News

New trip for 2008 - A full day Whalespotting or our 'Lochs' tour is planned for the season, running on a Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 10 - 4.30 ish. Mail me for full details, otherwise have a look on our trips page for further info. This is a one off trip for the area, and has never been available before.

End August/End of Season 2007 - All carried on well, we continued to have whales around, then with a number of very cold days and a few gales, they started to migrate off, and the numbers went down - our last sighting was at the end of September, but a few other operators in the area saw a number of quick whales in the distance. An unusual amount of Risso's Dolphin were around, and stayed in the Sound for nearly 7 weeks.... numbers were from 10 - 20 odd, and we first thought it was one group, till we went out and came across another group about 8 miles away. Birdlife stayed strong, and the Shearwaters stayed late this year, simply due to the amount of late feeding that took place.

I tailed off our trips early this year due to a very sad family loss. My mother Coralie, who was a major part of the running of the business sadly passed away in Sept

First Part Of August - We got off to an unrepeatable start, with a fantastic sighting of 2 Killer Whales (Orca) - Thanks to a call from Ronnie on the Sheerwater - A large male and a female heading south off Eigg. Minke Whales still about, in greater numbers now, and lots of birdlife in deeper water. From the second week on it got better when a group of approx 6/8 Risso's dolphin were found and they stayed in the area for over a week, one 2 hour trip we even saw a Whale, a Dolphin. and a basking shark... all were delighted. beginning to have a bit of a fight with the weather now, and the odd gale keeps scattering everything about the challenge is to keep finding good sightings. On Sun 19th - A school of bottlenose dolphin went past the pier at Armadale, just in time for the 1.30 trip to get some great photo's when they came and played with the boats

June/July - A really good selection of cetaceans around, the minke whales are putting in good, and regular appearances, and although they do not seem to be 'lunging' to feed the are foraging deeper, which simply means the whales are allot more interested in feeding than stopping to have a look at us, but with regular sightings, and as long as the weather stays half decent we have seen whales on all our 3 hour whalespotting trips, except 3 to date. We have also seen a number of Basking Sharks, along with the odd group of passing Bottlenose Dolphin, allot of groups of porpoise - Again this year all our wildlife has been in the Northerly part of the Sound, so we have not been landing anywhere. Other sightings are Sunfish, Many big rafts of Manx Shearwaters,Gannets,Great Skuas, Puffins.

2007 Season - Got off to a good start with allot of wildlife/birds etc arriving for the season, our Minke whales strted to arrive in small numbers, and early on we saw a good number of adults and calfs.

NEW BOAT NEARLY READY - Our new boat is nearly done - and i intend to have her up and running from the beginning of October 2006 - not a RIB, but still fast and fun, she is a custom made Pro charter 35ft - with seating for 12 in a fully heated wheelhouse, but still giving you the chance to get outside on the deck, with seating there as well, she will be equipt with the latest electronics, able to cruise at 25 knots, and more to the point let us out during the winter months and have a good look around - group trips will be available, and if all goes to plan a schedule for trips.Copy and paste link below for how it is coming along.

http://www.procharter.co.uk/special/12ferry.asp

July/Mid - August - , Carried on being good - with regular sightings and lots of activity on the water - whales were feeding and with the good weather we were out every day - difference was all widlife was much further north this year so far, and we did not do our usual stop off on Eigg - there was simply to much to see - We even managed to spot whales on out 1 hr trips at the end of the day.

June 10th - On our 3 hour trip- and still with brilliant weather - On the way back from Eigg 2 Minke Whales spotted, on adult and one calf - yesterday we saw a group of Common Dolphin again, no whales actually feeding yet, but hopefully this warm spell will keep everything happening and the sightings will improve as they are at the moment.

June - Off to a great start - good weather, all birds have appeared in numbers, and our 1st good/clear Minke Whale sighting, the next day a young calf travelling down the sound made good spotting material - 2 days later we were among a group of 30 odd Common Dolphin's which played with the boat for about half an hour, then we left them to carry on - only to be followed an hour later by the same group - On the 1st sunday this month, a small Basking Shark was seen, and again later the same day. - Weather has improved and we have even had to get the Sun Block out .........

April/May - Hounded by bad weather still we have struggled to get out as much as we would have liked - coupled with a 'constant' cold spell, and snow on the mountains, all have been wrapped up warm - good birdlife about - Puffins/gannets/Squa's -- and only a few very distant whale spottings ....

2006 - We aim to start 2 hour trips, initially, Easter week.

2005 - Got off to a fantastic start, with our ealiest seen Minke whale yet, and then we saw whales regularly till July, then, when the whales are usually feeding in the Sound, it went very quite, and we noticed the distinct lack of seabirds on the water and breeding in general, this has been put down to a shift in the feeding grounds for the year, and simply a 'bad' year for seabirds.

What we did see was a huge increase in Basking sharks, and saw some very regularly in all sizes - we saw more this year, than all previous years added together. A group of 20 + bottlenose Dolphin were around more, mainly during the very high tides, and always played for the boats - and camera's - they were seen with us as late as October.

Our new boat - " Linti Too" went in the water in June, and was a big success with all passengers, due to be licenced for 20 persons, we only managed to get her licenced for 12, due to wonderful EU regulations and uncuttable red tape. it was more room for everyone else though !! Hopefully 2006 will see better for her, and we can take you out in greater comfort, and do more trips.

24th April 2005 : Our 1st Minke whale was spotted today, nearly 3 weeks earlier than any other year, cruising down the Sound. Feeding Birdlife has also began in low numbers, again, earlier than previous years. The season has got off to a good start.

2005 Sailings - will start again on the 19th of March. (2 hour trips) and will continue through to Mid October, but if you are in Skye earlier than this, please call, we have a boat in the water and weather dependant we will go out.

The general view of 2004 was very good, wildlife wise we could not have asked for better. This was not to be said about the weather though, our waterproofs were well used...... We had some different sightings this year, most notable was a Humpback Whale stayed with us for most of August (1st on record for these waters.....) Have a look at the picture Gallery.

More Basking sharks were seen, a few Sunfish, and at the end of the season a Young LoggerHead turtle... BUT our local Minke Whales were great, allot more feeding was seen, and there was a good amount of young as well, who are always very nosey... we even had a regular 'Jumper' that seemed to perform for us when asked.

A group of Bottle nose Dolphins were seen quite allot, and almost seem to appear every couple of weeks around our area.

We also came across a group of Risso's Dolphins - that would not let the boat get away from them -