A Taste of Summer!

It worked OK last time so I am back.
We had loads of dolphin sightings last year on Misty Isle Boat Trips and I tried to upload a short video. It didn't work very well so I have found some nice photos taken from Misty Isle by ourselves and some of our passengers who kindly sent us their pics. It doesn't matter how often we see the dolphins it is always a great thrill and we are really looking forward to having them back this year.
It's just over a month to the start of the season but at the moment we have snow on the ground. Maybe since we have had the coldest winter on record we will also have the warmest summer!! Here's hoping.
I have been given a couple of dates for "What's On" in the village:
Friday 16th April....Dance to 'Peat Cutters' in aid of Mallaig Lifeboat. 8pm onwards with donations collected at the door.
Saturday 19th June...Elgol Gala Day.
Boat Race, Bouncy Castles,Crofters Olympics(always great fun!) Baking, BBQ,Stalls etc and a dance at night.I will post more details nearer the time.
August 7th...ANDURIL..."Up and coming German Celtic Rock Band inspired by RunRig."
That's all just now.
Keep warm.
Anne
A big thanks to Bob MacMillan of www.skye-birds.com and Stuart for the great dolphin shots.

Dolphin Watch!

We had a lovely day today. This season we have sat on the boat watching bottlenose dolphins in small numbers which is always lovely, but today we had a fairly large gathering of common dolphins with us for a good while both on the way to Loch Coruisk and on the way back to Elgol. So far we have been seeing a lot of wildlife on this stretch of water - bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, minky whales and of course plenty of seals and birds - - to name just a selection off hand!

Dolphins near Loch Coruisk

No - not dolphins in Loch Coruisk but dolphins very near Loch Coruisk! (From the news this last week the last fresh-water dolphins have just become extinct!)

On Friday night at the Loch Coruisk barbeque (more in the next blog entry) those present were treated to a little dolphin display with a dolphin coming right in to Loch na Cuilce (the sea loch where boats land passengers to give them access to Loch Coruisk). It was a real treat to see that dolphin and an even bigger treat for me to see them in the same area from the boat the next day. I had been working over the weekend - the first time I have been to Coruisk for about 3 weeks so I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms (!) - and while returning to pcik up a group of 6 ladies from Fife (Hello to you if you're reading!) we were suddenly surrounded by bottle-nose dolphins!

It was great! The only thing that wasn't great about it unfortunately was my skill as a photographer! I have never really used manual focus before and the camera just wasn't focusing so wouldn't take the shot. It was a little frustrating (I guess it was because of the heavy rain and the water getting on the lense but would be keen to hear if that would have affected it) but I managed to get a few shots in focus.

You can see a few more of the dolphin photos and a bigger version of this photo at www.mistyisleboattrips.co.uk on the photos section.