Selkie Explorers

22/09/2024

On Selkie’s way home to Isle of Eigg from Faroe Islands, we made a welcome detour to Wizards Pool on South Uist to meet up with Ada 2 and this inspirational sailor, author, wildlife campaigner Isabelle Autissier
Ada was my first boat. Twenty five years ago, I sold my house in North Wales, bought a boat, called her Ada 2, and sailed down to the Southern Oceans. It was my dream to do an all female trip to Antarctica. I’d done lots of all female expeditions climbing and now I wanted to transfer those experiences to the sea. On route, I stopped in La Rochelle where I met Isabelle and invited her to join me. In 2001, Isabelle and 4 other women met me in Ushuaia and we spent the next 7 weeks together sailing to the Antarctic peninsula.
When my son Dylan was a year old, I sold Ada to Isabelle and since then she has been to the furthest ends of the earth doing the most amazing expeditions in her boat. This is the first time Ada and Selkie, Isabelle and me have been in the same anchorage since both having our boats (17years). The magic of Wizards Pool! Such a gorgeous experience to see this woman and this boat that mean so much to me




Isleof SouthUist
Visit Small Isles
JourneyWoman: Solo Travel for Women 50+
VisitScotland
Isle of Eigg

21/09/2024

After a day walking the Rum Cuillin, the skyline ridge of Rum as seen from our home on Eigg, we picked up a young stag, shot a week last Monday, courtesy of
From the dinghy, we winched the stag up on board Selkie and hung it in the rigging where Dylan skinned it as we sailed home to Eigg.
This venison is some of the exceptional local wild game that is available for our table.

18/09/2024

17/09/2024

So often, September turns out to be stunning. This was last year in torridon. The week ahead now is forecast to be spectacular. Not the best for sailing itself, but fantastic for walking. As the days become cooler and the leaves and vegetation turn hues of gold and copper, I for one will be very excited about exploring by sail and foot the Small Isles of the inner Hebrides of Scotland

https://www.selkie-explorers.com/2024-hebrides-autumn-small-isles-sailing-and-walking-adventure/

Visit Small Isles Isle of Eigg VisitScotland Isle of Rum JourneyWoman: Solo Travel for Women 50+
Sail Scotland

14/09/2024

A month from now, I will be heading to Mallaig in preparation for the first of Selkie Explorers’ Autumn Sailing and Walking Adventure. I am doing four voyages this autumn, each one 5 days long, starting on a Thursday. We meet in Mallaig where you will board Selkie. After a safety briefing, we will sail to our first anchorage. You will get a taste of how to sail Selkie, taking the helm, using the winches and get the sails up. Each night we will anchor in a sheltered bay, ready to walk whatever the weather asks of us. Conditions allowing, we will walk up to summits on all the Small Isles. These really are the most beautiful islands in all the Hebrides. Each one has it’s own unique character. Skipper and crew are residents of the community owned Isle of Eigg with strong practices of sustainable living and wellbeing.
Places are available on all departure dates for either full moon or dark skies star gazing.
Isle of Eigg JourneyWoman: Solo Travel for Women 50+ Visit Small VisitScotland

07/09/2024

The saloon on Selkie is a place of good eating, local foraging, fabulous company, introspective times and ready for the next trip 😁
Visit Small Isles Isle of Eigg JourneyWoman: Solo Travel for Women 50+

05/09/2024

Selkie Explorers has partnered up with JourneyWoman: Solo Travel for Women 50+
It seems very fitting as a lot of the time that is me: solo sailing and 50+ 🙂
https://directory.journey-woman.com/tour-company/selkie-explorers/

Selkie Explorers is a women-led tour operator providing solo and group tours on JourneyWoman Women's Travel Directory

31/08/2024

This is my morning yoga and coffee chill after a whale survey with Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. It was such a fun group of people to be working with. They were not deterred by the torrential rain and gale force winds. I am certainly enjoying this unchallenging morning anchored close to Oban. Next year Selkie Explorers have 4 mindful sailing and yoga retreats. I am so looking forward to them. They are up on the website.
https://www.selkie-explorers.com/mindful-sailing-and-wild-yoga/

27/08/2024

Skippering Silurian for Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust this week. Great team onboard and some good sightings and data collected to date. Though we are storm bound in Loch Ceann Traigh as an Atlantic low crosses through.

14/08/2024

I found the Faroe Islands dramatic and challenging for sailing and culture but the sheep were safe territory and always a joy to stop and chat to. Much like my Shetlands, they are small with multi-coloured fleeces and used to being gathered with buckets of food. They have long hair and gallons of lanolin that protects the soft underwool from the harsh wind and rain of these northerly islands. Now I am back in Scotland, my mission for the next week is Croft based. Selkie will be out to Tobermory next week as I am off to skipper Silurian for Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust for their 13th survey. I am looking forward very much to being with folk passionate about marine conservation and collecting scientific data that informs the big picture about cetacean numbers and the challenges that these intelligent, culturally complex creatures face.

07/08/2024

The Witch and Giant seastacks rising out of the wild and raw waters north of Eysturoy. The story goes that they tried to steal the islands and drag them to Iceland.

29/07/2024

Sailing to the far north east island of Svínoy where the island dips in the middle to give lowland Croft type culture. We anchored on shearing and hay making day. I had bailer envy and looking at the tractor attachments they use. The sheep are reared for the meat. The wool is mostly burnt as there is not time to do everything. Most of the people with land here live off island. The school is no longer open, nor the shop. Only 6 to 8 people live year round on the island and the day we were there, the Faroese flag was at half mast to honor the passing of a man of the community. But 3 ferries a day mean the community can continue to operate as house owners can use the tunnels and ferry to get to and from the island in a day from the capital Torshavn. There is a shearer master who organises the sheep stakeholders, deciding the day of shearing, governed by the weather. Everyone has to turn up if it there turn. How much time you put into the sheep depends on the percentage of land you own. One of the men we talked to only had a tiny plot of land, meaning he only had to be at shearing once every few years. It was heartening to see that some people sheared at the same slow speed that I do!

14/07/2024

The south coast of Vágur is astonishing, as are the currents!

12/07/2024

Stamps! Like the islands. Prettier and more dramatic than most!

10/07/2024

Our first day in Vágur, Suðuroy, the Faroe Islands! Oh what a glorious day! Fabulous crossing made easy with Dylan still being on Colorado time. Birds, whales and dolphins. Follow Selkie’s tracker and blog to see where and what we are up to.

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-Selkie/

23/04/2024

Sunday was another glorious day and perfect for our shore cleaning activities. Another super team of Eigg folk plus Bothy Project artist-in-residence Kate O’Shea, headed back up the east side of Eigg on Selkie. We put the anchor down half a mile south of the pebble beach below Storm. Labhaoise swam ashore and we were a bit slow following her in the dinghy. It was low tide, and the kelp forest is full of sea urchins, an incredible sight but tricky for getting to shore if swimming!
The intertidal stones were tricky to negotiate, and my initial thought was to porter the piles of marine litter Simon had gathered yesterday along the path to yesterday’s beach. While the others set about cutting a huge net out of the boulders, and others unearthing a shedding rope thick as a boa constrictor, I took a fish box and polystyrene float the half mile along the narrow sheep paths skirting the rocky shore. My aching arms were testament that this was not the solution. Instead, we gathered all the litter above where the dinghy was tied and shifted it down to the high tide mark. We would wait for the water to rise, easing both the journey from Selkie to shore above the kelp fronds and the treacherous carry across slippery rocks.
Our plan worked!
It takes time tooing and froing from shore to ship and the weather certainly made it easy. It was gone 5 by the time we picked up the anchor and returned to port. The tides are just right for getting into the tidal bay where Selkie has her mooring. Next comes the unloading which entails ferrying the litter by dinghy to Clanranald pier, unloading and carrying it to the old broken fiip boat. We’ve used all the bags given to us by Oceanrecoeryproject so today will be about sorting and finding more bulk bags to take out on Wednesday.

16/04/2024

Happy times in Selkie. Fresh winds and smiling faces. Angus Miller and I were trying to work out which geosail this last one was. It must be the 8th trip we have done together and as always, whatever the weather, it was a really really enjoyable time. A great group of people, the beautiful west coast of Scotland, curious geology and some fun sailing conditions. We have already pencilled in dates for an Outer Hebrides Geosail next June. Selkie’s schedule will be published soon for 2025. You can express your interest now by getting in touch via the contact page on Selkie Explorers website, see the link in the bio.