Sightings

It was all about the sailing and the shearwaters today. The sun broke through the persistent cloud we have had for the last few days, and just the right amount of northeasterly breeze gave us unexpectedly perfect sailing conditions. Today had been going to be a day off before the busy half term starts, but…

It was a bit of a misty one this morning though the swell had dropped (slightly!). There were still so many seabirds out there – it’s an amazing sight watched them gliding and dipping over swells and into troughs with scarcely a flap. They were searching for food along big streams of foamy plankton which…

We had an Ocean Discovery trip this afternoon in improving conditions! It started off misty and murky and the swell and chop was coming from at least three different directions after the strong wind of the last couple of days. It didn’t stop the wildlife though. The seabirds were amazing with hundreds of shearwaters spotted,…

It was a bit of a wet and windy start to the week, but the rain mainly held off until the very end of the trip. After hoisting the sails on leaving the harbour, we sailed southwards into a choppy, southwesterly sea and soon started picking up  seabirds soaring past. A few tacks out of…

We had a three hour Ocean Discovery this afternoon with a really fun bunch of women on board – Duncan was properly outnumbered! The rain that had been threatening held off for the first half of the trip, and we watched a few seals round the island before heading westwards along the coast into a…

It was another windy day with awesome sailing conditions. We headed further out this time and there were a few more Manx shearwaters than there were yesterday, though on the whole everything was rather quiet. The coast and sea looked magnificent in the shafts of sunlight – the sea was cobalt blue. Inshore we saw…

After a windy weekend, it was a completely different day to when we were last out on Friday. A cold northerly breeze had pushed everything way out to sea and we struggled to find much wildlife. There were  a few gannets, auks and shearwaters around, and a shy girl seal was spotted under Logan Rock,…

The water was like silk today – we have rarely seen it so calm. Heading south along the coast our plan was vindicated when we met a pod of Risso’s dolphins heading up into the bay. This was based their movements yesterday – Risso’s dolphins can sometimes be predictable! They swam past us fairly close…

We had such a great sail on this morning’s four hour Discovery Voyage. The northeasterly built behind us, taking us westwards with the outgoing tide so quickly we were able to spend some time exploring the coves between Gwennap Head and Land’s End. Because of that wind there were fewer seabirds around than the past…

What a fabulous bank holiday Ocean Discovery trip we had this morning. The sea was absolutely mirror calm and shortly after leaving the harbour, tall fins were spotted in the distance. Risso’s dolphins! We suspected they were around somewhere yesterday based on the evidence of the gulls, and later heard that one of the fishing…