sailing

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…

It was another very breezy day, with a westerly wind and choppy waves. That didn’t deter the wildlife though, especially on the four hour trip this morning. Sailing south of Mousehole we picked up some feeding gannets who showed us where common dolphins were milling around. They swam with us as we headed southwards to…

The first trip we had this morning was with some students from Newquay College. They came out to learn about data collection techniques, and hopefully to have a good sail and find some wildlife, and got all of those things. A brisk westerly wind meant great sailing conditions, and we found a very cool ocean…

Back out on the water today after and extremely windy week. We couldn’t do the first five hour of the season as planned, but we were able to get out for a 3 hour Ocean Discovery, and we’re very glad we did. As often happens after strong westerly wind, there was lots of life about,…

We had a final Ocean Discovery trip to finish the half term this morning. After a quiet start to the season, this week has seen beautiful weather and a lot of very welcome visitors – both humans and animals! We watched some seals at the island at the start of the trip, including our favourite…

We had an Ocean Discovery trip followed by a Discovery Voyage trip today. Despite being at low tide when the seals should have been hauled out on the rocks, it was pretty quiet this morning. There are a staggering number of pot buoys round the island at the moment, so a lot of fishing effort….

It was another spectacular day with masses of wildlife, and the added bonus of the paddle steamer “Waverley” visiting Penzance for the second time in three years. Always such a wonderful thing to see especially on a beautiful day like this. This morning it was quite a quiet start until we had a great encounter…

It was all about the sailing and the shearwaters today. The sun broke through the persistent cloud we have had for the last few days, and just the right amount of northeasterly breeze gave us unexpectedly perfect sailing conditions. Today had been going to be a day off before the busy half term starts, but…

It was a bit of a wet and windy start to the week, but the rain mainly held off until the very end of the trip. After hoisting the sails on leaving the harbour, we sailed southwards into a choppy, southwesterly sea and soon started picking up  seabirds soaring past. A few tacks out of…