Cornwall

It was a calm start to the day with a building westerly breeze that developed into lovely sailing conditions. We had a bit of a bonanza on this morning’s Discovery Voyage trip again, with Risso’s dolphins spotted first, included some mothers with small calves. There were also two encounters with porpoises, firstly with a pair…

The day started off murky but the wildlife this morning was fantastic. We had great views of harbour porpoises (between 30 and 40) feeding under diving gannets, followed by a terrific encounter with some common dolphins who were in a very showy offy mood. As we came back into the bay we found a group…

We had some amazing sightings today. On the morning trip we started off with a male seal hauled out on the rocks, followed a short while later by a young female who had caught a massive conger eel! The poor eel was skinned and eaten alive, and it shows that even small, cute looking seals…

May already! For May Day we were greeted by some lovely views of puffins – a single adult which sat very bravely on the water before taking off, followed by an immature bird with its sooty little face a while later. There were also lots of other seabirds to see including shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills….

Today was an early hint of summer – even the wind felt warm (looks like all change for tomorrow though, as frequently happens in April). Another thing that can happen in April is a quiet day on the water! There was lots of seabird activity in one particular spot and this lasted all day –…

We had another lovely day today. Bright sunshine and calm seas allowed us to search offshore. In the morning we found lots of different groups of harbour porpoises and had some lovely interactions in the calm conditions. We also saw a variety of seabirds including many arctic skuas, who were harassing kittiwakes for their catch….

After the strong wind of the last two days (more strong wind) we were back out today and conditions were surprisingly benign. This morning we saw several grey seals round the island and a couple of groups of harbour porpoises, but on the whole it was rather quiet. This afternoon we tried a different route…

The wind and swell is playing havoc wit our schedule at  the moment, however we managed to sneak out for a Bay Discovery trip this morning. This was due to be a 3 hour trip but because of the wind and sea conditions we shortened it and stayed in the relative shelter of the Bay….

There were enormous numbers of common dolphins in the bay today, stretching right out further offshore too – estimated numbers of many hundreds. These were in many different smaller pods, again including lots of juveniles and calves. Again there were tuna feeding with them, though they weren’t showing as well as yesterday. Seabirds included common…

We had a couple of awesome trips today in warm, calm conditions. This morning we quickly found a grey seal fishing in the middle of the bay who looked at us in an unhurried way for a while before diving down again to continue. A bit further on we found a pod of common dolphins …