Cornwall

Today was a trickier to find wildlife but we had a really good variety. On the morning four hour, we had some great encounters with harbour porpoises, and some more elusive dolphins (had they swapped personalities?). On the afternoon trip we sailed well south, watching individual gannets plunging in from very high up, but no…

The strong northerly wind meant we postponed the Discovery Voyage trip this morning, but it was ok for the Ocean Discovery at 2pm. We had a great trip despite the wind, with some very enthusiastic friendly passengers. They were rewarded with a fantastic Risso’s dolphin encounter – a  pod of at least 12 animals. They…

A long day today with a four hour trip followed by a three hour. Things started off glassy calm though with quite a deceptive leftover swell from yesterday. After watching six snoozing seals, we saw a porpoise first thing followed immediately by a quiet group of common dolphins…followed by further groups of much more animated…

I was unsure all week about whether Friday trips would be possible based on the wind forecast. We were able to head out on an early Ocean Discovery this morning in the end and we’re glad we did, because there was an amazing feeding frenzy going on in the bay. Hungry  dolphins raced around herding…

We had a such a great day today. This morning after watching the seals on the island we spotted some intense gannet feeding a little further out, where there were large numbers of common dolphins with them. They were rushing round chasing fish as the gannets dived in from above and the shearaters flitted around…

The weather forecast decided yesterday it would be misty and drizzly today. I hoped it was lying but it wasn’t. However it was one of those summer days when a southwesterly wind and poor  visibility brings in a lot of seabirds close to the coast. Most of them were Manx shearwaters and gannets, and one…

A long day today with a Discovery Voyage (4 hour) followed by an Ocean Discovery (3 hour) trip. This morning we had lovely clear views of a harbour porpoise in the early morning calm. It circled repeatedly round the boat, just carrying on with what it was doing. Further offshore all was quiet apart from…

Today we saw a fin whale! This was on the two hour Bay Discovery and not particularly far from shore. We occasionally see fin whales in August, but we have never seen one this early before. I just caught sight of a blow in my peripheral vision, which seemed far too big for a minke…

On today’s boat tour, we had a surprise on leaving the harbour this afternoon when a very small minke whale popped up just in front of us, then behind us then was gone! People are often concerned when they see little whales on their own, but minkes wean and are independent when they are quite…

It was a quieter day today with no fins seen, however we had a really lovely afternoon with a great bunch of people. We headed westwards along the coast first , as far as Porthcurno before sailing right out offshore. The endless easterly winds are over for the moment and we had a very sailable…