The fourth day of the North Atlantic Odyssey saw us approaching the Shetland Islands. The original plan was to visit Fair Isle. I was looking forward to finally setting foot on this hallowed turf. Sadly it wasn't to be, as the harbour was being renovated and was closed to landings. Plan B was to visit Foula in West Shetland, but again that wasn't possible as the locals were advising it might be too rough to land there, due to a high Atlantic swell. Plan C was viable and it was to land on the island of Noss: one of the East Shetland Islands. Landing wasn't a problem as being on the East side of the islands, Noss was sheltered from the Atlantic swell. But it was further to sail from Aberdeen and we wouldn't arrive until late morning. This allowed time for some Seabird and Cetacean watching from one of the bridge wings.
Finally, we were entering the bay by Noss and dropping anchor. During this final approach, I briefly saw some distant Dolphins, but I wasn't able to figure out what they were as I quickly lost them and we carried on sailing past them.
At the last minute, I decided to stay on the Plancius, when the call to go ashore came. I wasn't too bothered about landing on Noss, whereas I would have definitely gone ashore on Fair Isle or Foula. I grabbed the scope and a hot drink and went back on the top deck for a few hours to try relocating the unidentified Dolphins. But they were too far away from our anchorage and I couldn't find them. After a bit of searching, I did find a few distant Harbour Porpoises between Noss and the neighbouring island of Bressay: another Cetacean for my trip list. There were a few Arctic Terns flying by, but always a bit too far for reasonable photos.
With everybody back on board, it was time to head North. Jan decided we would have a pre-dinner cruise past the Eastern cliffs of Noss, before turning North. About ten minutes after we left the anchorage, we encountered a pod of four Risso's Dolphins. Presumably, this was the unidentified Dolphins we had briefly seen as we arrived. Risso's Dolphins generally don't interact with ships, unlike Bottlenose Dolphins, which are also likely to be in these waters.
After about ten minutes with the Risso's Dolphins, we carried on towards the Gannet cliffs.
It was impossible to count the numbers of Gannets pairs in the Gannet colony on the Eastern cliffs of Noss. My guestimate was ten thousand, which was surprisingly close and just one hundred and eighty-six pairs short of the 2025 count. It was an impressive colony.
Just after we turned North, we received the call to dinner. After dinner I returned to the one of the bridge wings. On most days, we had a few Fulmars enjoying the slipstream of the Plancius. I'm assuming they enjoy the same effect that professional cyclists get by staying in the slipstream and it saves they flying energy. Every now and then, one would cruise along the length of the ship and appear very close to the bridge wing. As I was generally looking forward, I wouldn't spot the close approach of the Fulmars until it was too late to react to get some photos. Finally, I managed to get some photos of one individual coming past.
The evening was fairly quiet as we sailed up the East side of the Shetland Islands. The highlights were another pod of three Risso's Dolphins and a Minke Whale, as well as, small numbers of the same Seabirds we had already seen.
When I got back into the Observation Lounge, I found that the Assistant Expedition Leader Chloe, has set up a microscope and was introducing the passengers to her new find, a Water Bear or Tardigrade. Chloe's real passion is plankton and other micro-organisms. Water Bears are not the smallest of in this diverse group of organisms, but are surprisingly fascinating. They occur in diverse habitats including: the deep sea, fresh water, Tropical rainforests, mountain tops and Antarctica. Depending on the species, they can vary in size from 0.05 to 0.5 mm. This was the smallest organism I saw on the expedition.
They are among the most resilient Animals known. Scientists have shown they can survive severe conditions including exposure to extreme temperatures, extreme high or low pressures, air deprivation, dehydration, radiation and starvation. They have even survived exposure to outer space. Chloe said she had a pet Water Bear at home and typically allowed it to dry out when she was going away and would rehydrate it again when she got home after a few weeks at sea. Clearly, when a large asteroid eventually hits the Earth and we have another Dinosaur-like mass extinction, the Water Bears will just shrug their shoulders and carry on surviving, as they have done for the last five hundred million years.
It was time for bed, so I could enjoy an early start in the seas as we sailed North from the Shetland Islands to Jan Mayen Island.
