Date: Monday 21st July, 2008

Anchorage: Arisaig

Position: 56° 54’.100N 005° 51’.900W

Distance Travelled: 30 NM

The crew; Captain Dave, First mate Paul, Science monkeys Susie and Cormac.

Volunteers came from the far corners of the UK; Coll, Doug, Natalie, Mike, Phil and Fiona.

We were to be Hollywood stars for the day, well at least cetacean stars of Scotland as we were joined by Natasha and Danny from the STV 5:30 show. It could have gone horribly wrong with rain and strong wind forecast which could have meant poor sighting conditions. However this was not the case and we had one of those lucky days where the sightings came in thick and fast. Within minutes of departing the quay in Tobermory Natalie sighted two porpoise and the cameras started rolling. Soon after we saw birds ahead and Phil’s keen eye spotted a fin in the distance. As we approached we were rewarded by the sight of two basking sharks who cooperated kindly during filming and swam open mouthed around the boat. After a couple more porpoise cruised on by Phil thought he saw splashes in the distance.

Phil is on his third trip with Silurian now, he loves it and keeps coming back for more saying he is addicted to both the unique scenery and wildlife. The splashes turned out to be a pod of 10 or so common dolphins including several calves one not much bigger than a ruler - a tiny wee dolphin – Awww! The dolphins were playful and bow rode with us for about 20mins obviously teaching the babies how to surf.

The film crew got right into the spotting and Natasha, the presenter, described seeing the dolphins as a once in a lifetime experience. She climbed into the crows nest for a better view and different angle and rode out the swells as we rounded Ardnamurchan point- the most westerly point of the British mainland.

Skipper Dave brought us carefully and skilfully into the narrow channel leading into Arisaig. Seals lazed on the exposed rocks, lounging, waiting for the tide to return. A family of otters, a mother and two pups, swam down the channel to add to our excellent day of sightings. The film crew waved goodbye as they departed by our tender and we picked up our mooring for the evening. The food this evening was excellent, we were treated to venison and vegetable casserole full of home grown beans and massive carrots. Its an early night tonight as we look forward to the continuing adventure in the morning.

The end of day tally of sightings stood at

Harbour Porpoise 17

Common Dolphins 10

Basking Sharks 5

Seals 3

(we also saw more seals and otters after we finished surveying).