Thursday 23rd July
We had spectacular cetacean sightings today with Risso’s dolphins on all three trips, and lots of porpoises on the first and the second. This morning’s Ocean Discovery saw the porpoises first and as has become customary in the last week or so, numbers were very high and they gave us some really close swim bys….
Wednesday 22nd July
It was a cooler windier day today than we have had for ages. It was a northerly breeze though so it wasn’t rough and there was no incoming swell, so everything was quite comfortable. This morning we once again had great views of harbour porpoises, numbering about fifty. They swam very close to the boat….
Tuesday 21st July
It was another morning filled with cetaceans today, with two groups of porpoises and a big pod of about thirty common dolphins spotted. This was a four hour Discovery Voyage so we had plenty of time to explore over a wide area. The good thing about Penzance is, as soon as you leave the harbour…
Monday 20th July
We had a wonderful Ocean Discovery trip in this morning’s sunshine (no trip this afternoon due to scheduled boat servicing). On leaving the harbour the first thing we spotted was a seal out in the bay, lying casually at the surface before doing a slow dive down. The in the distance a few fins appeared …
Sunday 19th July
It was a very long day today with a 3 hour trip followed by two 2 hour trips. This morning as saw plenty of common dolphins in a few different groups. It started calm but a southesterly breeze got up, making things rather choppy and that was up and down all day. We also saw…
Saturday 18th July
There were some very small dolphin calves spotted this morning, some with their foetal folds clearly visible. We also saw some harbour porpoises on this four hour trip, lots of diving gannets and a few seals hauled out on the island. It was a little cooler today with a decent northerly breeze blowing which made…
Friday 17th July
It was great to welcome back crew member Georgi today, who returned to Marine Discovery after having her baby boy in March. It was a fabulous – and very hot 🥵 – day with more fins than you could shake a stick at. On this morning’s Ocean Discovery we saw common dolphins from the start…
Thursday 16th July
We had two Ocean Discovery trips today on another hot day, though with a welcome sea breeze. This morning we found several groups of common dolphins who were engaging in a range of behaviours which were very interesting to observe. Some were feeding, some socialising, some were resting, and some came over to interact and…
Wednesday 15th July
The forecast was for much lighter easterly winds today so we set off on our 5 hour tour. We had fantastic sailing conditions and found a couple of feeding events with gannets and shearwaters offshore. We found a large pod of common dolphins feeding under the second with gannets raining in on fish and shearwaters…
Saturday 11th July
Normally an easterly wind is really unwelcome, but today was so roasting hot that breeze from any direction was very welcome. Being an easterly wind it did mess up the sea state a bit so spotting wildlife was a little tricky. This morning the breeze was a little lighter though and we were able to…
Friday 10th July
A day of two halves, with calm conditions on this morning’s 3 hour tour, but a building easterly wind made things rather choppy at times on the 4 hour tour this afternoon. This morning we found lots of cetaceans, including Risso’s dolphins, common dolphins and porpoises as well as grey seals in the water. There…
Thursday 9th July
Such calm silky water, chockablock with plankton, jellyfish and – this afternoon at least – dolphins. Our four hour trip this morning was actually quite quiet until we found a group of common dolphins, though conditions were beautifully calm and clear. We did see a few seals bottling round the island, including a big male….