Trawler safely delivered to the Scilleys

Another quick blog - just to let you know that the trawler was safely delivered into the hands of the Scilley Isle lifeboat's hands this morning (see photo above). There was also a mad dash to mobile phones as we came within telephone range, and a longing look at land (the Scilleys are a beautiful group of islands).

I have been asked by the birders to mention the great shearwater sighting we had yesterday as we rescued the Crystal Sea - and it was a magnificent sight - gliding aerobatically and smoothly over the waves - it had even me, a non-birder, captivated. It's apparently a rare sight in these waters :o)

Also while en route yesterday evening, since there was no science to be done, we had a Trivial Persuit tournament Liverpool (POL) v Oban (SAMS) v the 'East Coast Posse' (Aberdeen). Despite there only being 6 of us versus 12 SAMS and 7 POL, we, the East Coast Posse won all the cheeses (see photographic proof to right). Ok, SAMS won the 1987 version of the game, and we won the 1990's version of the game. See, we do get to have some relaxation on the ship from time to time!

So today, we spent most of the day steaming back to Jones Bank to retrieve the last of the moorings (all safe and sound on board, despite having problems yesterday with the one on the bank being stuck in the mud), and now we're heading off to the shelf edge to track the internal waves and nutrients from the shelf edge (where the shallow UK shelf drops off into the 4000m abyss) to Jones Bank. The birders & I have high hopes of lots of birds and marine mammal sightings at the shelf edge, so we'll be up at the crack of dawn for a bonanza of top predators ;o)

The Scillies lifeboat towing the Crystal Sea to safety against the backdrop of the island of St Agnes