Dolphins!

Having had an internet cut out this morning I thought it the perfect opportunity to don my wt weather gear and go and see if I can use my long lens to spot land. Alone on the Forecastle Deck it was perfect timing as a pod of dolphins decided to approach from directly ahead of me and proceed to bow ride with us. I took a couple of snaps and then hurtled inside to try and spread the word. By the time I got back with a few others the dolphins had disappeared and we stood around waiting for them in the rain, loosing a couple of people back to the warmth of the interior. But sure enough they returned for another photo op.

After lunch most of the crew had seen them and some even from their portholes (lucky warm and dry devils!) but with another spotting and improving weather with Skye now in sight I returned to the deck with a few others. No more dolphins turned up, but there were plenty of birds: Black backed Gulls, Kittiwakes, Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars, Gannets, Guillemots, Razorbills and even some clumsy Puffins who were having real trouble in the wind.

I'll pop up to the deck again around 4pm as we enter Loch Broom to head into Ullapool. There's bound to be more to see then. :)
Common Dolphins come to visit, many of them choosing to bow ride at the front of the vessel.A couple of razorbills bobbing about along our port side.The inimitable puffin attempting its inelegant take off and frantic flapping flight into a strong headwind. You have to love them :)

Morning of 10th May

Went to bed early last night to try and edge toward the watch shift pattern times. I have been assigned to the 4am til 4pm shift so I got up at 6am today and I shall get up at 5am tomorrow, ready for my first 4am start on Thursday morning.

Sleep was good as the bed is comfortable, but the noises that lull you to sleep will take a little while to get used to. The slap of waves against the hull is obviously comforting, although it sounds like a constant washing machine, particularly when the waves wash around the port hole. And then there’s the sound of the bottom profiler. The ping-per-second is constantly audible down here by the water line, although honestly the sound is more like something between a constant car alarm a block or two away, and someone who is very good at pogo-sticking.

Speaking of the porthole, it is rather choppy out there today, and in spite of being in the sea of the Hebrides, there is no land in sight. Land or no land however, I’ve started taking down our position every now and then and plotting the coordinates into GIS to try and figure out where we are. This morning’s plot at 08.30am put us between Barra and Canna/Rum which were completely invisible from my porthole on the port side of the vessel and the breakfast table on the starboard. Hopefully later in the day there will be some signs of Skye and Harris on either side of the ship. I shall wander up to the Forecastle deck dressed to the nines against the buffeting wind to investigate in a bit. Naturally my camera will accompany me.

I shall take pictures of interesting sights as I go and post a few up here, although they shall be pretty compressed as the internet capacity doesn’t allow for much.

Departure

And we're off.

The ship left KG5 (as the taxi drivers call it), or King George V Dock, Glasgow this morning at just after 10am and we have headed down the Clyde river and are now somewhere in the vicinity of Arran.

The plan is to head up The Minch (that is not a rude phrase) and then pull into Ullapool for some spare parts.

This blog is here purely to update friends and family and to stave off the boredom during times when we are steaming, on watch but jobless and just generally not working. Expect (heavily compressed) photos, random musings, scientific babblings and the unexpected (I flatter myself).



The removal of the gangplank at King George V Dock. That's it, no more land until... Ullapool!?
Some of my fwellow scientists on the Forecastle Deck watching our departure. L-R: Aggie, Alice, Becky and Niels.A bit later, at the mouth of the clyde looking SouthWest towards Northern Ireland (which you can't see). This is the view from my porthole.