Despite the dreary windy conditions we had a fabulous trip today. It’s always worth heading out at this time of year even on an unpromising looking day. After hoisting the sails on leaving the harbour we sailed south and spied a bit of bird activity, including some of the familiar looking pecking by great black backed gulls. They weren’t scavenging on cuttlefish but a large octopus instead. This put us on high alert for Risso’s dolphins straightaway, though the first things were saw were FIVE ocean sunfish. They were all small animals, one pair then a group of three.

We then bumped along the coast into the fresh westerly wind before sailing offshore. The bird activity out there was spectacular, including Manx shearwaters, kittiwakes, common terns, storm petrels – we even saw a few great shearwaters, and then a great skua zipped through chasing one of them. We saw several big work ups of birds and looked for common dolphins, though there were none today. We sailed back into the coast where we saw a few seals bottling round the island. Finally as we were on the homeward leg we caught up with the Risso’s – a big group of approximately twenty, including some mum/calf pairs.

Thanks to everyone who joined us today!