‘green-eye’ and nearly lost her wellies, then showed the volunteers how not to push a dingy away from the shore, still all returned safely. Tiredness resulted in a good nights sleep for all despite the swell still rocking the boat even in our sheltered anchorage.

Alan (Earthwatch Volunteer 2007)