Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

hard work and we had to lower the packages down an 80 ft cliff. That day we had
breakfast at 6.30 am and didn't have time for a meal until 5.30 pm, when we had
dinner on the cruiser! It was delicious to have our first bath for three weeks and to
get rid of our beards, and feel civilized once more. We arrived in Stornoway at 10
o’clock, took the steamer to the mainland at 12.15 am and caught the train to
Mallaig at 7.42 am, to Glasgow, then to Edinburgh and London. I got home at 1.0
am after over 24 hrs traveling.
It had been a very interesting interlude and I felt that I knew more about the
biology of the grey seal and seals in general. The Rona expedition was a very
enjoyable change from the Institute, but we were exceedingly unlucky with the
weather - or perhaps this is only to be expected up there at that time of year. In our
three weeks on the island we had only one reasonable day and on other days
occasional flashes of sun. For the most part we had gales, rain and overcast skies.
This brought an end to the field research I was able to carry out at the NIO. In
eight years at the NIO I was only able to spend about nine months in the field,
including my initial Balaena voyage and none of it was what I really considered to
be field research. My years in the Lake District and Antarctic experiences had
stimulated an interest in work outdoors and, looking back, it is surprising that I
stood the life at the NIO and the politics of the IWC for so long.
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