Gannets galore

I was up on deck at 7.00am to watch as the ship sailed past Muckle Flugga, the most northerly lighthouse in Britain, and turned into Burra Firth a fiord in Unst, the most northerly inhabited island in Shetland and in Britain. This was to be our anchorage for the day with zodiac tenders ferrying folk ashore who wished to go ashore. Of course, that included the three of us as we wanted to visit the cliffs on the west side of Unst. It was a reasonable walk but well worth the effort. The cliffs are home during the breeding season to thousands of gannets and fulmars as well as puffins and shags. The sight of the magnificent gannets and fulmars soaring and gliding in such numbers was breathtaking.
This evening the sea is a little bumpy again and when I did a wee tour of the deck before retiring to my cabin I was the only one venturing out there. I think this is the only time in my life when I have been at sea with no sight of land at all. It was just rolling waves and cloudy sky in all directions, with the odd gannet and fulmar gliding by, quite awesome, in the truest sense of the word