Sightings Blog

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today and the weather was an enormous improvement on yesterday’s wind and rain. This morning we had an extraordinary porpoise encounter. There were lots of gannets further east in an area where we have been seeing lots of porpoises so we headed over for a look. Sure enough we…

We  had a four hour followed by a three hour trip today in windy northerly conditions. Even so, we had some great sightings – during the morning we initially found some common dolphins then sailed southwards where we found two minke whales feeding among the bluefin tuna and shearwaters. As we sailed back towards the…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today in great sailing conditions particularly this morning. There were lots of seals hauled out on the island on both trips, including adult males and females and juveniles. Sailing further south we were watching a kittiwake when up popped a group of three harbour porpoises who gave us some…

We had a Discovery Voyage followed  by a Bay Discovery trip today. This morning started off really mizzly with poor vis, but it was due to lift so we set off optimistically! Sure enough, the sun didn’t exactly come out but it brightened and cleared enough to have a great trip. There were lots of…

What a couple of trips we had today in spite of (or maybe because of) the misty conditions, and with some really friendly and interested passengers. I do love September! Dolphins here, dolphins there, dolphins literally everywhere. Leaping tuna in the morning, shearwaters (again four species spotted), grey seals, harbour porpoises. This afternoon we had…

There was a strong spell of easterly wind this morning so it was a good thing we hadn’t scheduled a morning trip. It did ease off for the first half of the afternoon, but there was still some steep leftover chop. This did affect spotting conditions somewhat, but we still had a good trip. After…

Another long busy day today, but August is nearly over so make hay! This morning’s four hour trip set off in the calmest conditions imaginable – no wind at all, but a long lazy swell kept the sea moving a little. After watching a few seals round the island, things were quiet in the bay,…

Conditions were excellent today which was handy, as we had a very busy day. On the morning Ocean Discovery we had great encounters with common dolphins, grey seals, harbour porpoises and seabirds. This afternoon there was much excitement in Penzance Harbour when the paddlesteamer “Waverley” arrived as part of its summer tour of the country….

What a day we had for seabirds today. As so often happens when there’s been a bit of a southerly blow, it brought all manner of exciting pelagic species within reach on our four hour and three hour trips – no chumming necessary! It started off so murky and wet that we kept close to…

The wind calmed a lot today though there were still some splashy waves out there. The wildlife was all there though – common dolphins, grey seals, seabirds and a porpoise on the first Ocean Discovery trip. On the second three hour trip, we spotted several more seals bobbing around in the water before going a…

The windy weather continues but we managed to get a three hour trip in this morning before the south westerly wind built too much. Conditions weren’t too bad actually – we found a couple of groups of common dolphins, loads of feeding seabirds and a juvenile grey seal. The first dolphin pod was very interactive,…

It’s a windy week that’s for sure. This morning started calmer and we were able to get our four hour trip in with full sail up. We had small groups of dolphins darting in and out then disappearing , before we found a group which interacted with the boat more consistently and everyone got some…