Friday 18th September

We were treated to some astonishing sights on this morning’s Ocean Discovery (the afternoon was cancelled due to the building southwesterly wind). We sailed south out of the bay towards the area where we have found a bit of feeding activity the last few mornings. There were some diving gannets and some very tricky dolphins dashing to and from the boat. They bow rode with us sporadically, then all seemed to decide to head southwards and looking that way, we could see why. A huge mass of gannets was setting up and firing into the water like arrows, and as we approached gently, they built and built. There were lots of dolphins of course, but unusually, no sign of any tuna, but the real spectacle was the gannets. They were out of this world, circling around in a giant carousel and filling the air with their cackling. Curiously enough there were no shearwaters either – perhaps they are further out to sea. We eventually tore ourselves away and had a great sail back in towards the coast, diverted briefly by some enormous tuna breaching about four times right next to the boat! We finished the tour with a couple of seals hauled out on the island, while the tide was still quite high.

Tomorrow is cancelled because of the wind, but there is space on the three hour trip on Sunday afternoon.