Adventures at Sea with Sealife Adventures!

I see no ships!

Some of you will recognise the man behind the binoculars as Donnie Macleod - our very own bar manager! Donnie, along with the rest of the bar and kitchen staff were lucky enough to take a trip with David Ainsley on his superb boat out into the Corryvreckan to see birdlife and marine wildlife. Conditions were particulary calm in the Corryvreckan - which suited Mary the chef as she suffers from seasickness and was not looking forward to the second largest whirlpool in the world. No problems for her on this trip and to be fair, David's boat - Porpoise II - is so stable she would have been safe as houses even if the water had been rough. It's also fast, comfortable and surprisingly quiet - Daivd tells me that the engines have been specially silenced and sound proofed so that the boat does not disturb the wildlife.

David is a marine biologist and has been sailing the Argyll coastline between the mainland and the islands of Jura, Scarba and Islay for several decades now so he knows every nook and cranny, searching out the wildlife and helping us novices spot sea eagles and the odd porpoise! He is joined on board by Charlotte - also a marine biologist - who provided a mini lecture (that sounds rather formal - and it was anything but!) on the wildlife we were most likely to encounter. The sun shone, the seas were calm and we had a spectacular display by a nesting sea eagle - know locally as 'flying barn doors' due to their huge wingspan. Plenty of other seabirds, and just one porpoise in the distance feeding on the edge of the current in the Corry. To be honest the trip would have been delightful even if we had seen nothing more than the superb scenery! I would thoroughly recommend this trip to all our customers and if you let David know you are staying at Cologin he will even throw in a discount for you.

So don't be shy - get booking. David's website is www.sealife-adventures.com and we took the 3 hour afternoon Corryvreckan trip.