Day 5 - Seabirds and Seals

Sunday, July 23 -- another foggy day -- but undaunted, we set off for Lerwick, where the group split in two.

While one group was doing a lace knitting at the Jamieson's store, the other group were on the Seabirds and Seals Cruise.

Terry and I had chosen the morning cruise -- with afternoon lace knitting.......

Again, fog hampered my photographs......but if you go to the Seabirds and Seals Cruise website, you'll see some glorious photographs.

The tour circles the small island of Noss which is just off of the mainland opposite Lerwick. The whole island is a Nature Reserve -- home to cliff-nesting birds like the Guillemot, Gannet and Puffin. When you take the cruise, you see it from the water....you can also go across in a small inflatable boat to walk the island.

We weren't really out of Lerwick harbour when we had our first wildlife experience -- a group of old "bachelor" seals hang out at the fish processing plant...they know the sound of the Dunter III boat, and come over for some socializing and herring (provided by one of the fishing boats).

Here's a photo of one of the old boys now.

It was a foggy day and the sea was rolling, some of our brave group went up onto the cabin roof for a better view? Here's a photo of Dr. Lea - she stayed up there the longest -- I'd say possibly a full hour.
She came down when we stopped to do some undersea viewing with a special submarine camera that Dr. Wills obviously loved to play with -- remember the old joke about the difference between men and boys (just being the size/cost of their toys) - prime example. Dr. Jonathan LOVES his underwater camera!

That's Terry with the hat on -- little did I know that she wasn't feeling that great -- I didn't tell her that I wasn't feeling that great! Me, who never gets seasick -- I was queasy and couldn't stay in the cabin for long without feeling like, well you know......I think it was the fog.....one of the ways to avoid seasickness is to be outside and focus on the horizon -- with fog, no horizon -- that must have been it (or it could have been the smell of the engines, or the herring in the bucket by the door of the cabin LOL). Back to my report....

The fog hampered any good shots of the Gannet colony that we visited.....but it did give a mysterious effect in this photo.....

and on the way back to harbour, I caught this Fulmar flying alongside!

The lace workshop was ok -- remember, I'm a fair isle knitter -- so I struggled along. Terry caught on quick and she's still knitting on her scarf today -- she has it more than half done and I'll show it to you when she finishes it!

If you go to Shetland and want to take one of these sea trip to see the wildlife -- I'd really recommend booking it at the spur of the moment -- it's a great day -- book it for today! When DH and I were in Shetland in May 2003, we were fortunate in that we had booked a full day trip with Dr. Jonathan -- he doesn't do this trip any more -- it was to Muckle Flugga, the northernmost point of the UK - at 60 degrees latitude. It was the most spectacular day -- the weather was clear, the sun was out, the sea was relatively calm......and we made it right up to "The Flugga" -- a rare occasion we found out later. To celebrate, a bottle of champagne was opened and I still have the cork to this day. Just to show you the kind of scenes you might see on a great day off the coast of Shetland.....

That's DH in the centre in his orange protective suit videoing. We all had to put on protective clothing (for the wind and all of the birds flying around us!) It was chilly......hats, gloves and scarves were a must......

this is the Muckle Flugga lighthouse in the distance! I'd say it was worth it!