Anchorage: Upper Loch Torridon
Position: 57° 33’.200N 005° 38’.000W
Distance Travelled: 52 NM

We left a very picturesque Loch Mariveg at around 10am and headed towards the tip of Skye. Our first wildlife encounter of the morning was a diving display performed by a crack team of high flying gannets. We were soon to discover that this was only the warm up act to the highlighted synchronised swimming common dolphins. As if this wasn’t enough entertainment for the day, just as we were wanting another mug of tea, a two minke whales, who had obviously been listening to our after breakfast briefing, obligingly met us near the tip of Skye and agreed to be surveyed for quite some time before disappearing into the great blue yonder. We eventually got our mugs of tea! From the tip of Skye we headed towards calmer waters in Loch Torridon. Here we dropped anchor and gazed over at the magnificent sandstone mountains that surrounding the loch. After a hearty meal several of us piled into the rib for a saunter ashore - the first time we had touched the mainland since the start of the trip. On re-boarding Silurian the Science Officer gave us a talk on cetacean acoustics (sound effects included) and we sipped hot chocolate pausing only to watch the last few minutes of the day’s sunset.