Most weeks April through October she is either monitoring
the waters of the west coast of Scotland for whales, dolphins, and
porpoises, or serving as a floating classroom for one of the many Argyll
island primary and secondary schools.
Read the
log below to find out what Silurian and her crew have been up to each
week and all about the whales, dolphins and porpoises they spot!
To find out about the latest marine life sightings spotted elsewhere,
click here.
Date: Monday 17th September 2007
Anchorage: Isle of Gigha
Position: 55° 40’.500N 005° 44’.100W
Distance Travelled: 30 NM
It’s been sunny all day today. It was absolutely beautiful. But very windy. Indeed. We left Loch Tarbert and sailed – yes, sailed – down the Sound of Islay and past the distilleries, where we had some shelter from the wild winds. Ella and Hilary heroically observed from the front of the boat. They didn’t have much of a hope of seeing anything but got to see some stunning seas and scenery, although Hilary was heard to complain to Ella ‘your sea’s a different colour from mine!’. Actually they saw three seals, which to be honest was pretty good going. Nobody vomited. This in itself was a minor triumph. Anyway, seeing as there were no decent observations to be made, we decided to sack the day’s science off and go on a little afternoon holiday to the island of Gigha. We picked up a mooring buoy, which involved Mat doing a lap of honour around the bay on the bowsprit. He loved it. Well, it was alright. We went ashore to lovely Gigha and had showers. The British thought they were marvellous, whilst the Americans thought they were a little sub-standard. Had a brilliant walk through Achamore gardens, then onto the pub, where we ate lots (for a change) and played ‘let’s laugh at the foreigners’ by giving Lois a lesson in British coinage. Followed by an epic little dinghy ride home in the darkest of dark with the shiniest of stars (including one shooting one).
Date: Sunday 16th September 2007
Anchorage: Loch Tarbert, Isle of Jura
Position: 55° 58’.300N 005° 54’.100W
Distance Travelled: 45 NM
After a dark and windy night we awoke to a calm sea with the ‘gentle’ rain pitter-pattering on the hatches, sea, oilies and everything else. Leaving the Loch through seal- infested waters we set out north west to cover unsurveyed areas. Seeing nothing bar a pair of porpoise and some seals through the sheets of rain we reached Corryvrekan. At this point, to our delight and surprise the sun came out to play and Hilary immediately got sunburnt. We headed back down to Loch Tarbert to hide from the nasty forecast. After safely anchoring some of us went for a dinghy ride of terror through the roaring rapids led on by our skipper to the inner narrows of the loch. The light on the hills and water was stunning and lit up the deer on the hill and the herons on the shore. The day was rounded off by doubling our body weights with spaghetti.
Date: Friday14th and Saturday 15th September 2007
Anchorage: Loch Tarbert, Isle of Jura (Saturday)
Position: 55° 57’.600N 005° 54’.900W
Distance Travelled: 30 NM (14th) 35 NM (15th)
Having met everyone (Roel, the lucky single man among us from the land the people reclaimed from the sea; Charlotte, our zoology student from Brighton, England; Lois Q. from Boulder CO, USA a grandmother who loves nature; Ella, Marine Biology student from Kent, England; Hilary from Dublin Ireland who spends her time as a lawyer when not reading the world’s great classics and moi, another Lois from Boston MA who as the typist doesn’t have to say anything else about herself). We had a series of fascinating lectures on cetaceans, boating safety and lights, buoys etc. We also waited for veggies to be delivered before shoving off. After a short detour Dave, our skipper decided to go south down the sound of Mull, under sail and clear blue skies, observing as we went. We saw and heard harbour porpoises (Hilary made our first sighting). A close encounter with the Ferry put our hydrophone in jeopardy. After several abortive attempts, we found a mooring in Oban Bay where the stars were very bright and beautiful.
Today, we started with bird identification training. We saw a pair of porpoises and managed a complete rotation of appointed tasks before the weather deteriorated, with the wind increasing to gusts of 35 knots, and made it unsuitable for sightings. Motoring along the beautiful coastline of Jura, several of us needed to have a bit of a lie-down to regain normal skin colour. We found quieter waters in the spectacular scenery of Loch Tarbert and under the gaze of a pair of stags, where we have anchored for the night.
# posted by HWDT @ 2:09 PM
