Saturday 1st August

We had some phenomenal sightings today. This morning’s three hour trip saw certainly the most common dolphins I have seen all year (though I haven’t been on a couple of the other very dolphiny trips). But what made it special was seeing them doing so many different things. The group we found first in the bay were resting and socialising, and then we kept on finding different pods. Some were resting, some were hunting, some were socialising with us, some were bowriding. It was pretty special, and there were so many of them! We also had a lovely encounter with some nearby harbour porpoises. After that, some distance offshore we could see hundreds of gannets firing into the water, and this time the feeding continued for long enough for us to get there. With them, there were possibly a hundred more dolphins, and they were audibly vocalising so we could all hear too. It was a really special encounter.

This afternoon we started at the island where we watched the seals hauling out, including some familiar faces. They really seem to be favouring one particular patch at the moment. The dolphin pods had broken up and dispersed a bit compared to the morning, and the diving gannets this time indicated tuna feeding. However it seems the tuna are feeding way too deep for us to see them jumping yet. At the end of the trip we had a really magic encounter with a pod of harbour porpoises, who came so close to the boat. One of them was very spotty, which we haven’t seen before.