Location: Tobermory Bay

We had gone to bed under a perfect night sky, the kind that makes you want to quit the city and turn off sodium lighting for ever…but inevitably the morning was grey and overcast…not a day for filming, so Andy and Simon abandoned day two of their filming. Instead, we set off for Eorsa on the Cuvier Whale skeleton hunt. We had the head and now needed to find the body, location unknown.

We anchored at the eastern end of the island, and on the basis of the Skippers’ sound opinion that the poor whale could only have made it onto the southern shore; the First Mate led an amphibious assault, landing two search parties to comb the southern shoreline. Matt then pootled off in the inflatable, and while we were yomping over treacherous moorland, slippery rocks and cliff paths, and found it within minutes on the NORTHERN shore. Well, the skipper redeemed himself by preparing hot dog rolls and playing a lament for a dead whale on his penny whistle.

Laura led the skeleton retrieval party, and soon the mortal remains of ?????? [The whale needs a name] were collected ceremoniously into black bags and returned to ship, and for us to devour the hot dogs.

Then time to head home…up the western coast of Mull, past Laura’s caravan, and back to Tobermory. Could we manage another tour of duty? No question and Laura kept us at it by climbing aloft to the crows nest and calling many sightings of “unidentified seals” and harbour porpoise to keep us on our toes. The sea was flat calm and glassy, so sightings, real and imaginary, flowed thick and fast., until we rounded the north west cape and then enthusiasm flagged as we sank into quiet contemplation of the trip coming to an end, and new friends soon to be parted.

Contemplation was soon ruptured by the Quartermasters Mandelberg [mother and daughter] whipping us into shape to clean the ship and leave it spotless for the next team. A final supper of leftovers conjured into a feast by Madeleine, and so to the pub, and at last to sleep.

Stephen (HWDT volunteer)

Location: Cragaig, Bay, Ulva

Position: 56’ 28.029 006’ 95.760 W

Monday evening, at the end of the 2 great days of spectacular scenery, grand sailing, improving weather……but unfortunately little animal activity.

Yesterday was grey and windy but in among the waves we spotted 3 basking sharks,2 of them juveniles, but the contacts were brief as we were moving fast. At the end of a good day we were treated to an excellent curry by Graham, with fresh poppadoms etc. Conversation developed along interesting lines, though lubricated with much less alcohol than usual.

Today, began and continued with blue sky and a brisk breeze, encouraging the skipper to sail off us the anchor(he sailed us on last night),much to the mate’s consternation until he was reminded that we could now sell the engine on ebay. So, nearly 10 hours & 40+ nautical miles later we must be all of 15 miles from our anchorage last night on Coll. We’ve spent another day zig-zagging among the small isles but have seen nothing more than a single seal all day. However, the sailing has been fabulous, with instruction from skipper Glenn that you’d pay a fortune for.

At the end of a long day we’ve put Laura ashore on Gometra to collect an important skull from a stranded whale (previously identified as a very rare Cuvier’s Beaked Whale) and then landed on Staffa in perfect evening sunshine to enjoy Fingal’s cave and the view from the summit before anchoring at dusk in isolated Cragaig Bay, on the southwest coast of Ulva. This is otter-heaven and has the great distinction on a starlit night of being out of site of human habitation or manmade light, and the skipper’s playing reels and jigs on the pennywhistle.

We’ve just polished off a magnificent Risso’s (oops I mean Risotto), courtesy of Steven and several bottles of vino excellento, the conversation has ranged from extinct woodpeckers to female urinals (you don`t want to know, really!) via who knows what. So now I’m off to stargaze on deck, a quick nip of malt, and so to bed.

PS while I’ve written this the conversation has taken a serious turn for the worse.

Phil (HWDT volunteer)

Location: Gott Bay, Tiree

Position: 56’ 30.7 N 006’ 48.0 W

Day how many? I think none of us really realise any more… we’re in real holiday mode here – days and dates have been forgotten for the rhythm of being on the water, on watch, looking for birds and beasts, the, off watch moving from tea breaks to meal time and washing up duty…

Today we saw a Minke Whale, a wonderful beast which puffed and blowed alongside us and graced us with 10 minutes of its company. Other than that, not much was sighted – some harbour porpoises and a seal or two. Laura also saw a 2^nd Minke whale from the crow’s nest where she spent most of the afternoon, but unfortunately it was not near enough for the rest of us to see.

We’ve anchored in Tiree for the evening, and the trip in from the Western side of Coll through the Gunna Sound was magnificent. There was a tremendous welcome from about 5 000 shags, which fish off the rocks on either side of the sound. (Level of humour on the boat “This is the place to come if you want a shag”)

Despite the fact that the day was pretty grey and we didn’t see much of the sun, many of us are quite red faced this evening, mainly due to the force 3-4 breeze. Best of all, we didn’t have even 5 minutes of rain!

A visit to Tiree CoOp store topped us up with our alcohol content for the next few days, in the form of wine, whisky and beer as well as more vital items such as sugar for our tea!

The cooking today must be complimented – in the early part of the day Mike played a blinder to supply is with very welcome mid-morning brownies and lunchtime mince & vegetable stew. This evening Phil made a wonderful chicken-in-red wine and pasta dish, and Stephen supplied a superb second course of Lanarkshire Blue Cheese (which of course we ate with Glenn’s famous oatcakes). Conversation revolved around the meanings of various nautical terms (meaning of bow or stern anyone?) and a long discussion on natural body care products. Hmm…

Still, we’re all still talking to each other, we’re all still laughing together, and the stories are getting more interesting and the jokes more daring as we get to know one another better. Now all we need is to find a method to see or hear these rugby matches. (France beaten by Argentina, now that’s one I’d like to have seen…)

Madeleine (HWDT volunteer)

Location: Tarbet Bay, Loch Nevis

Position: 56’ 58.4 N 005’ 38.2 W

After a night of dreamless sleep (thanks to Tobermory Distillery & industrial grade ear plugs) the day dawned early and some of our party were fully functioning and on operational whale watch by 7.00 a.m. One notable exception was Mike (aka Bonxie) who had reverted to student-mode, i.e. rising in mid-afternoon. The early start was prompted by the need to resolve a problem that our First Mate Matt had spent several hours on Thursday trying to fix. One of the two heads on board had broken down and this led to a lengthy discussion on Thursday evening that concluded with a decision to arrange for the collection of a new pump from Mallaig within the next two days.

A rather uneventful morning cetacean-wise was brightened by the delivery of steaming mugs of Mulligatawny soup produced by Matt (now promoted to Head Engineer). In the afternoon our survey leader Laura (no doubt stung by Mike’s almost unfair porcine comparison of the previous day) decided to spend some time in her own company (i.e. in the crow’s nest – a refuge I have also found the need to seek a number of times during this trip). This quest for solitude soon proved to be a masterstroke when Laura called a sighting of a distant group of dolphins. We were able to make a close approach to this group, some of whom were leaping clear of the water surface. The whole company enjoyed an extremely thrilling encounter with this obliging party of Risso’s Dolphins.

The rest of the afternoon produced a number of contacts with porpoises and seals and this was concluded by a visit to Mallaig to enable our Head Engineer to collect a new pump for the broken head. We then proceeded to our evening’s anchorage with hopes of making contact with a Humpback Whale that had apparently been sighted in the area. Whilst we saw little more than the odd porpoise on this last leg our day’s sailing it brought us to a beautiful anchorage where a small party went ashore whilst Christine was conjuring up our evening meal.

An excellent day was concluded by Christine’s magical cheese and potato pie followed by an inspired Banana Split produced by Mike. Now – where’s that second bottle of Malt?

Graham (HWDT volunteer)

Location: Canna Harbour

Position: 57’ 03.3 N 006’ 29.7 W

Today was a good day (for me at least). I saw and learnt many things, which most of the other crew did not. When I was on bird observation, Laura was talking to me and saw a splash so I turned round and saw two massive orcas breaching high out of the water. No-one else apart from me and her saw them. HA! I also saw a basking shark, lots of porpoises and a beautiful little island that we were moored at one night. There have only really been two bad things about the trip so far, mainly sea sickness. Today I felt ridiculously ill because some of the swells were so big so I decided to take some hydrobromide to try to stop it. Needless to say, the tablets were crap and didn’t work, so I just had to line my stomach and get on with it. The other bad thing is the speed at which Graham, Phil, Glenn, Steve and I are plowing through the single malt, red wine and beer (doesn’t make for a happy start in the morning on a rocky boat!). But was it really likely to ever be a dry boat??? Don’t think so!

Madeline made a lovely tea as well, involving roast veg, taters and chicken and after that, much to the men’s delight, I got my Nuts magazine out and there were boobs galore (Laura seemed surprisingly interested as well, I think she’s got something to tell her boyfriend!). After that we indulged in another few wee drams which, truth be told, knocked us out and it was off to bed for everyone except me, as I couldn’t sleep so I went outside to star gaze. After around ten – fifteen minutes there was a small window in the clouds through which I could see a lot of stars. It was amazing to see what the lack of pollution does to the brightness of them. After that it was beddy bies, although it took me a while as the skippers snoring seemed to penetrate through my cabin door from the other side of the boat.

Mike (HWDT volunteer)

Location: Loch na droma bhuidhe, Sunart

Position: 56’ 39 N 005’ 56.0 W

Six volunteers (Graham, Stephen, Phil, Madeleine, Christine and Mike) joined Silurian on the evening of Tuesday 4^th Sept for a briefing ahead of our 7 day trip (and a very welcome supper prepared by Matt our first mate). After the formalities we visited the pub at the end of the jetty for a couple of beers (and Irish whiskey!) Our first morning was taken up with an introduction and presentation by Laura about the marine wildlife of the West Coast and an insight into the work of the Trust. We then got to work on a miserable rainy day accompanied by Simon and Andy, two photographers whose remit was to document the work of Silurian on behalf of the Nadair Trust, one of HWDT’s major sponsors. Activity was slow at the beginning then we were surrounded by a number of separate groups of harbour porpoise, with one group of about 10 individuals coming very close to the boat under sail. Simon and Andy made the most of a rainy day, both climbing the crow’s nest to get best vantage points. We learnt how to report the sightings and input them into the database – an altogether busy day taking in much new information. We headed to Loch Sunart to anchor close to Carna and Oronsay with the waft of a very exotic sausage dish prepared by Mike! Notable challenge of the day was Mike’s climb up to the crow’s nest despite a fear of heights. However, once up there it proved difficult to get him to come down again!

Christine (AKA Laura’s Mum and HWDT volunteer)