Whiteness

We enjoyed our boat trip via Shetland Seabird Tours at the beginning of our trip so much we decided to go again in our second week. With me having an emphasis on photography I suggested we do one of their ‘early bird’ trips which leaves Lerwick harbour at 5.30am, and back in time for breakfast at 8.30am. Due to a less than favourable weather forecast for the day in question we once again postponed the trip to our last full day on Shetland. Now, this may seem unfortunate, but it was actually a real stroke of luck. Favouring sleep over an early start, we also moved our trip to the next available tour in the afternoon. This, again, was another stroke of luck. After Phil gave us the safety briefing we boarded the boat and he gave us an exciting piece of news; Orcas had been sighted 20 minutes away. It was a unanimous decision to divert the trip to look for these Orcas rather than make our way along the south coast of Bressay and on to Noss, and one I’m extremely glad we did. After about 30 minutes into the trip, heading north along the east coast of the mainland, we’d seen nothing but the occasional Great Skua flying alongside the boat. I was beginning to think we’d missed them. Fast forward another 10 minutes and Phil had slowed the boat down at the ferry crossing to Whalsay. All eyes were on the lookout for a black dorsal fin.