Friday 11th August

Unfortunately we had to cancel yesterday’s trips – we returned to Penzance after an hour in the morning due to more exceptionally dense fog. Very frustrating! However today the fog cleared , and we had a four hour then a three hour trip. This morning there were common dolphins everywhere – they stayed with us for hours. They treated us to some very acrobatic leaps and some up close bow riding. We also had some great seabird sightings, including storm petrels,Wilson’s petrels, Cory’s and great shearwaters as well as the Manxes. This afternoon the common dolphins had unexpectedly scattered – we sailed a very long way searching and had brief encounters with two small pods. However, very excitingly, we saw a species of dolphin we have only seen once this year – a big pod of bottlenose dolphins. They numbered about thirty, including a couple of very small calves. They were not the south coast’s inshore pod – they had come in from much further offshore. This was a real treat.