Monday 4th May

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 boats had seen dolphins early in the morning. It was quite a large number, possibly 20 or so, but they were spread out over a wide area. There was at least one young calf with them. None of them came especially close to the boat and it’s really important with Risso’s to keep a respectful distance. However conditions were so great we got some good views. Later on we saw absolutely stacks of auks, especially razorbills. One of them was standing on the same pallet the gannets were fighting over yesterday! We had really good views of a couple of puffins further out – this is the fourth day in a row now. At the end of the trip we watched a couple of bull seals hauled out on the island as the tide dropped away.

Tomorrow morning we have a four hour trip with some spaces available, and it looks like great sailing conditions.