Today we visited the Shetland Islands, a windy archipelago that forms the northern outpost of Great Britain. Arriving by sea from the Orkneys, we sailed under the towering cliffs of the Isle of Noss, upon whose ledges multitudes of gannets and murres lay their eggs and rear their young. Gannets sailed and swooped over the ship. Murres beat their short wings furiously to stay aloft, while fulmars alternately flapped and glided. Once on land, we explored by coach and on foot. We saw scarcely any trees, but spreading farm fields reach down to the shore. A visit to the southern tip of the main island brought us to the Sumburgh (rhymes with Edinburgh) light station, which can only be reached by a narrow ridge flanked on both sides by seabird cliffs. From this ridge, we peered down at the murres brooding their eggs and young on a sloping rock just above the turbulent sea and at the puffins guarding their burrow entrances on the grassy slopes. The day ended with the Captain’s welcome dinner in the dining room.