sailing trips

We had a Bay Discovery and a Discovery Voyage today on what looks like the last nice day before some foul weather comes in. Both trips were very productive with lots of common dolphins seen on both, including some very young calves. They were swimming close to their mothers in a big maternal pod. Seabird…

It was a sunny breezy day today and we had two Ocean Discovery trips. While the swell was reasonably chunky again, the south westerly breeze gave us a great windy for sailing especially in the afternoon. On both trips we saw several grey seals around the island, both in the water and hauled out on…

Lots of August dolphins around today, both inshore and offshore. We also saw a large group of harbour porpoises this morning, some tuna feeding with a variety of seabirds and some grey seals. The sea was surprisingly choppy and grey! It calmed down for the afternoon three hour trip, and we went east instead of…

August is the month when we could see anything, so it’s exciting to look forward to what could turn up this year. We had a brisk northerly wind blowing today which chopped the sea up a lot, but the wildlife was all there to be found. Again the porpoise sightings were amazing – we could…

We just had a morning trip today because of the building southerly wind, which came up behind us as we sailed back to shore. It was a great Ocean Discovery trip. First we watched several seals snoozing in the water round the island. Heading south and seeing some  gannets on the horizon we found them…

We had a Discovery Voyage followed by a Bay Discovery trip today. This morning we found a pod of at least 12 Risso’s dolphins down the coast. There were a couple of individuals in particular who we got good views of, and picked up some useful photos for photo ID purposes. We also had some…

Lots of dolphins on this morning’s trip, almost as soon as we left the harbour in fact. There was a group close inshore and then another group further out in the middle of the bay. We also saw grey seals hauled out on the island. We had a belter of a sail heading back to…

After the easterly wind of yesterday, it was rather quieter out there for fins today. We saw some amazing seabird feeding on both morning and afternoon trips though, with gannets, Manx shearwaters, kittiwakes and other gulls, and guillemots all feasting on small baitfish. It was surprising not to see any dolphins or porpoises with all…

This morning’s trip was originally supposed to be a four hour tour, but as forecast, there was a lot of south west wind overnight, which created some big chunky swell. So we kept it to three hours and didn’t go too far west, but even so, the surf was an impressive sight. We found some…

Finally we had a good weather day (apart from a bit of fog this morning). This half term has left a lot to be desired unfortunately with several days of cancelled trips. And in more good news, as suspected the westerly winds have brought the seals back into the bay. We have really missed them…