sailing

It was still hot today but here we had a refreshing easterly breeze – in fact by the afternoon we could have done with slightly less refreshing breeze, but it made for some great sailing conditions. This morning while it was still calmer we found plenty of common dolphins and some grey seals hauled out…

We’re having an amazing week, though it did feel very different out there today with wildlife not nearly as obvious. All the more rewarding when seek and then you find! This morning there was a large pod of common dolphins spotted further out, while closer inshore it was harbour porpoises that were found in the…

We had an extraordinary day on the water today on our Discovery Voyage and Ocean Discovery trips – the bay was absolutely thick with wildlife. From the outset we saw loads of harbour porpoises, followed by lots of small pods of common dolphins everywhere we went. We also caught sight of our first bluefin tuna…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today and both were great fun with some really friendly guests. This morning we had some lovely encounters with common dolphins – we watched them feeding with Manx shearwaters in the morning calm. We also saw a grey seal hauled out. This morning almost on leaving the harbour we…

A long day today with a four hour trip followed by a three hour. Things started off glassy calm though with quite a deceptive leftover swell from yesterday. After watching six snoozing seals, we saw a porpoise first thing followed immediately by a quiet group of common dolphins…followed by further groups of much more animated…

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…

July already! It was suitably summery in terms of the wildlife found today, if not the weather. This morning we saw more harbour porpoises than we have seen since last autumn. We start seeing much larger groups from July onwards as they come in to the bay to feed on the fattening fish, but I…

I was unsure all week about whether Friday trips would be possible based on the wind forecast. We were able to head out on an early Ocean Discovery this morning in the end and we’re glad we did, because there was an amazing feeding frenzy going on in the bay. Hungry  dolphins raced around herding…

We had a such a great day today. This morning after watching the seals on the island we spotted some intense gannet feeding a little further out, where there were large numbers of common dolphins with them. They were rushing round chasing fish as the gannets dived in from above and the shearaters flitted around…

The weather forecast decided yesterday it would be misty and drizzly today. I hoped it was lying but it wasn’t. However it was one of those summer days when a southwesterly wind and poor  visibility brings in a lot of seabirds close to the coast. Most of them were Manx shearwaters and gannets, and one…