When you go on a cruise of the wildlife of the Western Isles you do expect to see wildlife on the Isles. To be fair we have seen a minke whale, seals, and dolphins as well as a variety of sea birds, which of course I can no longer name. However, I really was hoping for more. We have probably missed our chance for red deer, but hope springs eternal for puffin sightings.

The morning dawned cold and stormy, and the captain said that he had had to change his plans again, and we would spend the morning cruising to the Isle of Canna and spend the afternoon ashore there. That sounded like a plan, and we spent the morning enjoying the view of the passing islands from the lounge and listening to a great talk by Roger Morgan Grenville who is a world expert on shearwaters, long winged sea birds in the petrel family. I knew nothing about them and found the talk to be fascinating. Shearwaters don’t touch land for 2 years. They live up to 50 years. They return to where they were born. They cover 4 million miles in their lifetimes. They use less energy to fly than sit on the water. They do something called dynamic soaring 6 inches off the water where air resistance is the less. The sea is safe, land is dangerous. They don’t need to sleep. They shut off half the brain and continue to fly through the night. At that stage I was getting information overload. I needed to shut off half of my brain and have a nap. There is a definite downside to imbibing champagne during a lecture. However he really is a good speaker.

We cruised to the Isle of Rum and watched the shearwaters from the ship. The Isle of Rum has the 2^nd biggest sheerwater colony in the world, and there certainly were a lot of them. The problem was they were flying by us so fast, I never got to take a decent photo of them.

After watching them for a while, we started our engines, and off we headed in a northerly direction.

The weather got worse and worse, and it became clear that the ship did not have stabilizers as we rocked and rolled along. By lunch time things were definitely very bumpy.

We had a wonderful seafood buffet for lunch, but it was quite a challenge carrying our plates to our table. However, there were no major accidents, and no one seemed to be the least bit perturbed by the ship’s motion.

After lunch we sat back in the lounge and watched a very interesting film on the reintroduction of white tailed sea eagles to the UK. Norway sent over a supply of the birds, and now they are reestablishing themselves over here. They seem to be remarkably similar to bald eagles and fish eagles.

The excitement of the afternoon was spotting a US Navy ship in our vicinity. There are a lot of Royal Navy vessels in the area, but no one seemed to know what an American vessel was doing here. They seem to be a long way from home.

Finally we arrived at our destination, but the sea was clearly still very rough and there were high winds. The captain quite rightly declared that it was too unsafe to launch the tenders, so no one would be going ashore, and we would spend the rest of the afternoon cruising to Stornoway where we would safely anchor for the night.

Of course, then the wind died down and we had a peaceful time cruising between the Scottish Isles.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner. The second night and the last night are the 2 formal nights on board. The other nights everyone is still smartly dressed – most of the men are in jackets and ties, and the ladies in dresses or smart trousers. Each evening everyone goes to the lounge for a predinner drink and to chat about the day’s activities, and Richard, the captain gives us an update on the plans for the next day.

Dinner is at 7:30 and there is always a choice of 2 starters, a soup, a choice of a meat, fish, or vegetarian main course, and then a choice of 2 desserts. Then there is also cheese – the cheese is usually local and very good. Quite a treat.

Coffee and petit fours are served in the lounge after dinner and everyone ends up there to have a chat and after dinner drink. More champagne for me, yay! Brian is working his way thought their collection of single malt whiskies. Lyndsey, the senior purser, gives us an update of the next day’s plans, and then reads us several jokes.

There is always a film shown on the TV each evening, but we never got to watch it. Too busy enjoying the atmosphere and company in the lounge, and we are often the last people to leave.

I am quite getting used to life on board.

So, the magical mystery tour continues…………..