We saw four species of cetacean today! On the morning Discovery Voyage a harbour porpoise was spotted very quickly, which was great because we haven’t been seeing too many of these lately. Numbers will build as we head through the summer. In the far distance we spotted some common dolphins but then much closer we had clear views of some Risso’s dolphins, in a completely different location to yesterday’s. There are a lot round the south west coast at the moment. We also saw some grey seals, and seabirds including a puffin and a storm petrel.

On the afternoon Ocean Discovery, after watching a sleeping female seal bobbing around, we hoisted the sails and headed straight southwards on the westerly wind. More and more seabirds started appearing, and then some fins…bottlenose dolphins this time! They looked absolutely gigantic even compared to the Risso’s we’ve been seeing, let alone the commons. There were 12-15 animals there, including some juveniles and a calf. They were not the inshore pod of bottlenoses that used to be spotted frequently round the Cornish coast – they were one of the offshore pods that come closer in periodically.