The Non Dog Blog!
Day 1 of the survey and the waters of the outer Moray Firth await…! Unfortunately we’re minus our canine researcher as she has yet to find her sea-legs and has thus decided to stay on dry land for the time being, she will however be joining us later in the week and will update you then on her thoughts and findings in the local vicinity that is Portknockie!! (No sheep Kila…sorry!)
With a slight bit of drizzle we arrived at Buckie harbour to board our research vessel the “Gemini Explorer”. A lifeboat in her previous life, she is now carriage for visitors wanting to go out and experience the local wildlife and for the coming weeks, our new home! After the obligatory safety notices we steamed out the harbour and headed north…out into the blue!
Unfortunately however it wasn’t to be the most successful of maiden voyages as within only minutes of leaving the haven of protected waters the ‘feeding of the fish” began!! The 3 metre swell started taking effect and one by one they fell…..leaving only 3 of us standing (my good self, Claire the hardy seal carer and Johnathan the Wildlife Centre volunteer)…..and the other 5 in various positions over the side and praying to Neptune for salvation!! Thank goodness we didn’t make the effort to make a slap-up breakfast – what a waste that would have been!! Our recently retrieved hydrophone decided to throw another spanner in the works and Captain Pine, despite trying every trick in the book (between visits to the head!) wasn’t able to bring it to life – some serious acoustic surgery is on the cards for this evening.
The swell wasn’t abating and the executive decision was made to come “off-effort”, turn the boat around and head for home…much to the relief of the “fish-feeding 5”. We returned to the cottage to back-up what data we had managed to collect, amidst the sickness, and set about planning for the coming days!
Roll on tomorrow….but maybe with the assistance of some sea-sickness pills for the majority of the crew!!
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But kudos to the people who did their best to save him.