Monday 8th September

It was a sunny breezy day today and we had two Ocean Discovery trips. While the swell was reasonably chunky again, the south westerly breeze gave us a great windy for sailing especially in the afternoon. On both trips we saw several grey seals around the island, both in the water and hauled out on the rocks. Seabird activity spotted through binoculars drew us south, where we found scores of common dolphins feeding and playing in the swells. They were there all day! Seabird sightings were fantastic, with countless Manx shearwaters seen, a sooty shearwater, Cory’s shearwater, lot of common terns, and an Arctic skua harassing the poor terns until they dropped their catch. This afternoon as we were sailing into the Bay a seal surfaced near the boat with a large fish she had just caught – she watched us in an interested way as we sailed past, before the smell of the fish attracted lots of Manx shearwaters. Their olfactory senses are amazing.