So, the forecast was good for getting the boat in the water today, the boat is only small so the sea has to be a veritable millpond, and that was how it was this morning. However, the tide also needs to be relatively high to make it easier to launch the boat from the shore (ie not slipping on seaweed covered rocks), but also makes it better for getting into a couple of the caves where shags nest. And today it was not high water until 15.40, so we took the boat onto the Mire Loch to have a test run, checking everything was working OK and letting Elaine get used to steering an outboard with a tiller (see picture). And the plan was to take the boat out onto the sea this afternoon to monitoring the seabirds in blind spots that we couldn't see from the cliffs. However, the wind had got up just enough to make it that little bit too choppy for our wee zodiac so we had to abort. We did have a consolation prize of seeing 9 puffins and a big group of gannets plunge diving in amongst the whitecaps at the launch site though. He hey, Monday looks like the next possible window in the weather, so fingers crossed.
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