Date: Monday 14th September
Anchorage: Acairseid Mhór, Eriskay
Position: 57°03’.959N, 07°17’.556W
Distance: 38.8NM

Wow, what a day. That may not be scientific but today seemed to defy science. After another grey morning we set off into wall to wall blue skies and a flat calm sea. An excellent encounter with a juvenile basking shark got us started, but suddenly as we cruised along the west coast of Barra 2 mighty fins close inshore heralded the arrival of a pod of 4 killer whales. Everyone was completely put off guard with Phil’s announcement of the sighting, especially Edward who had just lifted the lid of the toilet only to hear KILLER WHALES! and ran up and missed his opportunity to use the loo (he held it for the duration of the sighting). We were lucky to be able to spend nearly 90 minutes following these beauties, 2 males & 2 females, as they headed south along the coast at 5 or 6 knots. Literally, hundreds of still photos and some video allowed definite identification of all 4, including the famous John Coe. On breaking off contact we headed back north to pass through the sound of Barra to our anchorage, and to cap off our day a pod of 5 of the “Barra Bottlenose” dolphins joined us in the clear shallow waters in a prolonged and enthusiastic display of bow riding and spinning. Fabulous birdlife included bonxies harassing gannets and a diver (blackthroated?) seeming to peer down into the water as the killer whales passed by. All in all a great day, concluded by a super salad, luscious lasagne and scrummy crumble. And so to bed to dream of more encounters to come.