Date: Thursday 20^th September, 2007

Anchorage: Tobermory

Position: 56°37.200 N 006°03.700 W

Distance Travelled: 40 NM

Seas not as calm as we had hoped for, so it was hard going on the sightings-front as we travelled up the west coast of Mull, past Staffa and the Treshnish Isles. But the scenery was amazing, and the brisk winds gave us a bonny sail all the way up. By the time we got into Tobermory, we had sighted a few harbour porpoises, some seals and a basking shark. Having cleaned the boat until it gleamed, we spent a much-deserved evening in the pub. Well done everybody for a really good week, in spite of the windy weather. This was our last survey trip of 2007, so farewell until next season!

Date: Wednesday 19^th September 2007

Anchorage: Bunessan, Isle of Mull

Position: 56° 19’.200N 006° 15’.000W

Distance Travelled: 59 NM

After a very early start we motored out of Loch Craignish; passing through promising waters and sunny skies, which unfortunately yielded no sightings. After passing past the south coast of Mull and Iona we finally had our first sighting of the day, a basking shark! After following this around we followed in Mendelson’s footsteps and reached Fingal’s cave, on Staffa. As we reached are chosen anchorage of the night, Cragaig Bay, a message reached us that killer whales had been spotted west of Staffa. So we retraced or steps to try and find them. Ella and Suzy whilst on observation finally spotted three blows and for a fleeting second actually saw a fin, but then the animals disappeared in the rapidly building sea, and we were unable to find them again. After this excitement we decided to go to Bunessan for anchorage and on reaching this we found another two basking sharks. For dinner Dave ( the skipper) prepared a traditional tea of haggis, swede and potatoes ( haggis, neaps and taties) although not everyone went for the meat option…

Date: Thursday 20^th September, 2007

Anchorage: Tobermory

Position: 56°37.200 N 006°03.700 W

Distance Travelled: 40 NM

Seas not as calm as we had hoped for, so it was hard going on the sightings-front as we travelled up the west coast of Mull, past Staffa and the Treshnish Isles. But the scenery was amazing, and the brisk winds gave us a bonny sail all the way up. By the time we got into Tobermory, we had sighted a few harbour porpoises, some seals and a basking shark. Having cleaned the boat until it gleamed, we spent a much-deserved evening in the pub. Well done everybody for a really good week, in spite of the windy weather. This was our last survey trip of 2007, so farewell until next season!

Date: Wednesday 19^th September 2007

Anchorage: Bunessan, Isle of Mull

Position: 56° 19’.200N 006° 15’.000W

Distance Travelled: 59 NM

After a very early start we motored out of Loch Craignish; passing through promising waters and sunny skies, which unfortunately yielded no sightings. After passing past the south coast of Mull and Iona we finally had our first sighting of the day, a basking shark! After following this around we followed in Mendelson’s footsteps and reached Fingal’s cave, on Staffa. As we reached are chosen anchorage of the night, Cragaig Bay, a message reached us that killer whales had been spotted west of Staffa. So we retraced or steps to try and find them. Ella and Suzy whilst on observation finally spotted three blows and for a fleeting second actually saw a fin, but then the animals disappeared in the rapidly building sea, and we were unable to find them again. After this excitement we decided to go to Bunessan for anchorage and on reaching this we found another two basking sharks. For dinner Dave ( the skipper) prepared a traditional tea of haggis, swede and potatoes ( haggis, neaps and taties) although not everyone went for the meat option…

Date: Thursday 20^th September, 2007

Anchorage: Tobermory

Position: 56°37.200 N 006°03.700 W

Distance Travelled: 40 NM

Seas not as calm as we had hoped for, so it was hard going on the sightings-front as we travelled up the west coast of Mull, past Staffa and the Treshnish Isles. But the scenery was amazing, and the brisk winds gave us a bonny sail all the way up. By the time we got into Tobermory, we had sighted a few harbour porpoises, some seals and a basking shark. Having cleaned the boat until it gleamed, we spent a much-deserved evening in the pub. Well done everybody for a really good week, in spite of the windy weather. This was the last monitoring trip of 2007, so farewell till next season!

Date: Wednesday 19^th September 2007

Anchorage: Bunessan, Isle of Mull

Position: 56° 19’.200N 006° 15’.000W

Distance Travelled: 59 NM

After a very early start we motored out of Loch Craignish; passing through promising waters and sunny skies, which unfortunately yielded no sightings. After passing past the south coast of Mull and Iona we finally had our first sighting of the day, a basking shark! After following this around we followed in Mendelson’s footsteps and reached Fingal’s cave, on Staffa. As we reached are chosen anchorage of the night, Cragaig Bay, a message reached us that killer whales had been spotted west of Staffa. So we retraced or steps to try and find them. Ella and Suzy whilst on observation finally spotted three blows and for a fleeting second actually saw a fin, but then the animals disappeared in the rapidly building sea, and we were unable to find them again. After this excitement we decided to go to Bunessan for anchorage and on reaching this we found another two basking sharks. For dinner Dave ( the skipper) prepared a traditional tea of haggis, swede and potatoes ( haggis, neaps and taties) although not everyone went for the meat option…

Date: Tuesday 18^th September 2007

Anchorage: Loch Craignish

Position: 56° 09’.900N 005° 33’.300W

Distance Travelled: 40 NM

Today was a day of soup! After waking in the beautiful bay on Gigha we decided to go South to try and find some dolphins that have been regularly seen off a campsite on the Mull of Kintyre. Having had no luck, (and after a short dinghy detour) we turned North and had a nice gentle trip till we got out of the shelter of Gigha. At this point, or rather shortly before, Matt had decided to make some lovely soup. Once we were in less sheltered waters this was to be found all over the galley floor, the foredeck and most of Science Officer Susie. We had great fun tidying it up! Soup sticks!! At this point the mizzen and the foresail were put up and we had a lovely, if somewhat rolly, sail up to Loch Craignish, where after anchoring and supper it started to howl. We had a very informative talk on bioacoustics, however unfortunately Susie had recordings of whales so we were deprived of her impressions.

Date: Monday 17^th 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 16^th 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: Friday14^th and Saturday 15^th September 2007

Anchorage: Loch Tarbert, Isle of Jura (Saturday)

Position: 55° 57’.600N 005° 54’.900W

Distance Travelled: 30 NM (14^th) 35 NM (15^th)

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.