i'm dreaming of a white christmas

Thursday night in the moonlight we zoom up to the top field just below the summit crag of Creag Bhan with Mark, Kirstin, Andy, Jane and the kids on the quads. It's at least 5 below and very crisp and clear. The moon is just waning so still pretty full and shining in across the Sound of Gigha, where the navigation buoys flicker red and green. The dozen fish farm cages half a mile offshore give off an eerie surreal glow from the 10Kw underwater light cluster below each cage - submarine fairy lights for silkies-and we can see the lights of Macrihanish twinkling almost 20 miles south. We race downhill through a spray of spindrift on sledges expertly improvised form lengths of curved fish farm pipe joined by 12mm ply boards. We sledge by the blue moonlight hitting 31 mph down the 300m run downhill into the fence along the bottom of the field. This is Gigha's longest clear slope. Then we get towed back up again, each sledge clipping on to a karabiner tow line off the back of the quad. After an hour or so we're all getting weary- even Amanda has almost had enough fun. Andy has put a video "Gigha's got Snow 2" on YouTube.

Yesterday - Christmas Eve - showed signs of a slow thaw then it was freezing hard when we left the Hotel to come home just after midnight Then it rained overnight and stripped away the white crystalline world we had just got used to after ten days. Outside skeins of geese are honking across the sky. But it's a GREEN Christmas. The rest of Scotland is still white but we are just waiting to see what vagaries of weather are brought by the kink in the jetstream.

No animals were harmed in the making of this card.

in a big country

The magic rabbits of Ardailly have been thumpering around our foundations in the snow.

Coming back to Kinnererach from the plot at Ardailly the sun just streamed down on the Gigha Stone with snow showers behind in West Loch Tarbert and there was a cutter rigged ketch beating up the Sound of Jura close hauled

wonderland

It's nine years ago this last week that Stuart Adamson killed himself. Along with the equally charismatic Bob Marley, Steve Marriot and David Crosby - he was one of the most amazing musicians I have ever seen. (Jayne's vote goes to Dr. John). Wonderland was a Big Country tune and here are pics we took yesterday of snowy Gigha. We took Izzie down to the plot to see how it looked with the snowy piles of aggregate then walked the croft and down to the Mill. Even our 4WD Landrover Series 3 struggled in the icy conditions - we just don't get our one single track road salted.

The muckle shed shows where our house will be beneath Creag Bhan.

Sea level must have been 3m higher maybe more when the Iron age fort of Dun an Trinnse was occupied but the climate was supposedly a wee bit warmer from the archaeological digs on St Kilda

snow angle

We are unable to start blockwork or even finish the last half day's concreting the sunspace footings as the temperature has hardly been above zero for the last month. When it has it has been chucking it down. Today there is about 3-4 inches of snow down and the Gigha kids Christmas event has been postponed.

We met Andy this afternoon running Maia (the family pet husky) behind his quad. Maia loves this weather ! Andy reckoned he had never seen as much snow as this in the ten years plus he has been here.

Izzie loves racing full tilt round the fields by KInnererach. It's a puppy thing.

any colour you like

The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust which owns most of this island had a members' meeting last night where there were 50 or so of us - half the membership and a massive turnout - in the Village Hall with a consultant from HIE trying to reinvigorate the Trust and reconnect the management, both Board and paid staff, with the members. This was going to be real 'bottom up'.

This is because the Trust appears to have become progressively detached from the members and is now widely seen as following the Orwellian maxim:

"All islanders are equal but some are more equal than others".

Problems are perceived favouritism, cliques, poor communication, a culture of secrecy, lack of direction, poor management decisions, hostility, top down approach, failure to consult. In short - a community divided. The initial euphoria of self determination following the buyout has long gone and there is severe volunteer fatigue as it is the same 20-30 folk who tend to commit their time to running the show. At the start there were elections for Directors, but now there are too few folk coming forward every year so if you put your name forward then basically - you're on. And it is hard work, often thankless.

There are financial stringencies and revenue problems too in the current climate.

The Trust was originally established by HIE as what it optimistically describes as Social Enterprise. This means a Board of Directors has regular meetings and makes all the executive decisions with wider policy to be approved by the members at Members Meetings. It is basically a plc type structure with members taking the role of shareholders. The Board is advised by HIE who have a veto over many major decisions. The Trust company is limited by guarantee. Though what it guarantees and what it limits is unclear.

We were told that the Trust had been very successful in improving the island's housing, building the community wind turbines, reinvigorating the wonderful Achamore Gardens etc.,

We were told by the consultant that every Scottish rural community which aspires to community ownership wants the Gigha model. Dizzy with success ? (© JS)

All these are true and huge achievements for a small island, though the housing improvement programme leaves many folk very uneasy as every day 20 or so builders come over from the mainland which is where the money flows from our programme of housing rehabilitation. There is also some confusion as to whether the programme was ever tendered for and meets meaningful value for money criteria. Those building contracts are worth a lot of money.

In the introduction there was also a rather strange comment the gist of which was that if we did not like the way the Trust was running the place then perhaps we should move elsewhere. This slip really does reflect the divisions here.

Clearly HIE are very worried that their flagship Trust is flagging. It was the Eigg and Gigha buyouts that led to the 2003 Land Reform Act provisions. In our blood, these represent post devolution Scottish communitarianism and really are part of our national psyche and culture. On Gigha, there are major revenue problems with a small rental base, though good profits from the turbines, a break even from the Hotel and capital receipts from plot sales being the main cash flow.

We brainstormed in small groups towards a new Vision and new Aims for the Trust. The consultant was intending to take these away and structure them into a report for the Board who would then prioritise/decide and report back to the membership. There was remarkable unanimity in what we want - much motherhood and apple pie and this mostly because the issues really are that obvious. We do actually all want a strong cohesive vibrant community which is economically successful - though we did have the usual self interest of certain groups creeping in.

Hang on a minute - was the way we were being worked just as disengaged as usual ? Just a lip service consultation and then back to normal. HIE have been advising the Board for years that they made decisions (just like a plc Board) and the Members had relatively low status (just like minor shareholders). (I had been present at some of these pep talks by HIE advisers. They really were that dismissive of the members. Hardly empowering.)

And then - a challenge from the audience - why did we not decide the prioritisation of our own ideas collectively ? Islanders wanted to be active not passive. (The initial challenge came from an islander who is not a Trust member - but that is another story)

I suggested that the HIE Social Enterprise model was not a Community Development model which was what folk seemed to be wanting. This was not well received - the reply that everyone wants the Gigha model was a definite brush off. Now community development is not an HIE strong suit. Capacity building improves self confidence as well as local expertise, skills. There are enough talented people here to fill most gaps and provide a strong local economy instead of of being dependent on imports for everything - especially the high income stuff. We just need to be trained and build up our own skills and talents. Now training local people instead of importing expertise is real community development but capacity building is not actually an explicit IGHT objective. The Trust Manager has the job title Business Manager. The word Community is not immediately apparent.

The current exercise is a case in point - why do we do always seem to get HIE consultants parachuted in to find out what we want to do instead of being skilled to undertake this process of review ourselves? I can think of at least a dozen people on Gigha who really would be very good at this. We have become dependent on the HIE professional. They do business development and lots of it but appear to have real problems with building and growing communities where the bottom line is less clearly defined - though obviously recognising that all is not well on Gigha and if we go totally dysfunctional than a major piece of socio-economic engineering will blow back on them - as they set it up. Political embarrassment in no trumps.

The great hope for the future of this lovely place where we are all sharing our lives (okay there are a few SOGs too) is that there are so many talented people with such good ideas and such hope for our community. What was clear was that people really do want to be involved and not just as rubber stamps. OMG - too much democracy...where will it lead. Watch this space.

dear green place

Gigha is green. Or at least it was on Tuesday when we came back from the family pre-Christmas in Chester with the Miller tribe. It had been a lovely weekend and we headed back to Glasgow on Monday morning. It took the usual 3 and a half hours. No problems with the M74 as we had feared, given the blizzards only 20 miles further east. Glasgow was white and ice-bound as was most of the drive north of Lancaster - though Chester had been Baltic it was clear of the white stuff. We did all our shopping at important locations like Tool Station and retired to our hotel only venturing out for a fantastic Indian meal at the Banana Leaf. Very highly recommended especially the Dosas - tiny sit in though and formica topped/ceramic tiled in the early Bradford style of curry house decor.

Tuesday morning was very icy. We had a text message from MIcky that the Rest and Be Thankful had been blocked the previous day and Tracy Burler had been stranded. However we had the speediest run ever back from Dumbarton with almost no traffic on the road and only one patch of black ice on the way up RaBT. Ben Lomond and the Cobbler were incredibly foreshortened by the snow and dominated the fantastic landscape. Snow really does transform. Even the Balloch roundabout was pretty.

By the time we got to Tarbert we were back to green with just a dusting and Gigha was clear. Tuesday evening everything changed with heavy snow spreading westwards and we would have been stranded at Gretna some 200 miles down the line. The ground here is frozen solid so no concreting or blockwork this week. Some shed work on Wednesday but it was very, very cold up that ladder.

our first tree

Micky and Tracy have a fantastically varied patch of garden and have given us a tree which has just grown too big for its position. We picked a lovely new site for it just below the wee shed. Micky insisted on planting it too. It is about ten feet high or 3m if you wish. It's an ornamental looking a bit like an ash tree - a Japanese Wingnut. We would very much like to plant a small group of the rarest of UK natives too - the Arran Whitebeam. If anyone has a few seedlings please let us know. They're pretty difficult to come by.

Sea Area Malin

If you want to know what is happening on our wee island then you'll need to check out the various marine weather forecasts. The best is XC Weather followed by the Inshore forecast for sea area Malin.

We can actually see Malin Head on a good day. It must be almost 70 miles away to the SW but is at the furthest horizon of one of the best seascapes in the UK. This sweeps across the whole of the north coast of Ireland from Donegal to the Antrim Glens to Rathlin Island with Robert the Bruce's spidery cave, and then Fair Head and the North Channel down to Belfast. The Mull of Kintyre is an abrupt end to Scotland and at 450m high, pretty dramatic with the lighthouse quite low down on the point. The vast sweep of Macrihanish beach - ten or more miles of rolling swell and breaking surf, so often with a swathe of sea mist and spindrift completes our southern vista. McCartney loved it - it was his long and winding road. Jayne and I were brought up in Britain's only coastal National Park in Pembrokeshire but our seascapes in Kintyre easily match our wild Atlantic Welsh cliffs. In the great scheme of things there are plans for a massive 100+ turbine wind farm just 2km off Macrihanish beach. Turbines half the height of the Mull ! We already have several well sited and unobtrusive wind farms along the forested spine of Kintyre with space for many more but politics says we have to go offshore - well it is actually inshore and will destroy one of the best surfing beaches in the UK, ruin one of the finest seascapes with its breathtaking spread, and also place an additional hazard for those trying to navigate round the Mull, which is already hazardous enough anyway. Marine turbines are very, very expensive, much more so than land based wind farms and require massive capital grants and operational subsidies to make them viable. Onshore wind is pretty competitive by comparison. Offshore windfarms are supposed to be 25-35km offshore or at the very least far enough away to minimise the damage to precious landscapes. Well, the Macrihanish wind farm proposals are the right idea but in totally the wrong place - and I am in favour of wind energy in principle.

Now we have had so much disruption to our build from the various storms and gales that have battered us that we have made virtually no progress in the last three weeks. There have been heavy time demands from various day jobs too. We hope to get on with our mains electric connection to the workshop, starting the blockwork and improving site drainage very soon. But only if the weather allows us.

There was a very large submarine in the Sound of Jura this afternoon heading south and hopefully not looking for a reef or sandbar upon which to strand itself.

isn't technology wonderful

Wet as predicted so catching up on paperwork as well as the day job. The substructure plans do not include enough dimensions for setting out the footings so we have been working out our key triangulation points by trigonometry and this morning I rechecked out the set out positions for the corners of the sunspace foundations by the use of the tangent tables, paper and pencil. My old mathematical tables - logs, sines, cosines and tangents amongst others have been used by both myself and my father when he was at school and at Uni and are Four Figure Mathematical Tables by Cargill G Knott D.Sc F.R.S.E. and dated 1905. That Maths A-level did come in useful after all....though the basic trig. was all done years before.

Obviously we all use the 345 triangle for 90 degree corners but for a dodecahedron sines and tangents are essential back up.

weather or not

Well its getting colder, wetter and more windy. Forecast this week is for alternate days of heavy rain and light rain on the very wet BBC and one day of heavy rain and light showers on XC Weather. On Gigha most people use XC Weather. Gigha is in a wee rain shadow between the hills of Islay and Paps of Jura and the KIntyre ridge - we don't get as much rain as the reference stations on Kintyre or Islay. so the BBC usually overstates how much rain we're going to get and XC is more accurate, but occasionally understates.

Shuttering is finished for the wee roundhouse and half done for the sunspace so nearly there. Trouble is the site is very wet now and the finished strip foundations are getting submerged every day with ground water as the water table is up so I will not be able to do the blockwork without pumping out and hoping the cement goes off before it fills up again. Such are logistics of winter building.

We still have no central heating so it is very cold apart from the front room in front of the fire.

Worst of all is the clocks changing next weekend. I hate winter darkness. We have had two bright days where the sun has not set until 6:30 ish - losing an afternoon hour of daylight from next Sunday is a real pain.

life is still a beach

Little achieved today. Boiler not working this morning so we had to ring the Trust. Funny we were worrried about the concrete freezing but it was Kinnererach which was really cold. Had a visitation from Raymond and Lukas, Trust managers, who then had a good long walk round the proposed Kinnererach crofts and semi-derelict farm buildings here. Later on Andy dug out the trench very neatly for the sunspace - pure beach underneath - pebbles, storm beach and sand and this evening we went to the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust Member's Meeting about the croft proposals for Gigha. We had had a first class briefing paper circulated on the options. The presentations were excellent and the Crofter's Commission adviser pragmatic and to the point. The question and answer session covered pretty much all the relevant details and then we got totally mired in petty politics, point scoring - including some barely concealed personal animosities and red herrings. As usual self interest reared its ugly head. Two hours later and no decision was made - not even a basic in principle one. The discussions on crofts and small agricultural units have already dragged on for several years with no real action being taken except to commission more studies on the options. On this subject, like economists, if you lay all Gighans end to end, you would still not reach a conclusion.

We are actually the only owner-crofters living on the island as the part of our plot not being built on is still croft land. It is big enough for a polytunnel, some raised beds, and our wee sheep fank. We also manage the rest of Ardailly croft and are getting our first sheep soon as well as having made a start controlling bracken with a view to planting trees for wood fuel. We are not Trust tenants as our wee bit of the island is the only bit not under Trust ownership. After tonight we realised how simple our lives are compared with those folk hoping to become new crofters on Trust land. It was not so easy for Lachlan and Fiona before we bought the plot from them but that is another story.

pink hats and concrete boots

We have finished the big roundhouse - all 12 sections, and 8 sections of the smaller annex. That leaves 4x3m sections for the sunspace and 4x2m sections for the annex and only one step to shutter up.

Jayne wore her best pink hat to keep her napper warm cos it was Baltic. Worried it would freeze and ruin our efforts in completing the six sections we had to leave on Sunday but it was above zero, though it didn't feel it. It really was cold with the F6 northerly but we got the job done and home by 6:30 for tea.

and then....

Good start - fresh home made bread, tuna sandwiches, two good mixes in the trench to finish off the big roundhouse stepped section and then ..... hydraulic failure on the tractor. Mark came over, checked it out and confirmed the diagnosis - needs new O ring. So our big day intending to finish all but 8m of footings spluttered to an early close. There's ground water in the other trench but not deep enough to pump out. Then it rained a bit more got very very dreich and we came home early. Self building for crusties is full of aches and pains, tendonitis, bad backs, and many other ailments to do with impending old age - and Jayne feels the cold too so we had our afternoon off - displacement activity was cooking my favourite saffron rice and a curry - we didn't even relax in front of the telly. We may be living the dream but today was another setback. For all those who think it is just a matter of determination and hard work ... well - a bit of luck helps too. Don't romanticise self building - it's tough, constant tiredness, financial aches and pains - vehicle failures - the Cabstar had a new water pump, gaskets etc., 250 miles ago and overheated this week as we went to pick up the cement. It is peeing out water and another day will be wasted going to Arnold Clark's in Dumbarton - they did it so they can sort it out....Though we have had a good week overall we have had several steps forward and several steps backwards. A teetering tightrope walk.. Maybe there is a book in all this - something existentialist - Zen and the art of self building maybe ?

gin and it

Jayne has become something of a gin connosieur. We sampled two bottles last night with Fiona - Lachie was supping red wine as he was driving to Ibrox today to take Alex for her first football game (a 4-1 won over Motherwell as it happened). We finished off the remnants of a bottle of Brecon Gin, smooth and subtle, and knocked off a decent % of a bottle of Shetland Gin. Bit later to bed than we had planned. Today with a wee gin head on her (I was fine, of course) we placed concrete in glorious sunshine in our T shirts. Slow start today but eventually two cubes in the ground, steel reinforcing in place - finish the job tomorrow. After the Archer's omnibus probably unless there is someone interesting on Desert Island Discs - 50/50 chance usually. We do work seven days a week on this build but we try to pace ourselves somewhat over the weekend - we'll still have placed over 4 cubes of C35 using 1.5 tonnes of cement - 60 bags - by the time we get home for tea tomororow. Amazing sunset over Islay - a sun ghost and halo projected above the horizon after the sun had gone down. Both knackered - its been a hard week in the trenches.

shedful of windows

Sea Area Malin southerly F5-7, increasing F8 soon, squally showers. Such is the prime daily directive. XC Weather showed very heavy rain at 4 p.m. and wind increasing to 36 knots. Our windows were due to arrive on the 2 p.m. ferry until the very efficient delivery company rang me and said it would be the 12 o'clock. Good - gave us an extra hour to offload if the 7.5 tonner could just get down the track. Robin was hustled to get the Manitou over to the plot an hour earlier than we thought and arrived pronto. The wagon had five big pallets of shrink wrapped very expensive double glazed windows and doors -heaviest pallet 800 odd kilos, largest pallet 2.3m x 3.1m x 1.2m. Headroom under shed doors 2.32m. Hmmm. Could Rob slide the pallets under the door and into the shed ? Could the truck even get over the very muddy and slippery track and down to the plot. Answer no on both counts. The truck skidded heavily on the cow slurried entrance to the track but the driver persevered and got 9/10 the way down and stopped at Ardailly Cottage - just 100m away. We offloaded each pallet, strapped it tightly to the Manitou pallet forks and Rob reversed them gently down the track to the shed. Small pallet - in no problem. Second pallet at 2.25m high could not get under the doors as the angle meant the top of the windows touched the lintel and diagonally opposite bottom would not clear the door step by 5cm. Miss as good as a nautical mile so we stacked the pallets up outside the shed. It was a little nerveracking getting the 3.1m pallet along a 3.2m wide track. but - all pallets were safely delivered by the island maestro of telehandler. By now it was 2:30 and the windows and doors were all outside the shed with the wind freshening to 20 knots or so. A couple of quick phone calls enlisted the aid of Lindsay, Jane and Andy (plus Lindsay's dog Ash and Andy and Jane's two kids) We would have to offload each window and hand ball it into the shed - largest 3m long 2.3m high and 120 kilos, heaviest patio doors maybe 180 kilos - about three tonnes in all. Within ten minutes Jane and Andy arrived on their quad and Jayne came down too. An hour and a half later everything was safely stacked in the shed, upright with spacers and screwed together. The wind began to come up very fast after about 3:45 and Jayne was left trying to hold the windows upright on the pallets as we removed the stapled fixings. Wee Brandon and Amanda were brought down by Lindsay after school finished and helped Jayne stop everything from blowing over as we carried them into the shed. We had one small 25mm scratch on one window frame as the total handling damage. Five minutes after the windows were safely in store, spaced and screwed together the heavens opened and a heavy squall rocked the shed. Andy and the two J's had headed off on their respective quads and got soaked. This is just in time delivery and logistics with a vengeance. Many hands do not only make light work but trusted friends really do take the pressure off. After badmouthing my contractor handsaws Lindsay might even buy me a better one for Christmas. Everyone who is helping us is part of a self builder's community here on Gigha. Nothing as naff as the big society - Gigha is a small rural community with as much strife and as many petty feuds as anywhere else and is certainly no role model - but some of us really do try and help each other as we are all in it together - and this is not just a meaningless apology for a slogan by the well to do in government. As well as being a stunning place to live our friends make it a place worth living. Curry night at Kinnererach soon.

Photos taken the same day the Turner prize shortlist announced and have a reflective and existentialist feel I think. Maybe our windows installation in the shed will be considered for next year - the £60k first prize would certainly come in useful.

still raining still dreaming reprise

Jayne and I often compete over being at momentous gigs but it was she who saw Mr Hendrix at the Isle of Wight 40 years and a few weeks ago and not me.

My equivalent moment was being at the Brighton Dome for the first date of Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon tour.

We are now firmly in the 'back end' as oncoming winter is known hereabouts. The weather, as predicted, is mostly wet. We had flash floods last week which washed out the Long and Winding Road just by Muasdale (yes it is the road McCartney wrote the eponymous song about) and it is

raining hard almost every other day. We are almost reconciled to not finishing the ground works before Christmas unless there is a long dry spell.

When we went down the plot on Thursday we found the trenches we had concreted on Tuesday more like the 18th at Celtic Manor today.

Spent most of the day in the JCB digging out new drains to stop water running through the plot

By the weekend and after a long pumping out session we had the trenches dry, though the ground is not good enough to carry on concreting. We have not been able to get more concreting finished since due to day job commitments. We have got eight sides of the large roundhouse shuttered - six completed plus the linking corridor so its all taking shape. So we are about half way through laying footings even if it doesn't look like it from the pictures.

shedfuls of windows

We were forced to stop concreting founds due to too much rain.................................. and sort out the shed as it will be needed or storing the windows very soon. Unlike almost all the Grand Designs builders whose windows arrive weeks or months after the shell of the building is up ours will be here several months before we can consider getting the kit up. It is now pretty much wrapped and battened. The door headroom is 2.1m windows on pallets are 2.25m so I am removing the top of the door frame to give us the necessary clearance. We can get a max of 2.31m. There is still the eaves overhang to worry about. Hope it works. We are apprehensive.

jayne millimetre

After yesterday's heavy rain we had to pump out the water filled trenches we were going to work on today but by home time at 7:15 p.m. we had finished the porch and end walls for both roundhouses - about a 15m run and shuttered and filled to 50mm on one angle on the east side of both roundhouses. Jayne raked and tamped and as usual got the finish millimetre accurate hence her new name. 3.5 cubes so far - 0.2 over quantities calculated to fill extra depth. As she says not many women in their mid 50s are laying foundations but we make a good team - the odd whinge and occasional expletive notwithstanding.

of C35 and foundations

We can't get ready mix to the plot and have just had almost 100 tonnes of concreting aggregate delivered to the plot. With some difficulty and damage to our driveway and grossing 28 tonnes a six wheeler, expertly handled by Steff, has tipped enough stone for founds and floors.

Today we got the pan mixer going and made almost 2 cubes in just a few hours before the rain set in. That is almost 4 tonnes in the trench.

No hand loading the mixer with shovels. JCB does that. No wheely barrowing. Tractor and mixer do that. Some delicate reversing to poise the mixer over the shuttered trench needed and poor Izzy tied up all afternoon as the wee dog does not have any conception of wet concrete. We did more in our first brief afternoon than we did in two days hand mixing so it has been worth the wait. The shuttering and levelling now takes twice as long as the concreting. C35 is our founds spec - basically 1'n'4 and we have been dutifully placing the reinforcing mesh 50mm from the bottom of the pour. I mix and Jayne rakes out and tamps down.

Tonight it rains and tomorrow it will rain but we have finally started building our house !

shark attack

Jayne has frequently complained that she has never seen dolphins. Last week there was a pod following the ferry across to Tayinloan and I used to see the winter resident pod of about 20 almost every day off the fish farm last January. But no luck for Jayne. On Wednesday we saw something much rarer - the second largest fish in the whole wide world - at least I think it is after the whale shark - and swimming round in circles for almost an hour just off Ardailly. Thought it was a couple of dolphins at first but then the big dorsal fin was evidently attached to the large tail fin following some 5 metres or so behind. The basking shark is a real killer and spells certain death for very large numbers of plankton. The one we saw was only 30m off the rocks at Port an Duin below the plot. We were busy shuttering up the footings for the house. It was probably about 8 metres long.

Later we heard that Don saw 7 or so basking sharks from his RIB off the west of Gigha. They are pretty rare these days - the last one I saw was off the Isle of Man a few years ago and long gone are the days when I saw them every day off Skomer when I worked on the boat there as a lad.

Next time it'll be dolphins I'm sure - or even a minke whale.