sailing

The windy weather continues but we managed to get a three hour trip in this morning before the south westerly wind built too much. Conditions weren’t too bad actually – we found a couple of groups of common dolphins, loads of feeding seabirds and a juvenile grey seal. The first dolphin pod was very interactive,…

It’s a windy week that’s for sure. This morning started calmer and we were able to get our four hour trip in with full sail up. We had small groups of dolphins darting in and out then disappearing , before we found a group which interacted with the boat more consistently and everyone got some…

It was very windy today, and three trips were hard hard work! However the sun was shining pretty much all day which was very welcome after the rain yesterday. Because of the strong northwesterly breeze and big swell, we motored up the coast before sailing back with it behind us. The waves made it harder…

Today was one of those days when the harbour porpoises completely outshone the dolphins. They were feeding energetically in large pods, and because at this time of year they are eating shoaling fish like the dolphins, this appears to give them more free time. And what do they do with this free time….they become much…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today. The morning was still rather murky but it brightened through the day and we had blue skies and sunshine by mid afternoon. On the morning trip we were treated to an amazing porpoise display. As we head into the autumn, we see more mating behaviour and this involves…

The fog slowly cleared this morning – blown away by a quickly strengthening easterly wind! We got our first Ocean Discovery trip, though cancelled the afternoon, taking advantage of the window between dense fog and increasingly choppy sea conditions and we had a lovely trip. We spotted common dolphins feeding with gannets, common scoters (sea…

It was a long day with two Ocean Discovery trips and an evening Bay Discovery,  and there was lots of wildlife around to wish Josh happy birthday. There were common dolphins around all day, though we had to go a long way to find them on the afternoon Ocean Discovery. However we did find two…

Back out on the water today after a couple of windy days. It was still fairly breezy especially this afternoon, however the westerly wind was perfect for sailing offshore. This morning we very quickly found some common dolphins who bowrode with us for nearly an hour as we were sailing in the same direction they…

It was a miserable mizzly morning today so we cancelled the four hour trip and went out for the Bay Discovery trip at 2pm when it cleared up a bit. There were more seals hauled out than we have seen for ages – a mixture of adult males, females and juveniles numbering 15 in total….

It was a bit of a drab day today and it got much drabber still this afternoon. The wildlife sightings were great though. On the morning three hour trip, we first watched seven seals round the island as they hauled out on the rocks. Two of the females were in a very moany  mood –…