sailing

It was a full on day today with a morning Ocean Discovery followed by two Bay Discovery trips. All three of them had great sightings. This morning there were plunging gannets as far as you could see, and masses of common dolphins with them. These stretched from right in the inner part of the bay…

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…

It was warm today but cloudy, with a light westerly breeze. On this morning’s Ocean Discovery we went looking for bluefin tuna further offshore, and they were there but extremely mobile. They were accompanied by fast moving groups of feeding seabirds, including gannets, Manx shearwaters, kittiwakes and other species of gulls. We also found two…

There were some very small dolphin calves spotted this morning, some with their foetal folds clearly visible. We also saw some harbour porpoises on this four hour trip, lots of diving gannets and a few seals hauled out on the island. It was a little cooler today with a decent northerly breeze blowing which made…

It was great to welcome back crew member Georgi today, who returned to Marine Discovery after having her baby boy in March. It was a fabulous – and very hot 🥵 – day with more fins than you could shake a stick at. On this morning’s Ocean Discovery we saw common dolphins from the start…

It was a lovely day today with warm sunshine and very little wind. It was one of those days when the wildlife is not obvious and you have to really search, however there were creatures to be found out there if you looked hard enough. On the morning three hour trip, it was all very…

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…

July already – blimey. Is it me or are the seasons racing by? We had a four hour followed by a two hour trip today. For long periods this morning it was rather quiet, even though we sailed several miles south. There were some nice gannet, shearwater and kittiwake sightings, but it was only when…

We have been plagued by fog this week. It can happen when we get a southerly airflow that sucks up a load of moisture from the Bay of Biscay, when the rest of the country is basking in sunshine and it’s incredibly annoying. But that’s part and parcel of living on a peninsular sticking out…

Didn’t I say yesterday that dull windy conditions are usually way better for wildlife spotting than a sunny warm day when the wind is blowing from the east? We had two Ocean Discovery tours today and that statement was completely vindicated by fab sightings on both. This morning we had a great encounter with another…