Location: Kyle of Lochalsh

Position: 57 16.7 N, 05 43.1 W

Distance covered: 49 nm

We left Mallaig a little before 10 AM and went immediately on effort.  Just outside the harbour at the mouth of the Sound of Sleat, we were greeted by extremely calm seas and sunny weather.  After sighting a few harbour porpoises, a call from Cormac rang out: “minke whale at 90 degrees.”  Our skipper headed towards the whale, but then two more individuals were seen in different quadrants.  We spent the better part of the morning trying to get close to one of the three animals, and, indeed, we were near enough to hear them breathe on a few occasions. 

At length, we left the whales and porpoises and motored north on the Sound of Sleat.  The scenery was extraordinary on both the Skye and the mainland sides.  We passed

the Clan MacDonald Castle on the Sleat Peninsula.  Susan spotted another minke whale at some distance, but we were never able to approach it very closely.

We steamed to Kyle of Lochalsh and tied up to a wharf on which was an enormous pile of timber waiting to be loaded on a ship. We dined at Gateway Restaurant to celebrate American Independence Day, in recognition of the humiliating defeat of the British and the first step in the collapse of the Satanic British Empire, which to the best of our knowledge now only consists of a small island on the prime meridian and a tiny Caribbean island, Barbados. 

Several of us imbibed in a wee nip at the Lolchalsh Hotel before returning to Silurian, where we found our skipper waiting up for us like an anxious parent wanting to see his charges safe at home before he retired for the night.

Susan and Dennis Carlyle

Volunteers

# posted by HWDT @ 10:01 AM