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Selkie Explorers Experience living aboard the beautiful robust "go anywhere" yacht Selkie.
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Learn to navigate and sail her around the seas and isles of Scotland's beautiful west coast with wilderness, wildlife and crofting enthusiast Celia

Skippering Silurian for Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust this week. Great team onboard and some good sightings and data...
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.

I found the Faroe Islands dramatic and challenging for sailing and culture but the sheep were safe territory and always ...
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.

Sailing to the far north east island of Svínoy where the island dips in the middle to give lowland Croft type culture. W...
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!

The south coast of Vágur is astonishing, as are the currents!
14/07/2024

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

Stamps! Like the islands. Prettier and more dramatic than most!
12/07/2024

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

Our first day in Vágur, Suðuroy, the Faroe Islands! Oh what a glorious day! Fabulous crossing made easy with Dylan still...
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/

Sunday was another glorious day and perfect for our shore cleaning activities. Another super team of Eigg folk plus Both...
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.


15/03/2024

Off to work😎

Good morning from Silurian! Day 3 of the HWDT second winter suirvey and feeling particularly chilly with ice on the pon...
01/03/2024

Good morning from Silurian! Day 3 of the HWDT second winter suirvey and feeling particularly chilly with ice on the pontoons at Dunstaffanage. Getting ready for a full day of surveying with trusty crew and volunteers.

Sailing and climbing both make a lot of use of knots and rope work so I was in my element here. I was teaching figure 8 ...
18/02/2024

Sailing and climbing both make a lot of use of knots and rope work so I was in my element here. I was teaching figure 8 knot which was used on the top rope climbs. Also a handy alpine butterfly thrown in to take up the excess rope so we could all lean away from each other. A lot of laughs and a lot of trust. What a fantastic group of women from Malakasa Camp, Kate, Jo, Brittany from , Tara and Sara.
You can read my blog of the experience

https://www.selkie-explorers.com/2024/02/16/women-refugee-climbing-trip/

04/02/2024

Joanna, Kate and I have been climbing for 3 days and we now operate like a slick team. It took a while to settle into the exposure, the equipment and people trust. We now feel confident to meet with the women from Refugym and deliver a good workshop. It used to be that I felt comfortable hundreds of metres up a cliff, dangling around on ropes, climbing above my gear on lead (well, never THAT comfortable). The women that we will be teaching and showing how to be safe and look after each other on the rock, will have fears and anxiety as well as fun and joy in the movement on the rock. It takes time to trust yourself and the sense of fulfilment I feel from getting safely up and down the cliff and being with pals is (almost) second to none.

Preparing for our first day of climbing. To do the refugee women’s climbing workshop, I at least need to put on a climb...
01/02/2024

Preparing for our first day of climbing. To do the refugee women’s climbing workshop, I at least need to put on a climbing head rather than sailor Ce of the past 25 years! Heading up to this cliff now 😀 last member of our REFUGYM workshop team arrives today, Kate Potter.

Last year, I sailed A LOT. This was brilliant but I felt the need for a breather. I parked Selkie on her mooring befor...
25/01/2024

Last year, I sailed A LOT. This was brilliant but I felt the need for a breather. I parked Selkie on her mooring before Christmas and walked away. To energise myself for the coming season I decided to do something completely different. Go climbing! Go back to my roots! A fellow Eiggite has been working with - an NGO working with Afghan and Iranian refugees for the past 5 years in Athens. One of Eilidh’s roles was the development of a climbing area near the camp. Refugees stay in the camp for about 3 months. To date the climbing sessions have been run by men, so only men have participated. I used to teach climbing back in the day and so I suggested I could run a workshop for women. I pitched the idea to Joanna Newton (GB paraclimbing team member) and she said YES! Both Joanna and I climbed in Iran in the 90s. We didn’t know each other at that time but we share very strong, impactful and beautiful memories of our experiences. So it is with great excitement that we are heading to Athens next week to meet some awesome women from the camp and Refugym and share some stuff.

15/01/2024

It’s hard to take a bad photo of St Kilda, but it’s also tricky to get a good video with one hand on the helm as we came under the precipice of Stac Lee. The birds were raucous, and we were immersed in their chatter, the enormity and remoteness of their existence. That was last summer, and I was so taken with that voyage that I have scheduled 3 trips to the Outer Hebrides for this year of 2024. I always hope that in the 10 days we are together that the conditions allow us to go to St Kilda. It is always wonderful to weave beneath the stacks and around jagged coasts of this remote island group. Forty miles west of the Outer Hebrides, away from the grinding ravages of the glaciers, St Kilda has these distinctive, primeval daggers and turrets that jab up into the sky defiantly. It’s a real treat to have the right conditions to sail out to St Kilda, anchor off the sandy beach for a night or two and wander along the high street and up amongst the stone cleits that litter the hillsides above Village Bay.
Each of Selkie Explorers’ Outer Hebrides’s trips aims to reach St Kilda and to visit other remarkable places in that line of islands to the west of Eigg. Each of the voyages this year will be during the bird nesting season. I love this time of year so much, when the cliffs are overrun with sea birds. It’s extraordinary. I’ve currently places available on all voyages. See the link in the bio for more information.

I’m looking forward to Selkie’s first trip of the year. Spring is on its way (just over the hill of an arctic blast!)
13/01/2024

I’m looking forward to Selkie’s first trip of the year. Spring is on its way (just over the hill of an arctic blast!)

Angus and I have been exploring the geology of the Scottish islands, west and north, for 8 years. Every year we do a geo...
13/01/2024

Angus and I have been exploring the geology of the Scottish islands, west and north, for 8 years. Every year we do a geosail and this year we set sail from Oban. There is one double bunk remaining.

Join me in exploring some wonderful Scottish geology in 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/2221e1294b9c/geowalks-in-17365932

05/12/2022

It was so peaceful with an almost full moon, leaving Selkie this afternoon.

Here's an interesting film about Eigg and the power on the island. A few images with Selkie in the background, on her m...
22/07/2022

Here's an interesting film about Eigg and the power on the island. A few images with Selkie in the background, on her mooring in the inner harbour!

On the remote Scottish island of Eigg, residents are now surviving solely on renewable energy, a combination of sun, wind and water.Read the best of our jour...

Bringing my beautiful sheep in on the Isle of Eigg with the wonderful . Kate is staying with me from New York for three ...
07/07/2022

Bringing my beautiful sheep in on the Isle of Eigg with the wonderful . Kate is staying with me from New York for three months over the summer, and is currently looking after my precious little flock 🐑

📷

Amazing news, I've been joined by Kate Harding from New York. She will be spending two months on the Croft and Selkie w...
02/07/2022

Amazing news, I've been joined by Kate Harding from New York. She will be spending two months on the Croft and Selkie with me. A new adventure ⛵️

A beautifully serene evening in Plockton. Its one of the many special moments you get from being on the water. That sen...
02/07/2022

A beautifully serene evening in Plockton. Its one of the many special moments you get from being on the water. That sense of peace and calm when the world feels still ... and the blue!

Something completely different, the impressive bar 🍸 Well worth the trip ⛵️
01/07/2022

Something completely different, the impressive bar 🍸 Well worth the trip ⛵️

Sun, sea and sail in the Hebrides. Perfect ⛵️
26/06/2022

Sun, sea and sail in the Hebrides. Perfect ⛵️

17/06/2022

The excitement when these beauties put in an appearance never diminishes, no matter how many times you've seen them. They put on quite a show for our our guests, happy days on board Selkie 🐬

03/06/2022

Hello beautiful! What a joy to have a bit of company 🦭

What an awesome feeling, our first charter of the year. Good food, good company and amazing scenery. Going with the flow...
16/05/2022

What an awesome feeling, our first charter of the year. Good food, good company and amazing scenery. Going with the flow 🌊

Shoulder to shoulder. Eda Frandsen and Selkie. So much beauty in one photograph, it’s almost too much 😁
10/05/2022

Shoulder to shoulder. Eda Frandsen and Selkie. So much beauty in one photograph, it’s almost too much 😁

Heading home with a mug of hot chocolate…Sail away with me honey 😊
05/05/2022

Heading home with a mug of hot chocolate…

Sail away with me honey 😊

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Videos

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.

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/

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. #geology #sailing #outerhebrides

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 https://www.selkie-explorers.com/contact-us/ #geology#sailing#outerhebrides

It is very satisfying to look at the newly painted deck. I have done the cockpits and Selkie looks so much better with this fresh lick of paint at the start of the season. First guests ready for boarding in Oban a week today. #NonSlipdeck #DeckPainting

Off to work😎

I am back on Eigg after a two-week stint on Mull working for @HWDT. It is not that cold and the morning bird song is full of promise. The ground is drying up, no longer the quagmire of a wet winter. Daffodils have sprung up, lifting their yellow petals to trumpet out their song of spring. It’s Mother’s Day and I have plans to walk up the Sgurr, do a long yoga class, start the engine on Selkie, attach the anchor, put the outboard onto the dinghy. Oh, and also run the generator, to make sure that everything is ready and working for my trip to Mallaig this week. Every year, safety and firefighting equipment have to be checked and certified. Both here at home with Selkie, and on Mull with Silurian, maintenance is in full swing. The start of the season for both Selkie Explorers and HWDT is less than a month away. I find it really informative working on two boats, very different from each other, but I find myself comparing notes and making improvements and adjustments, seeing the benefit of the way things are done on one boat or the other. As Selkie’s skipper, engineer, cleaner, provisions manager, administrator etc, I made up my systems and modes of operation as motherhood and croft enabled. This recent trip away was my sixth survey as skipper with Silurian in the past year and a half, followed closely by my first crew training. This was a real treat and fantastic learning experience. Over three days, Emma Burgess, Chief Skipper, led 4 skippers, 2 first mates and 3 science officers through the systems and operating procedures of Silurian. I loved learning from the other skippers’ experience and picked up brilliant tips on manoeuvring Silurian, HWDT’s 18m survey vessel (with no bow thrusters). I came away from one docking experience impressed and confused as to why I had never used the technique with Selkie (also no bow thrusters). In strong “off-Pontoon” gusts, Emma had brought Silurian close alongside using seesaw engine blasts forward and b

Leonidio in winter is the best!

Leonidio
Leonidio

Joanna, Kate and I have been climbing for 3 days and we now operate like a slick team. It took a while to settle into the exposure, the equipment and people trust. We now feel confident to meet with the women from Refugym and deliver a good workshop. It used to be that I felt comfortable hundreds of metres up a cliff, dangling around on ropes, climbing above my gear on lead (well, never THAT comfortable). The women that we will be teaching and showing how to be safe and look after each other on the rock, will have fears and anxiety as well as fun and joy in the movement on the rock. It takes time to trust yourself and the sense of fulfilment I feel from getting safely up and down the cliff and being with pals is (almost) second to none. #climbing #greece #trust #refugym #leonidio

The Shiant Isles are a place to let go of human stress and be taken into a world of birds and nature. There are few places remaining where you may find yourself a sunny spot to sit quietly on a boulder and be mesmerised by the flight and focus of the puffins as they whirl around the cliffs and bay, leaving and returning to their nests. What do they communicate and learn from each other in this vortex of motion? Which direction are the birds with beaks full, arriving from, where the good hunting is to be had. Do they communicate all the difficulties they face to survive and successfully rear a chick a further year? How lucky to have this tiny glimpse into their universe. #shiantisles #puffins #sailinginscotland https://www.selkie-explorers.com/schedule-2024/

Fancy a bit of this??? Only a few months away till the Outer Hebrides voyages start: 11 to 21 May, 12 to 22 June and 26 June to 6 July. Each voyage is 10 days exploring the wilder and more remote islands around the Outer Hebrides. It’s a 40 mile sail out to St Kilda west from the Sound of Harris. May and June are prime months for the seabirds nesting in vast numbers on the cliffs and slopes of the dramatic coasts. Seals, dolphins, whales, basking sharks are found in the waters around these isles and the days are long, though I don’t say necessarily warm! Board at Mallaig for the adventure of a lifetime. https://www.selkie-explorers.com/outer-hebrides-explorer/#sailing#stkilda#outerhebrides

Gannets at Stac Lee
Gannets at Stac Lee

It’s hard to take a bad photo of St Kilda, but it’s also tricky to get a good video with one hand on the helm as we came under the precipice of Stac Lee. The birds were raucous, and we were immersed in their chatter, the enormity and remoteness of their existence. That was last summer, and I was so taken with that voyage that I have scheduled 3 trips to the Outer Hebrides for this year of 2024. I always hope that in the 10 days we are together that the conditions allow us to go to St Kilda. It is always wonderful to weave beneath the stacks and around jagged coasts of this remote island group. Forty miles west of the Outer Hebrides, away from the grinding ravages of the glaciers, St Kilda has these distinctive, primeval daggers and turrets that jab up into the sky defiantly. It’s a real treat to have the right conditions to sail out to St Kilda, anchor off the sandy beach for a night or two and wander along the high street and up amongst the stone cleits that litter the hillsides above Village Bay. Each of Selkie Explorers’ Outer Hebrides’s trips aims to reach St Kilda and to visit other remarkable places in that line of islands to the west of Eigg. Each of the voyages this year will be during the bird nesting season. I love this time of year so much, when the cliffs are overrun with sea birds. It’s extraordinary. I’ve currently places available on all voyages. See the link in the bio for more information. #Stkilda #seabirds #gannets #sailinginscotland

It was so peaceful with an almost full moon, leaving Selkie this afternoon.

Exciting visitors alongside Selkie
Exciting visitors alongside Selkie

The excitement when these beauties put in an appearance never diminishes, no matter how many times you've seen them. They put on quite a show for our our guests, happy days on board Selkie 🐬

Hello Beautiful 🦭
Hello Beautiful 🦭

Hello beautiful! What a joy to have a bit of company 🦭

Team work makes the dream work, I want to thank Jon Moorhouse and Dylan Bull for their incredible help with Selkie. As you can see it’s been a big job and it’s been a joy to do it with these two 😁

Heading to Stornoway … It feels so good to be in amongst the breathtaking beauty of the Hebrides again, my happy place 😊 We still have some availability in our sailing schedule for 2022 if you want to be part of the adventure (link in bio) 🌊

Port Erin
Port Erin

A welcome sight at the end of a days sailing, the beautiful lights of Port Erin. Continuing South …

Selkie
Selkie

At the helm on Selkie. How does it feel Anne?

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Selkie’s Story

Selkie is a unique aluminium yacht that has sailed in Antarctic waters and provided the home where I raised my son till we moved onto a croft on the Isle of Eigg, a small island of 100 people on the West Coast of Scotland. For 5 years now I have been taking people on sailing holidays and daytrips with Selkie around the Scottish islands making voyages to St Kilda, the Northern Isles, Outer and Inner Hebrides, the Small Isles, and the beautiful sea lochs and beaches of the west coast. Selkie sleeps 8 guests and whether you are one person or a group, you can book on a trip or arrange a bespoke voyage. Along with adventures to St Kilda and the islands, I became involved with the slow adventure movement and have developed sailing trips with emphasis on wellbeing, geology, running and photography.

Selkie is a perfect base for a family adventure and during school holidays there are lots of opportunities to join Selkie to learn sailing and enjoy all the activities accessible from a yacht. It’s perfect for a digital detox and time to get creative in the outdoors with lots of swimming, beach fires, fishing and exploring remote coastlines.

With the COVID-19 lockdown in place, I am using the good weather of spring to continue my maintenance schedule and add new electronics. It is also a time to concentrate on the croft and growing capacity of the vegetable area, working with the sheep, the wool and lambs and developing new ideas for the land.